Pinned
Ben Sisario
It was a big night for women, as both winners and performers. Here are takeaways.
Women thoroughly dominated the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, with a history-making album of the year win by Taylor Swift and victories by Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, SZA, Lainey Wilson, the Colombian pop star Karol G and the band boygenius.
The wins capped a year when women were extraordinarily successful in pop music, and also signified a change for the Grammys, which have frequently been criticized — as recently as five years ago — for overlooking female artists on the show.
In addition to the wins, the show featured powerful performances by SZA, Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and even Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman — two godmothers of modern songwriting who have made only rare public appearances in recent years.
In taking album of the year for “Midnights,” Swift became the first artist to win the Grammys’ top prize four times, beating a trio of male legends — Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon — who had three.
“I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life,” Swift said when accepting the award. “But I feel this happy when I finish a song or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love,” she said, and added: “For me the reward is the work.”
Other highlights included:
Eilish, along with her brother, Finneas, won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” a dreamy but haunting meditation from Greta Gerwig’s film “Barbie.” The song also took best song written for visual media, and the “Barbie” soundtrack took best compilation soundtrack for visual media.
The R&B singer and songwriter Victoria Monét won three prizes, including best new artist. Boygenius, an indie-rock supergroup that sold out venues like Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl last year, won a total of three awards, and one of its members, Phoebe Bridgers, took a fourth — more than any other artist at this year’s ceremony — as part of a collaboration with SZA.
Mitchell, 80, performed at the Grammys for the first time, playing her 1968 song “Both Sides Now” nine years after an aneurysm that at first left her unable to speak. Seated in a plush chair, clasping a cane, she was surrounded by supporters including Brandi Carlile, who has lately been Mitchell’s biggest evangelist. After the performance, stars like Beyoncé and Swift clapped wide-eyed.
In another major moment, Chapman made a very rare public appearance, performing her 1988 favorite “Fast Car” in a tender duet with Luke Combs, whose note-for-note cover of Chapman’s song became a surprise cross-generational hit last year. Dressed in jeans and a plain button-down shirt, Chapman seemed to have watery eyes as she strummed her acoustic guitar and sang.
Taylor Swift, as always the master of promotion, used the opportunity of accepting the award for best pop vocal album to announce a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” saying it would come out April 19. Her Instagram page briefly crashed.
Celine Dion, the Canadian diva who announced in 2022 that she has a rare neurological disease that makes it difficult for her to sing, was another rare appearance at the show, announcing the award for album of the year.
It wasn’t all just the ladies. Billy Joel, who recently released “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first new pop song in nearly 20 years, performed that track and his classic rocker “You May Be Right.” U2 performed from its residency at the Sphere, a futuristic new venue in Las Vegas.
During an expanded “in memoriam” segment lasting more than 20 minutes, Stevie Wonder honored Tony Bennett, Annie Lennox paid tribute to Sinéad O’Connor and Fantasia Barrino-Taylor (introduced by Oprah Winfrey) sang “Proud Mary” in honor of Tina Turner.
Political content was scarce on the show, which largely avoided any controversial stances. Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, recognized the killing of music fans at an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, and Lennox said, “Artists for cease-fire; peace in the world.”
Jay-Z, accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, called out the Grammys for failing to honor Beyoncé, his wife, with album of the year, despite her 32 awards, mostly in down-ballot genre categories. “When I get nervous I tell the truth,” he said.
Killer Mike, a veteran Atlanta rapper and activist, won three rap awards, including best rap album (“Michael”). Shortly after, he was escorted out of the Crypto.com Arena by police officers. Later, the Los Angeles Police Department said that Killer Mike, who was born Michael Render, was booked on a misdemeanor battery charge and that he was being released.
The Grammys added a new category, best African music performance, which was won by Tyla, a South African singer, for the song “Water.” The show also featured a performance by Burna Boy, a Nigerian performer who is one of the biggest stars of the Afrobeats genre.
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:47 p.m. ET
Julia Jacobs
Killer Mike is arrested after winning three Grammys.
Shortly after winning three Grammys, the rapper Killer Mike was arrested at the awards show on Sunday in connection with a physical altercation at the Los Angeles arena where the ceremony took place, the police said.
In a post on social media, the Los Angeles Police Department said that Killer Mike, who was born Michael Render, was booked on a misdemeanor battery charge and that he was being released.
Representatives for the rapper did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Recording Academy, which presents the awards, referred questions to the police.
Less than an hour before the Grammys telecast began, video posted on social media by a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter showed Killer Mike, in handcuffs, being led through the Crypto.com Arena by a police officer.
To fans and observers, the footage seemed like whiplash. The rapper had just been on the Grammys stage waving a gramophone trophy and celebrating the three awards he had won at the preshow, which is not televised, for his work “Michael,” his first solo album in more than a decade. In addition to best rap album, he received Grammys for best rap song and best rap performance for “Scientists & Engineers,” a collaboration with André 3000, Future and Eryn Allen Kane.
“You cannot tell me that you get too old, you can’t tell me it’s too late,” said Killer Mike, 48, a prolific musician from Atlanta who is also an activist and organizer.
Not long after, he was being escorted through the arena, according to the video. As fans wondered on social media about the reasons for his detainment, his X and Instagram accounts remained active, celebrating the Grammy wins.
Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
Q&A with Pop Music and Styles Staff
Can you please explain how voting for the Grammys works?
Ben Sisario, Pop Music Reporter, said:
The Grammys are voted on by more than 11,000 music professionals —performers, songwriters, producers and others with credits on recordings —who are members of the Recording Academy. The process involves members first scanning through huge lists of submissions to vote for nominees, then, after the final ballot is set, for the winners. In the past, anonymous committees had the power to overrule members’ selections of nominees; after some controversy those were largely disbanded, though the academy still has the power to reassign submissions if necessary.
What is the difference between record, song and album of the year?
Caryn Ganz, Pop Music Editor, said:
The top three Grammy prizes can be a bit confusing. Album of the year is for a complete body of work (a full LP of music); song of the year is a songwriter’s prize, awarded to the person (or people) who wrote the music and lyrics to a single song; record of the year is for the performance and recording of a song, and goes to the artist and producers who made it.
Why did some winners bring their handbags onstage to accept their Grammys?
Vanessa Friedman, Chief Fashion Critic, said:
Given the lack of pockets in Grammy outfits, it may be that a bag is the best place to secrete an acceptance speech, and since there isn’t a lot of time between when a winner’s name is called and when the music plays them off, perhaps — at least in the case of Miley Cyrus — it was simply a question of efficiency. A handbag is also often part of a total look, and since some of the artists are being dressed by brands, perhaps it is part of the deal.
The academy aired the best rap album award during the daytime ceremony. Isn’t this weird considering the commercial prominence of rap?
Caryn Ganz, Pop Music Editor, said:
The Grammys have a complicated relationship with rap. Several nominees boycotted the first Grammy ceremony with a rap category in 1989 because the award wasn’t televised. Typically, the show gives out all but around nine of its 90-something trophies at a preshow. Last year, the show presented an extravaganza to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. The lack of rap onstage this year was certainly noticed:Drake, who has stepped away from the Awards, posted a pointed Instagram story, and Jay-Z took the Grammys to task when he accepted a global impact award.
Did the Grammys get a new producer/director? I can’t remember them ever hosting it in a stadium — it feels like a real concert!
Jon Pareles, Chief Pop Music Critic, said:
Crypto.com Arena opened in 1999 as the Staples Center, and it was designed with award shows, among other things, very much in mind. Since 2000, nearly all the Grammy ceremonies have taken place there. Hamish Hamilton, who directed this year, has worked on previous Grammys as well as other award shows and Super Bowl halftime shows. There was a major change in 2017, when the longtime Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich was replaced by Ben Winston, who is now one of the executive producers.
What did Joni Mitchell get a Grammy for?
Ben Sisario, Pop Music Reporter, said:
Joni Mitchell won her 10th Grammy on Sunday: best folk album for “Joni Mitchell at Newport,” a live album recorded in 2022. Mitchell’s Grammy history goes back to 1970, when she won best folk performance for “Clouds.” She also made her first-ever Grammy performance this year, singing her classic “Both Sides Now.” It was an especially emotional moment because nine years ago Mitchell had an aneurysm that initially left her unable to speak; she has gradually recovered and returned to performing.
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Feb. 4, 2024, 11:35 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
And now, to close the show, Billy Joel is back to perform “You May Be Right.” A fitting finale for a Grammy ceremony that often got it right, and was occasionally crazy.
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:31 p.m. ET
Jon Caramanica
Pop music critic
Taylor Swift is onstage to accept album of the year, and brought Jack Antonoff and Lana Del Rey with her. (And seemed to blank Celine Dion, who presented the award.)
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:31 p.m. ET
Julia Jacobs
Celine Dion, coping with neurological disorder, presents the final Grammy.
Celine Dion, the Canadian pop superstar who announced in 2022 that she has a rare neurological disease that makes it difficult for her to sing, appeared at the Grammy Awards to present the final award of the night, album of the year.
Walking out to “The Power of Love,” Dion looked moved by the standing ovation, saying, “When I say that I’m happy to be here I really mean it from my heart.”
“Those who have been blessed enough to be here,” she went on, “must never take for granted the tremendous love and joy that music brings to our lives and to people all around the world.”
Dion, 55, first announced over a year ago that she has a condition called stiff person syndrome, which causes progressive stiffness in the body and severe muscle spasms, leading her to cancel a scheduled world tour. A five-time Grammy winner — including album of the year in 1997 — Dion has maintained a legion of fans around the world, and before the diagnosis, she was an active performer, delivering soaring hits such as “Because You Loved Me” and “My Heart Will Go On” alongside her newer music.
Last week, Dion announced a documentary following her battle against the disorder. Dion indicated in the announcement that she was aiming to return to singing, saying in a statement, “As the road to resuming my performing career continues, I have realized how much I have missed it, of being able to see my fans.”
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Feb. 4, 2024, 11:30 p.m. ET
Ben Sisario
Reporting from the Grammy Awards
Taylor Swift wins album of the year, breaking a record.
Taylor Swift already has more No. 1 albums than any other woman (12), as well as the highest-grossing tour in history (an estimated $1 billion and counting).
Now she can count another major achievement: four Grammy Awards for album of the year — more than any other artist in the 66-year history of the prize.
“Midnights,” Swift’s most recent LP of new material, beat out entries from SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, boygenius, Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus, Jon Batiste and Janelle Monáe to take the Grammys’ top album prize on Sunday. It was her second win of the night.
Earlier in the night, as she accepted the Grammy for best pop vocal album for “Midnights,” Taylor Swift announced that she would be releasing her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.
It was Swift’s sixth nomination for the prize, and fourth win, after her previous victories for “Fearless” in 2010, “1989” in 2016, and “Folklore” in 2020. With her latest win, she moves past three beloved stars who had each won the category three times: Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.
In 2014, Swift’s “Red” lost the award to Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” and in 2022 “Evermore” lost to Batiste’s “We Are.”
Last year, Beyoncé won her 32nd Grammy, more than any other artist in history. (Take that, Quincy Jones and Sir Georg Solti!) With 14 lifetime wins so far, Swift would need another 18 to match Beyoncé.
Album of the year
Taylor Swift
Wins album of the year for "Midnights."
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:29 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
It’s official — Taylor Swift has won album of the year four times, more than any other musician in history.
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Feb. 4, 2024, 11:29 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Celine Dion, who has been out of the public eye recently after her diagnosis of stiff person syndrome, is the surprise presenter for album of the year. What a night!
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:26 p.m. ET
Marc Tracy
Billy Joel returns to the Grammy stage with a new song.
Billy Joel, the bard of Nassau County, N.Y., has not released an album of new pop songs since 1993. Yet he has sustained a record-breaking, reliably sold-out monthly residency at Madison Square Garden, which he plans to conclude in July with his 150th concert at the arena.
As of last week, he has a new song to add to his repertoire: On Thursday, he released “Turn the Lights Back On,” a slow, waltzing ballad about rekindling a relationship. On Sunday, he debuted the song live on the Grammys stage and later performed one of his beloved older tracks, “You May Be Right.”
Joel, 74, wrote “Turn the Lights Back On” with the songwriter and producer Freddy Wexler, along with Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector. It was released on his longtime label, Columbia Records, which put out “River of Dreams,” his last pop album; in 2001, he turned to classical music on “Fantasies & Delusions.”
Joel is no stranger — see what we did there? — to the Grammys stage, first performing as part of a New York package at the 1988 ceremony, when he crooned “New York State of Mind.” From 1979 to 2001 he received 23 nominations and earned five wins in competitive categories, including record and song of the year for “Just the Way You Are.” In 1991, he was honored with a legacy award.
Joel and his Garden series have served as a successful case study in the local residency. Though he was inspired by Celine Dion’s tenure in Las Vegas, Joel was determined to stay closer to his Long Island home and demonstrated that the model can work. Other artists certainly took note: In 2022, Harry Styles performed 42 gigs in just five North American cities. The same year, the Mexican rock band Maná performed 12 shows in the United States, all at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and Adele began a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Joel played the first show of his residency in January 2014.
Though his monthly gig is ending, Joel has said that he is not retiring. At the same time, it is worth treasuring what he continues to offer. “I find myself onstage thinking: This is a young man’s job,” he told The New York Times six years ago. “What am I doing?”
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:23 p.m. ET
Jon Caramanica
Pop music critic
Of all the winners, nominees and presenters tonight, only Miley Cyrus appears to be on her current plane of existence. She’s being loose, glib, bawdy and confident. It’s as if she just dropped by to sass the rest of the room and picked up a couple of trophies on the way out.
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Feb. 4, 2024, 11:20 p.m. ET
Marc Tracy
The Grammys’ head spoke about the fans at a music festival in Israel who were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Though news about the war between Israel and Hamas has dominated headlines for nearly four months, the first two major award shows of 2024 — the Golden Globes and the Emmys — avoided directly addressing the conflict.
That changed Sunday night at the Grammys, when the Recording Academy’s chief executive, Harvey Mason Jr., spoke about the victims at the Tribe of Nova trance festival, who were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. At least 360 people, or nearly one-third of those who died that day in Israel, were killed in an ambush at sunrise at an event featuring psychedelic electronic music. A few dozen festivalgoers were also kidnapped as hostages.
“Music must always be our safe space,” Mason said, as a string quartet played in a somber melody. “When that’s violated, it strikes at the very core of who we are.,” He cited three violent tragedies at musical events: the 2015 shooting at the Bataclan night club in Paris, where 89 were killed; the 2017 bombing at an Ariana Grande show in Manchester, England, which killed 22; a gunman’s 2017 killing of 60 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas.
Then he added the Tribe of Nova festival to the list: “That day, and all the tragic days that have followed, have been awful for the world to bear as we mourn the loss of all innocent lives.”
He added, “Music must remain the common ground on which we all stand together in peace and harmony.”
The string quartet, he added, was composed of musicians of “Palestinian, Israeli and Arab descent,” at the Grammys “playing together.”
It was the night’s second prominent reference to the conflict. Earlier in the ceremony, Annie Lennox concluded her performance of “Nothing Compares 2 U” in tribute to Sinead O’Connor, who died in July, by declaring, “Artists for cease-fire.”
An exhibit in Tel Aviv in December featured artifacts recovered from the festival, which was held in Re’im a few miles from the Gaza border, including tents, toilet cubicles riddled with bullet holes, and a backgammon board. Despite the devastation, the event has plans to return: Its organizers’ new motto is “We will dance again.”
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:20 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Miley Cyrus, accepting record of the year for her sleek and relatively nondescript “Flowers”: “I don’t think I forgot anyone, but I might have forgotten underwear.” She's just being Miley!
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:18 p.m. ET
Marc Tracy
Miley Cyrus wins record of the year for ‘Flowers.’
Miley Cyrus won the Grammy for record of the year on Sunday for the kiss-off anthem “Flowers,” her first win in the category.
The husky-voiced former Disney Channel star — and daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, himself a record of the year nominee in 1993 for “Achy Breaky Heart” — had never won a Grammy before Sunday night. She also won for best pop solo performance, also for “Flowers.”
During a performance of “Flowers” at the ceremony, Cyrus ad-libbed several times, shouting, “Don’t act like you don’t know this song!” and “I just won my first Grammy!”
Cyrus bested nominees from several other prominent female stars for record of the year, including Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” and SZA’s “Kill Bill.”
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Record of the year
Miley Cyrus
Wins record of the year for "Flowers."
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:16 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Here comes Meryl Streep, resplendent in white, doing a comedic bit with her son-in-law Mark Ronson, to present record of the year.
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:13 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Victoria Monét is a respected, 34-year-old pop songwriter who’s penned Grammy-nominated hits for Ariana Grande and Chloe x Halle, but she finally broke out as a solo artist last year thanks in part to her sly, slinky R&B hit “On My Mama.” As she accepted best new artist, she invoked that mama — “a single mom raising this really bad girl” — and indulged in an extended plant metaphor that resulted in her being the first winner of the night to be played off the stage. Hey, you only win best new artist once!
Best new artist
Victoria Monét
Wins best new artist
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Feb. 4, 2024, 11:05 p.m. ET
Marc Hogan
Victoria Monét is the Grammys’ best new artist.
In an eclectic field, honors for best new artist — one of the Grammys’ four most coveted awards — went to the pop and R&B singer-songwriter Victoria Monét.
The win for Monét, 34, underscores her evolution from a behind-the-scenes hitmaker for performers like Ariana Grande to a decorated artist in her own right.
Monét was up against nominees from many styles and backgrounds, including the category’s oldest nominee in 25 years, the rapper turned country singer Jelly Roll, 39. Another prominent competitor was Ice Spice, the Bronx drill-meets-pop rapper whose cultural ubiquity last year extended to a Taylor Swift collaboration and a “Barbie” soundtrack appearance. The other nominees in the category were the pop-folkie Noah Kahan, the British dance producer Fred again.., the R&B singer Coco Jones, the rootsy married duo the War and Treaty, and the singer Gracie Abrams, who opened for Swift on the Eras Tour.
Monét was nominated for seven Grammys at the 2024 awards, tied for second-most overall. Her full-length debut, “Jaguar II,” won for best R&B album and for best engineered album, non-classical.
“On My Mama,” the album’s third single, was up for record of the year as well as best R&B song. From the same album, “How Does It Make You Feel” was a nominee for best R&B performance, while “Hollywood,” a collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire, scored a nod for best traditional R&B performance. “Hollywood” also features Monét’s daughter, Hazel, who at 2 years old became the youngest Grammy nominee ever.
Beyond the Grammy accolades for Monét, her longtime collaborator and “Jaguar II” producer Dernst Emile II, known as D’Mile, also got his second straight nomination for producer of the year, non-classical. D’Mile has won five Grammys, including record of the year and song of the year in 2022 for his contributions to Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” and song of the year in 2021 for H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe.”
Monét came into the 2024 Grammy season with three previous nominations for her work as a songwriter. In 2020, her Grande tunesmithing landed nominations for album of the year for “Thank U, Next” and record of the year for “7 Rings,” while in 2021 her work with Chloe x Halle was up for best R&B song for “Do It.”
“I think my entire story has been leading up to this moment,” Monét told The New York Times in November after learning she’d earned seven nominations. “I felt like an underdog for so long.”
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:04 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
The Nigerian star Burna Boy commands the audience to get on their feet for his performance, the first by an Afrobeats performer in Grammy history.
Feb. 4, 2024, 11:04 p.m. ET
Jon Caramanica
Pop music critic
Burna Boy’s performance also underscored perhaps one of the lone bright spots in the pop industry’s recent reliance on very obvious samples and interpolations in current pop hits. If you sample Brandy, you can now perform that song … with Brandy. Pop is a flat circle.
In Case You Missed It
Feb. 4, 2024, 10:51 p.m. ET
Ben Sisario
Reporting from the Grammy Awards
Joni Mitchell, at age 80, performed at the Grammys for the first time, singing her 1968 meditation “Both Sides Now” while seated and clasping a cane; almost a decade ago, an aneurysm had left the famed songwriter unable to speak. Jay-Z, accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, gave a speech that went from rambling to eye-popping truth-telling, as he scolded the Grammys for failing to honor Beyoncé, his wife, with album of the year, despite her oodles of wins in other categories. And in keeping with the night’s theme of victorious women, Billie Eilish (along with her brother, Finneas, her “best friend”) won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” from the hit film “Barbie.”
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Feb. 4, 2024, 10:51 p.m. ET
Jon Caramanica
Pop music critic
The most prominent bleeping of the night came during Travis Scott’s medley of three songs: “My Eyes,” “I Know” and “Fein.” Scott is one of hip-hop’s most dynamic live performers, so to see him compress himself into the Grammys box was striking. (His appearance also indicated he’s been fully rehabilitated from the 2021 Astroworld tragedy, in which 10 fans died during or immediately after Scott’s Houston festival.) Dressed like a post-apocalyptic umpire, Scott had intermittent energy in this rather ominous performance, which peaked with Scott tossing around folding chairs while Playboi Carti rapped in a full face mask. But the biggest shock might have been clearly hearing the voice of a star who’s largely avoided press (and who stares at the floor in most posed pictures), both in the prerecorded package and in the advertisement for his new Nike collaboration, the Jordan Jumpman Jack, that aired right after the performance.
Feb. 4, 2024, 10:40 p.m. ET
Christopher Kuo
Jay-Z takes the Grammys to task in his acceptance speech.
During a speech at the Grammys on Sunday, Jay-Z criticized the awards show for what he described as its snubs and inconsistencies in giving out honors to Black artists, pointing out that his wife, Beyoncé, has the most Grammys but has never won for album of the year.
“Even by your own metrics it doesn’t work,” he said.
He added, “We want you to get it right — at least get it close to right.”
Jay-Z also referred to Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s boycott of the 1989 Grammys because the rap category was not televised at the time. He noted that he had boycotted the show when DMX released two No. 1 albums but was not nominated.
“Some of you may get robbed,” he said, adding, “Some of you don’t belong in the category.”
He also conceded that the process of awarding Grammys is subjective. “It’s music and it’s opinion based,” he said.
Jay-Z made the remarks during his acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, which recognizes personal and professional achievements in the music industry.
Through his record label, Roc Nation, Jay-Z has advocated social justice causes, particularly for racial equality in the United States. In 2022, he convened an inaugural summit for social justice leaders to meet in New York to raise awareness about racial justice and policy.
He has also served as an executive producer on two docuseries about the killings of Black Americans: “Time: The Kalief Browder Story” and “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story.” When George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police in 2020, Jay-Z, through Roc Nation, took out full-page ads in major newspapers that quoted a passage from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 speech in Selma, Ala.
Feb. 4, 2024, 10:37 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Every time I hear Joni Mitchell sing “Both Sides Now,” a different lyric jumps out with new resonance. It’s one of those songs. This time, during Mitchell’s regal rendition of the song, it was this: “But now it’s just another show.” The Grammys — music’s highest honor, ostensibly — seemed small and provincial in the presence of her imposing talent, and her awe-inspiring will to overcome challenges (the aneurysm that, nearly a decade ago, left her unable to speak) and make art of every stage of her life. She seemed to stop time in that auditorium, or maybe just to command it to move at her own tempo. What a moment.
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Feb. 4, 2024, 10:34 p.m. ET
Jon Pareles
Chief pop music critic
Joni Mitchell was flanked by potential reinforcements: Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell and the duo Lucius were all nearby to harmonize on choruses and, perhaps, jump in if she faltered. But she didn’t. Every word, every phrase, emerged both considered and new, improvisatory and steeped in experience. At the conclusion, “I really don’t know life at all,” the 80-year-old Mitchell held a smoky note and a pensive gaze. And then she laughed.
Feb. 4, 2024, 10:30 p.m. ET
Marc Tracy
Joni Mitchell takes the Grammy stage for the first time.
It’s hard to believe that at 80 years old, after a groundbreaking career in music, there are still new achievements left for Joni Mitchell. But on Sunday night, she did something for the first time: performed on the Grammys.
Joined by Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Lucius, Blake Mills, Allison Russell and SistaStrings, the singer-songwriter played “Both Sides Now.”
Carlile, one of Mitchell’s most high-profile champions, is largely responsible for bringing her hero back to the stage, and she introduced Mitchell, who earlier won the Grammy for best folk album for “Joni Mitchell at Newport.” Nine years ago, Mitchell had an aneurysm and largely vanished from the public eye; her legions of fans feared that her singing days were complete.
But the writer and unmistakable soprano behind classics like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “A Case of You” was not finished. She made a surprise appearance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival alongside Carlile, as well as musicians including Wynonna Judd and Marcus Mumford.
Mitchell followed that performance with an almost three-hour set at Carlile’s Echoes Through the Canyon Festival in George, Wash., last spring. (Two more performances from Joni Mitchell & the Joni Jam are scheduled for October at the Hollywood Bowl.) “To hear Mitchell hit certain notes again in that inimitable voice was like glimpsing, in the wild, a magnificent bird long feared to have gone extinct,” Lindsay Zoladz wrote in a New York Times review of the Washington show.
Mitchell’s recording career, which began in the 1960s, has included her early folk music, the autofiction of her classic albums “Blue” and “Court and Spark,” and the jazz that followed. Decades later, in 1996, Mitchell, then 52, won the Grammys for best pop album and best recording package for “Turbulent Indigo,” her 15th release. “I’ve been contemplating whether to quit music and go into painting, and perhaps I will now,” she said that night.
Feb. 4, 2024, 10:29 p.m. ET
Lindsay Zoladz
Pop music critic
Joni Mitchell. Sublime.
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Feb. 4, 2024, 10:24 p.m. ET
Ben Sisario
Reporting from the Grammy Awards
Taylor Swift loses song of the year for a seventh time.
Taylor Swift has been a guitar-cradling country ingénue. A crossover pop queen. An indie-folk fantasist. A billion-dollar concert juggernaut. A cat. Maybe even a political force.
Yet at her core she has always been a songwriter, perhaps the most influential one of the 21st century. Still, the Grammys’ top honor for songwriting continues to elude her: On Sunday she lost song of the year for a seventh time as “Anti-Hero,” the top single from her 2022 album “Midnights,” fell to Billie Eilish, who won for “What Was I Made For?” from the “Barbie” soundtrack. A clearly surprised Eilish accepted the award with her brother and the song’s co-writer, Finneas.
Swift, who was nominated alongside her co-writer Jack Antonoff, was competing with the writers behind SZA’s “Kill Bill,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” Lana Del Rey’s “A&W,” Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers,” Jon Batiste’s “Butterfly” and Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” another song from the “Barbie” soundtrack.
That Swift has still never taken the song of the year prize remains one of the mysteries of the modern Grammys. She would seem to be a perfect candidate for the prize: an intentional and famously personal writer, serious and respectful of the craft, both an innovator and a traditionalist. The role of songwriter has been key to her identity as an artist since the beginning.
And she has clearly been a Grammy favorite, at least in one other important category: album of the year. She has accepted that prize three times, which ties her with no less than Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon for the record.
Yet song of the year keeps slipping away from her, in hit after epochal hit. In 2010, “You Belong With Me” lost to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Five years later, “Shake It Off” fell to Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.” In 2016, “Blank Space” went up against Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” Guess which won? In 2020, “Lover” gave way to Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy.” The following year, “Cardigan” lost to H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe.” And last year, her extended remake “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” wilted before Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That.”
For an artist so associated with winning, song of the year has represented Swift’s most egregious and puzzling losing streak.
A correction was made on
Feb. 12, 2024
:
An earlier version of this article misstated which Jon Batiste song was nominated for song of the year. It was “Butterfly”; “Worship” was up for record of the year.
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