2023 GRAMMY Awards Recap: Harry Styles & Beyoncé Make History While Bonnie Raitt Pulls Surprise Win
The 2023 Grammy Awards happened last night – Sunday, February 5. For the third year in a row, it was hosted by South African comedian Trevor Noah. Last year, the ceremony was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas – marking the first time the Recording Academy switched host cities for a single ceremony. The ceremony for 2023 went back to its usual location in Los Angeles, at the Crypto.com Arena (formerly known as the Staples Center).
The night was full of expected wins in lower categories, huge surprises in bigger categories, and lots of history-in-the-making. Perhaps the biggest twist of the night was Bonnie Raitt taking home the award for Song of the Year for her heartfelt ballad "Just Like That." She beat out popular tracks like "Bad Habit" by Steve Lacy, "As It Was" by Harry Styles, Lizzo's "About Damn Time," and "Break My Soul" by Beyoncé, just to name a few.
“Thank you for honoring me to all the Academy that surrounds me with so much support and appreciates the art of songwriting as I do,” Raitt said in her acceptance speech. “I was so inspired for this song by the incredible story of the love and the grace and the generosity of someone that donates their beloved’s organs to help another person live.”
Lizzo won Record of the Year for "About Damn Time." Jazz artist Samara Joy took home the Best New Artist trophy – beating out acts like Wet Leg, Omar Apollo, Måneskin, and Latto. Meanwhile, Harry Styles won the coveted Album of the Year trophy at the end of the night for his critically-acclaimed record Harry's House.
“I’ve been so, so inspired by every artist in this category with me at a lot of different times in my life,” Styles said as he accepted his award. “I think – like on nights like tonight – it’s obviously so important for us to remember that there is no such thing as best in music.”
Styles added, “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is so, so nice.” The British singer beat out artists like Adele and Bad Bunny for the win.
Beyoncé arguably had the best night, as she became the artist with the most Grammys EVER during the ceremony, winning four of the nine categories for which she was nominated. This brings her total number of Grammy wins to 32. Interestingly, her husband, Jay-Z, added five GRAMMY nominations this year, bringing his total GRAMMY nominations to 88. With Beyoncé adding nine to her 79 nominations, the power couple both sit pretty at a record-setting 88 nominations each.
Other notable wins included Sam Smith and Kim Petras for their song, "Unholy." It won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award – therefore making Kim Petras the first openly transgender woman to receive a Grammy. Best Pop Solo Performance went to "Easy on Me" by Adele, and Beyoncé's Renaissance snagged the Best Dance/Electronic Album award. (She also won several awards in the R&B category.)
Brandi Carlile won Best Rock Performance for her song "Broken Horses," and up-and-coming alternative duo Wet Leg got the prizes for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance. Additionally, actress Viola Davis just became the 18th person to achieve EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) status after winning the award for Best Audiobook, Narration, and Storytelling recording for her memoir, Finding Me.
Even better than the award wins this year were the performances. The massive 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop celebration was undoubtedly the talk of the night. The Questlove-produced segment featured Missy Elliott, Big Boi, Run-D.M.C., Queen Latifah, Method Man, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, DJ Jazzy Jeff, the Grandmasters Flash and Melle Mel, and many other notable artists from throughout rap history.
Other performances came from Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras, Sam Smith, Brandi Carlile, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Chris Stapleton, DJ Khaled, and Luke Combs.
See a highlight reel of the best 2023 GRAMMY Awards moments below.
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Article Image: Harry Styles at the 2022 premiere for "My Policeman" in LA, Beyonce at the premiere for "The Lion King" in 2019, Bonnie Raitt at the 2022 Billboard Women In Music ceremony. (Jean_Nelson, PopularImages, and PopularImages via DepositPhotos.)