[Photo courtesy of Lucan Furio]

By Grace Koennecke, Managing Editor

This past weekend, the 67th Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles saw major wins and losses across music’s biggest categories, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The annual ceremony also paid tribute to the recent wildfires in the city, with much of the night centered around giving back to the city and honoring its musical legacy.

With performances from music’s rising stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter to established singers such as Cynthia Erivo and Stevie Wonder, the Grammy Awards was a memorable watch for its array of star quality. There was even a surprise performance by The Weeknd, who formerly boycotted the ceremony and The Recording Academy in 2020.

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The first big win of the night went to Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal for Best Rap Album, making her only the third woman of color to win the award. The next was Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet for Best Pop Vocal Album. However, the most coveted awards went to Kendrick Lamar for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Not Like Us,” which is the first rap song to win both awards for its production, mixing and songwriting. Beyoncé also took home historic wins for Best Country Album, Best Country Duo/Group Performance and the biggest award of the night, Album of the Year for COWBOY CARTER. The singer is the first woman of color to win the latter award since Lauryn Hill in 1999, as well as the first woman of color to win Best Country Album in 50 years. 

Outside of these wins, other newcomers took home the gold, such as Chappell Roan for Best New Artist. In her acceptance speech, the singer called out record labels for not providing essential needs for starting musicians, such as healthcare, sparking a wild round of applause for attendees and viewers at home. Charli xcx also took home three Grammy Awards for Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best Dance Pop Recording and Best Recording Package for BRAT. 

Many surprises also occurred during the night, with Lady Gaga dropping a new surprise single and music video for “Abracadabra” from her upcoming album, Mayhem. She also received Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Die With a Smile” with Bruno Mars.
As per usual, many Grammy favorites were snubbed this year, including Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, which had six nominations and Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion, which had seven nominations. Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT also did not pick up any Grammy Awards as well with seven nominations.