After the three month wait, April 3 marked the airing of 64th Annual Grammy Awards on CBS after multiple delays. While this article can’t go through all the awards and events, it will go through the highlights, key performances, and moments during the Grammys. If you want to see all nominations and winners, click here. 

We saw many people this year get their first grammy, and some were the big winners of the night. Olivia Rodrigo, with her very successful album Sour, was rewarded with New Artist, Pop Vocal Album, and Pop Solo Performance, winning 3/7 of her nominations this year. And we can’t forget how both Doja Cat and SZA won the grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance making it both their first grammy win. Doja Cat nearly missed it because she was in the bathroom at the time, but gave a heartfelt acceptance speech and made light of the whole situation. 

The big winner of the night was Jon Batiste who had his first wins at the Grammys and took home the big award of Album of the Year for We Are. He is the first black artist in 14 years to win Album of the Year. His other awards also include Best American Roots Performance, Best American Roots Song, Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media for his work on Soul(2020), and Best Music Video for his song Freedom. Some people found this pick controversial since Batiste isn’t as well known as his contemporaries, I would like to remind people of what Batistse said that night. “I believe this to my core, there is no best musician, best artist, best dancer, best actor, the creative arts are subjective and they reach people at a point in their lives when they need it most.”

The group that had the best sweep at the award show was Silk Sonic, the musically smooth collaboration of Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars, where they won all 4 of their nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song all for the very song that they performed last year at the Grammys, Leave the Door Open. Along with having one of the most energetic performances of the night with 777 that gave love to the nightlife of Las Vegas. 

One of the most stand out performances of the night was John Legend’s tribute to Ukraine in his song Free, which is a brand new song from Legend that was released on the day of the Grammys. His performance included Siuzanna Iglidan(Ukrainian musician), Mika Newtown(Ukrainian Singer), and a poem from Ukrainian poet, Lyuba Yakimchuk. In a statement, Legend said, “I wrote Free after a week of seeing the horrific images of the senseless, brutal invasion of Ukraine by a regime with no moral justification, no moral justification — no right to kill, dominate and subjugate the Ukrainian people, no right to silence the will of the people in a democratic nation.” 

You could also watch some other performances this year including Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, H.E.R, and the spy themed performance of BTS that has become a favorite among many and the audience up and dancing. You can watch the Grammys in their entirety here.  Overall, though the Grammys weren’t too eventful this year, it still felt like a good time.