The 2023 GRAMMY Awards, the biggest night in music honoring the best artists, songs, and albums, was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. With a ceremony hosted by Trevor Noah, the event offered high-energy performances from Lizzo, Missy Elliott, Bad Bunny, Busta Rhymes, and many more. Beyoncé won two awards before the main ceremony could begin, leaving her only two awards away from a historic win. Soon, she emerged as the most-awarded artist of all time in GRAMMY history. The ‘Alien Superstar’ singer also picked up the most awards at this year’s ceremony. With her four new wins from this ceremony, Beyoncé has now bagged a total of 32 GRAMMYs.
Harry Styles, Brandi Carlile, Kendrick Lamar, and Bonnie Raitt follow right behind Bey winning three awards each. The coveted Album of the Year GRAMMY went to Harry Styles for ‘Harry’s House’ while Lizzo won the GRAMMY for Record of the Year for ‘About Damn Time’. The Song of the Year honor was presented to Bonnie Raitt for ‘Just Like That’. Samara Joy is the 2023 GRAMMY’s Best New Artist and ‘All Too Well: The Short Film – Taylor Swift’ was named the Best Music Video at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards. Recap the events of music’s biggest night that featured historic wins and celebratory performances; here are the highlights of the GRAMMY Awards 2023.
Smokey Robinson and Chris Stapleton Join Stevie Wonder at the 2023 GRAMMYs
Stevie Wonder took the 2023 GRAMMYs stage in style! He was backed by an R&B group comprising brothers Tyvas, Big Boy, Rocco, and Chulo (they are Boyz II Men singer Wanya Morris’ children). The medley began with ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’ by The Temptations. Smokey then joined Stevie Wonder for ‘Tears of a Clown.’ Chris Stapleton got on stage with his guitar for an electrifying performance of ‘Higher Ground’ that had everyone from Doja Cat to Jennifer Lopez and Shania Twain dancing to the music.
Kim Petras Becomes the First Transgender Woman to Win a GRAMMY Award for Best Pop/Group Performance
Kim Petras made history at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards! She has become the transgender first artist to win the Best Pop/Group Performance for ‘Unholy’ with Sam Smith. The duo beat out the fellow nominees ‘I Like You (A Happier Song) – Post Malone & Doja Cat,’ ‘Bam Bam – Camila Cabello feat. Ed Sheeran,’ ‘Don’t Shut Me Down – ABBA,’ and ‘My Universe – Coldplay & BTS.’
“Sam graciously wanted me to accept this award because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award,” said Kim Petras. “I just want to thank all of the incredible transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open before me so I could be here tonight,” she added while accepting the honor alongside Sam Smith.
She also gave a shoutout to the late artist SOPHIE, saying, “Sophie, especially, a friend who passed away two years ago, who told me this would happen and always believed in me. Thank you so much for your inspiration, Sophie. I adore you and your inspiration will forever be in my music.”
Sam Smith and Kim Petras also performed their winning track ‘Unholy’ at this ceremony, donning red outfits. They were surrounded by red lights and their performance featured a cage, flames, and devil horns to be in theme with the song!
Beyoncé Makes GRAMMY History
Yet another GRAMMY record was made today! With the four GRAMMY wins added to her GRAMMY collection, Beyoncé boasts 32 GRAMMY awards – the most any artist has won in their career. She was nominated for nine GRAMMY awards this year and took home four. They include – Best R&B Song award for ‘Cuff It,’ Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (‘Plastic Off The Sofa’), and Best Dance Recording for ‘Break My Soul,’ and Best Dance/Electronica Album for her album ‘Renaissance.’
Beyoncé picked up her historic win by saying, “Thank you so much, I’m trying not to be emotional,” as the audience roared in support of her achievement. “I’m trying to just receive this night.”
“I want to thank God for protecting me. Thank you, God!” she continued. “I would like to thank my uncle Johnny who is not here but he’s here in spirit. I’d like to thank my parents, my father, my mother, for loving me and pushing me. I would like to thank my beautiful husband, my beautiful three children who are at home watching.”
I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing this genre. God bless you! Thank you so much to the Grammys.”
With her best dance/electronic recording win, Bey becomes only the fourth black woman to take the award home. She joins Donna Summer, Janet Jackson, and Rihanna, who have also won the award in the past.
Jill Biden Presented Two Awards at the 2023 GRAMMY Awards Ceremony
The First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, took the GRAMMY stage this year to present two awards – Song of the Year and the Inaugural Song for Social Change Special Merit Award. “A song can unite, inspire, and ultimately change the world. Beginning this year, the Recording Academy is presenting a new award recognizing a song that responds to social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact,” she said, introducing the latter. “Tonight, I am honored to announce the first winner of the Recording Academy’s Best Song for Social Change to Shervin Hajipour.”
The winner of the very first Best Song for Social Change GRAMMY award is Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour for ‘Baraye.’ “This song became the anthem of the Mahsa Amini protests, a powerful and poetic poem for freedom and women’s rights,” Biden said. She added that the video of the song was viewed over 40 million times on Instagram in less than two days. “This song continues to resonate around the world with its powerful theme – women like freedom.” She congratulated and thanked Sherwin for the song.
Jill Biden also presented the Song of the Year GRAMMY to Bonnie Raitt for ‘Just Like That.’ ‘Break My Soul’ (Beyoncé), ‘abcdefu’ (Gayle), ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version)’ (Taylor Swift), ‘God Did’ (DJ Khaled), ‘About Damn Time’ (Lizzo), ‘Easy On Me’ (Adele), ‘Bad Habit’ (Steve Lacy), ‘The Heart Pt. 5’ (Kendrick Lamar), and ‘As It Was’ (Harry Styles) were also nominated for this award.
Viola Davis Becomes the Third Black Woman to Achieve EGOT Status With Latest GRAMMY Win
Viola Davis has achieved the EGOT status! She has won an Emmy, Tony, and Oscar in the past, and now by picking up a GRAMMY award, the ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ star has become the 18th person and third black woman to achieve the EGOT. She won the award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for the audiobook of her memoir ‘Finding Me.’ Viola also presented the award for Best R&B song, which went to ‘Cuff It’ by Beyoncé.
“I wrote this book to honor the 6 year old Viola, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, everything, and it has been such a journey. I just EGOT!” she said while accepting the GRAMMY.
Kacey Musgraves, Quavo, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, and Mick Fleetwood Paid Tribute to the Musicians Who Passed Away Last Year
The GRAMMY Awards organized a special ‘In Memoriam’ segment featuring a star-studded line-up of artists this year. Country singer Kacey Musgraves commenced the segment with an acoustic version of ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ by Loretta Lynn, who passed away in October 2022. Quavo followed Musgraves by singing ‘Without You’ as an ode to his late nephew Take Off. Maverick City Music accompanied the rapper for this emotional medley by also singing Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s ‘See You Again.’ Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood closed out the performance with a soulful rendition of ‘Songbird’ by Fleetwood Mac for Christine McVie. Mick Fleetwood played a talking drum in honor of his departed bandmate McVie, who also penned the track, while Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt took over the humbling vocals.
As the artists performed, images flashed across the screen that displayed the music industry’s biggest losses, which included Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Olivia Newton-John, Coolio, Irene Cara, Lisa Marie Presley, Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, Tom Verlaine, and Fred White.
GRAMMYs Celebrated 50 Years of Hip-Hop With LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, Run DMC, Busta Rhymes, Salt-N-Pepa, Lil Baby and More!
To recognize hip-hop’s effervescent impact on the music industry and in celebration of the genre’s 50th anniversary, the GRAMMY Awards 2023 brought out some bigwigs of the scene for a stellar variety performance!
LL Cool J hosted the celebration that was directed and produced by Questlove of The Roots. Big Boi, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Rakim, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Public Enemy, Scarface, Spinderella, and De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Method Man, Flavor Flav, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, GloRilla, among others took to the stage to perform snippets of their hits! “Multigenerational. Fifty years. From the Bronx to TikTok, to the whole world. For the culture! Rock the Bells!” said LL Cool J as they concluded this historic performance.
