On Feb. 4, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from October 1, 2022, to September 15, 2023, as chosen by the members of The Recording Academy. This was its 21st year at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and was hosted by Trevor Noah for the fourth time.
Notable wins went to Miley Cyrus for best pop solo performance of “Flowers” and Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas O’Connell won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?” SZA earned the most nominations of any artist this year with nine, including nods for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year. She won three Grammy Awards, including best progressive R&B album and best R&B song.
This year, Taylor Swift, per usual, made history after she won album of the year for “Midnights,” giving her four wins in the category. She is the first artist to ever accomplish this, surpassing Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon who won the award three times. However, the audience was more shocked when Swift announced she would be releasing her next album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on April 19.
On Feb. 5, the tracklist was released including 16 songs and one bonus track titled “The Manuscript.” Post Malone and Florence + The Machine will both be featured on the album. Fans are already speculating that the album will talk about the break up with her longtime ex boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. We can only hope there will be a song about Travis Kelce.
In many fans’ opinions, artists missed out on some well-deserved awards. Lainey Wilson’s “Bell Bottom Country” album won over “Zach Bryan” by Zach Bryan and “Rustin’ in the Rain” by Tyler Childers for best country album. Personally, I think Bryan deserved to win with his new music taking the industry by storm. Maybe even more surprising, Noah Kahan missed out on best new artist of the year to Victoria Monét. Noah Kahan has catapulted to fame due to his amazing songwriting and voice, and I think he deserved to win.
There were many memorable performances during the night. Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman performed an iconic duet of “Fast Car” and Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell played “What Was I Made For?” One of the most exciting performances was definitely “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus. The energetic dancing and swapping out the lyrics for “I just won my first Grammy!” made the performance fun and personal.
Overall, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards did not disappoint. 2023 music was great, but I think it’s safe to say 2024 will be even better.
