Controversies, conspiracies, and congratulations… The 67th Annual Grammy Awards, the highest regarded award ceremony in the music industry, was hosted on February 3rd, 2025.

With numerous big names—like Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé—as well as the new artists who made waves last year—Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Charlie XCX—taking over the majority of the nominees list, this year's Grammys is a tough fight between the best-of-the-best music releases of 2024.

Nominating and predicting a winner for what seems to be the most diverse, fun, and substantial year in music, this year's nominees list makes it somewhat tricky to predict the winner. Did the Tortured Poets Department win like predictions stated, or did Hit Me Hard and Soft take the bag? Or, did Beyoncé get a surprise win to redeem her reputation? Well, having a history of rigging scandals and multiple controversial bans and decisions, this year was no exception, so let's take a look at the performances, winners, and the iconic moments born of tonight!

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Performances

Surprisingly (read: thankfully), this year's show wasn't completely underwhelming like that of the past few years. Opening with 'I Love L.A.,' Dawes, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, Brittany Howard, and St. Vincent took to the stage as a tribute to the situation and the victims of the recent Los Angeles fires that have ravaged half the city the past month.

Followed by a performance by Billie and Finneas of the release that had everyone and their hearts in a chokehold-- 'Birds of a Feather' (Yes, I know what you're thinking; we're talking about THAT in this article as well, don't worry), in their usual laid-back setting and an authentic and raw production style.

Sabrina, like always, did not come to disappoint and performed a mashup of her songs 'Espresso' and 'Please Please Please,' with her signature production and costuming and creative and playful direction, with her outfit changes, tap dancing dance breaks, and ethereal vocals.

And of course, we cannot NOT talk about the surprise performance by The Weeknd after his infamous decision and action towards boycotting the Grammys back in 2021. The 4-time Grammy winner performed his new releases 'Cry for Me' and 'Timeless.'.

Charlie XCX closed out the ceremony in one of the best ways possible. Flaunting a blue lingerie set and a jacket to match, she strut onto the stage performing 'Guess' and closed out with an entire rave party behind her on stage to 'Von Dutch.'. The performance by this year's Best Dance/Electronic Album as well as Best Dance Pop Recording winner was easily one of my top favorite performances of the show.

Other notable performances were of Chappell Raon, who performed 'Pink Pony Club,' and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, who performed 'California Dreamin' as a tribute to L.A. Although a shame, we missed out on a possible live band version of 'Die with a Smile'; the pair's vocals and stage presence did not disappoint. Another performance I came to love was actually Doechii's.

Although not a fan nor an avid listener, something about her delivery, flow, and stage presence was phenomenal, enough to look up her Grammy-winning Alligators Bites Never Heal (Did I fall in love? Yes, I did).

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Winners

Now, for what you readers have actually clicked on, the winners of the night. Who took home the gramophone? Who deserved more? or less? And more importantly, who was robbed? (Yeah, we're all thinking the same thing.)

In the General Field, Kendrick Lamar took home the Song of the Year and Record of the Year (with 3 others) for 'Not Like Us.'. Which is not only extremely ironic because it was released as a surprise diss track for Drake, but also wholly deserved in my opinion, because it very well defined this entire year.

Image Credit: Fuzheado from WIkimedia Commons

Lamar wins 5 Grammys including- SONG OF THE YEAR, RECORD OF THE YEAR,

BEST RAP SONG, BEST RAP PERFORMANCE and BEST MUSIC VIDEO

Beyoncé, after many, many years of being snubbed of the award (yes, Lemonade was deserving of acclaim), won the Album of the Year and the Best Country Album for Cowboy Carter, and her reaction is as shocked as some majority of fans. Best New Artist, won by Chappell Raon, was one award that fans were satisfied with, especially after the sensational year Raon experienced. Voicing out issues in the artists remuneration in the industry during her acceptance speech gained her the eyes and love of numerous fans.

Other categories that fans held a keen eye for were definitely the Best Pop Solo Performance. Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.

Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their masterclass of a piece of 'Die With A Smile,' which, according to me, apart from Charlie XCX's designations, was very well deserved.

While Sabrina Carpenter bagged both the Best Pop Vocal Album for Short n' Sweet and Best Pop Solo Performance (and Best Remixed Recording) for 'Espresso,' the win for the former had fans baffled. Although the 12-track album is well produced, vocally and musically, it simply lies under the shadow of the masterclass of production that is Hit Me Hard and Soft.

With fans worldwide disappointed but not surprised, Sabrina's win for the latter certainly didn't confuse fans, predicting 2024 to be the year glitter corsets and femme fatales, all brought in by the Blonde.

Another artist that went home surprisingly empty-handed was Taylor Swift. With 5 nominations at hand, all for her chart-topping compilation album The Tortured Poets Department, Swift won none, for the first time in 3 years.

Other winners include:

Best Rap Song: "Not Like Us" – Kendrick Lamar, songwriter (Kendrick Lamar)

Best Rap Performance: "Not Like Us" – Kendrick Lamar

Best Melodic Rap Performance: "3:AM" – Rapsody featuring Erykah Badu

Best R&B Performance: "Made for Me (Live on BET)" – Muni Long

Best R&B Song: "Saturn" – Rob Bisel, Cian Ducrot, Carter Lang, Solána Rowe, Jared Solomon & Scott Zhang, songwriters (SZA)

Best R&B Album: 11:11 (Deluxe) – Chris Brown

Best Rock Performance: "Now and Then" – The Beatles

Best Rock Song: "Broken Man" – Annie Clark, songwriter (St. Vincent)

Best Rock Album: Hackney Diamonds – The Rolling Stones

Image Credit: Thomson200 from Wikimedia Commons

Best Alternative Music Album: All Born Screaming – St. Vincent

Best Alternative Music Performance: "Flea" – St. Vincent

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer

Best Recording Package: Brat

Producer of the Year: Daniel Nigro

Songwriter of the Year: Amy Allen

Some Iconic Moments from the Night

It wouldn't be music's biggest year without some memorable and iconic moments, and this was honestly one of the most satisfying ones we've had in a long time.

Drama kicked off even before the red carpet began when Kanye West posted on his Instagram story, thanking the Recording Academy for nominating his song 'Carnival,' and following it up with stories showing he was following one person on the app, that person being Taylor Swift herself. Even on the red carpet, Kanye got some heat when he and Bianca Censori, his wife, walked onto the carpet only to later reveal Bianca's almost nude body.

Reporters and viewers alike were baffled and wondered if she might get arrested for public indecency. The couple was later rumored to be kicked out of the event, which was later proven false.

The war of the Disney girls is over! In a fan clip, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo were revealed hugging between the commercial breaks. Following the entire Olivia-Joshua Basset-Sabrina love triangle drama back in 2021, the two were never seen interacting in public events—until now.

Beyoncé's reaction to her winning Album of the Year was quite endearing (and obviously going to be meme-able). After a long time coming, the 'Texas Hold 'Em' singer became the first Black woman since 1999 to win the award, and the teary-eyed and emotional reaction of other artists during her acceptance speech just showed how much she deserved it.

Image Credit: Vogue Taiwan on Wikimedia Commons

Speaking of album category winners, fans are furious at how Hit Me Hard and Soft took home zero awards while being the favorite to win and an overall fan favorite ever since it was released. Confused at Short 'n Sweet winning the Best Pop Vocal Album, clips of Billie Eilish being emotional are being interpreted after the winner announcement is going viral.

Another Red Carpet controversy was when the two female reporters from Associated Press, who were interviewing American singer-songwriter and record producer Babyface, spotted Chappell Raonn and shouted to her, subsequently cutting the interview short with the 13-time Grammy winner. This was upsetting for viewers, which obviously led to the two women half-heartedly apologizing at the end of the carpet.

With a wrap of the celebration of 2024 music, fans either expect the same trend of exceptional and fun music, littered by the Y2K, pop, and R&B-dominated aesthetic, or a complete dip in quality and draught of a year, especially now that all the major pop girlies (Ariana, Taylor, Billie, Sabrina, Beyonce, etc.) have released albums in the same year and are going to disappear for the next two or three years.