Beyoncé made the biggest news of the night Sunday at the 65th annual Grammy Awards.
The singer led the 2023 Grammy Awards nominations with a total of nine. Beyoncé’s career total of 88 nominations set a new record — one tied by her husband Jay-Z, who earned five noms this year. During the Premiere Ceremony, the pop star picked up two Grammys, breaking her 28-win tie with Quincy Jones.
She also won best R&B song during the live broadcast, for “CUFF IT,” tying late conductor Georg Solti’s 31-win record. She wasn’t there to accept that award, having experienced a very L.A. annoyance — being stuck in traffic — but arrived later during the ceremony, with host Trevor Noah presenting her the Grammy while she was seated in the audience.
Later in the show, she won best dance/electronic album for Renaissance, beating Solti’s record, with a total of 32 career wins, according to www.hollywoodreporter.com.
“I’m trying not to be too emotional,” she said in accepting the latter award, but becoming emotional anyway at the accomplishment. “I’m trying to just receive this night.” She received a standing ovation from the audience, including husband Jay-Z, whom she thanked in her speech. She also thanked the Hive, as her fans are called, “for protecting me” as well as “the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre” for which she won.
The singer’s “Break My Soul” — the No. 1 and lead single off Renaissance — won best dance/electronic recording during the Premiere Ceremony. It was Beyoncé’s first win in the dance category. She also took home the award for best traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa.”
In the big four categories, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House took the top award of the night, album of the year. “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often,” he said in his speech. A visibly surprised Bonnie Raitt won song of the year for “Just Like That,” while Lizzo won record of the year for “About Damn Time.” In her uplifting speech, Lizzo paid tribute to Beyoncé, saying she’d skipped school to see the latter perform when she was younger, and that’s when she realized she wanted to make music that inspired people like Beyoncé. “You clearly are the artist of our lives,” Lizzo told her. Samara Joy won best new artist.
Among the other winners were Willie Nelson for best country album, Harry Styles for best pop vocal album, Kendrick Lamar for best rap album, Adele for best pop solo performance and Bad Bunny for best música urbana album.
Sam Smith and Kim Petras won the award for best pop duo/vocal performance for “Unholy.” Accepting the award, Petras noted that Smith had “graciously wanted me to accept this award because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award.” She also thanked her mom for believing “me that I was a girl” and Madonna for her work fighting for LGBTQ rights.
Noah returned as host of the ceremony, which took place Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. (See the star-studded arrivals here.)
During the televised Grammys ceremony, presenters included Viola Davis, first lady Jill Biden, Dwayne Johnson, Cardi B, James Corden, Billy Crystal, Olivia Rodrigo and Shania Twain.
Grammy performers included Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Petras, Smith and Styles. In addition, Questlove curated an all-star Hip Hop 50 tribute performance.
Before the live broadcast, most of the winners in the 91 Grammy categories were revealed during a non-televised Premiere Ceremony, hosted by Randy Rainbow.
During the ceremony, Davis achieved EGOT status after she won the best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording award for her memoir, Finding Me. The actress has previously won two Tony awards, an Oscar and an Emmy award.
