The 66th annual Grammy awards took place on Feb. 4 of this year and was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, making it the 21st time that this event had been held there. This award show honored the best recording, compositions and songs from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 15, 2023, as chosen by the members of the recording academy. This host for this grand event was Trevor Noah, making it his 4th time hosting the event.
The recording academy debuted three new categories at the award show this year; “Best African Music Performance,” “Best Alternative Jazz Album”, and “Best Pop Dance Recording”. These categories were part of a larger set of updates that took effect in 2024 and it is aimed to make the award show “more fair, transparent and accurate”, according to the Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason, Jr.
The nomination was announced on Nov. 10, 2023. SZA received the most nominations with nine, followed by Victoria Monet, Phoebe Bridgers and Serbian Ghenea with seven each under their belts. Monet’s 2-year-old daughter became the youngest artist to be nominated a Grammy as she was a feature of her mother’s song “Hollywood,” which was nominated for “Best Traditional R&B”.
It seems that women dominated this year’s awards, as several women won a lot of awards in indifferent categories. Miley Cyrus won her first Grammy, with her song “Flowers” winning “Record of the Year”. Taylor Swift won her fourth Grammy for “Album of the Year” and Boygenius took home “Best Rock Song,” “Best Performance” and “Best Alternative Music Album”. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas won “Song of the Year,” with “What was I made for?” and Victoria Monet took home the “Best New Artist” award.
Bridgers won four awards, with SZA, Monet and Killer Mike coming in close and winning three each. Joni Mitchell comes back for her first Grammy after disappearing from the public eye after suffering from a brain aneurysm nine years ago. Billy Joel returns to the public eye with his first song, “Turn the Lights Back On,” after 20 years. While Dr. Dre collected the “Global Impact Award,”, Jay Z criticized the Grammy for its snubs and inconsistencies of honoring black artists and encouraged the crowd to keep showing up for themselves in both their career and in life.
