2023 Grammy Awards: Highlights From the 2023 Grammys: Beyoncé Makes History; Harry Styles and Lizzo Win (Published 2023) (2024)

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Beyoncé makes history at a star-powered Grammy Awards.

Styles seemed at a loss for words as he accepted his Grammy, opening his remarks with a stunned profanity.

Still, Beyoncé’s accomplishment resonated throughout the evening. Accepting her 32nd career award, Beyoncé thanked God and her family, and honored her “Uncle Jonny,” a gay relative whom she has described in the past as her “godmother” and as the person who exposed her to L.G.B.T.Q. culture.

“I’d like thank the queer community for your love, and for inventing the genre,” she said to roars of applause from the crowd at the Crypto.com Arena as she won best dance/electronic music album for “Renaissance,” which was widely seen as a love letter to gay culture. (Even so, Beyoncé faced a backlash recently when she performed a private concert in Dubai, in United Arab Emirates, where hom*osexuality is illegal.)

With her latest wins, Beyoncé surpassed Georg Solti, the Hungarian-born classical conductor who died in 1997 and had long held the title of the most career wins by any artist.

Even Beyoncé’s competitors cheered her on. Accepting record of the year, Lizzo told a story of being inspired by seeing Beyoncé in concert (while skipping school).

“You clearly are the artist of our lives!” she shouted. (In 2017, when Adele beat Beyoncé for album of the year, she said almost the same thing.)

Beyoncé also won best dance/electronic recording (“Break My Soul”), traditional R&B performance (“Plastic Off the Sofa”) and best R&B song (“Cuff It”). She had been the most nominated artist of the evening, with nine nods.

Gender freedom was a theme running through the night. Not long before Beyoncé’s win, Sam Smith, a nonbinary singer, and Kim Petras, a trans woman, won the award for pop/duo group performance for “Unholy,” and Petras drew cheers when she said she was “the first transgender woman to win this award.”

“I hope that there’s a future where gender and identity and all these labels don’t matter that much,” Petras told reporters backstage. “Where people can just be themselves, and not get judged so hard and not be labeled so hard.”

After two years of shows that were disrupted and delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the annual Grammy ceremony returned in full swing to its home court in Los Angeles (Crypto.com is the renamed Staples Center), bringing the music world together for glitz, competition and, behind the scenes, plenty of business schmoozing.

“We made it!” exclaimed its host, Trevor Noah. “We’re back!”

The power of stardom was another of the night’s major underlying themes. The show opened with a blast of brass and the hip-swaying rhythms of Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar who represents the music industry’s hopes — he is a young celebrity with global appeal and massive numbers, both on streaming services and on the road.

Walking through the aisles of the arena flanked by dancers in festive dress, he played two songs from his blockbuster album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” bringing both social commentary and party vibes, and getting stars like Taylor Swift dancing amid the bistro-style seating in front of the stage.

Accepting the award for best música urbana album for “Un Verano,” Bad Bunny gave his speech in Spanish and English.

“I just made this album with love and passion,” he said. “When you do things with love and passion, everything is easier.”

Old-fashioned song craft remains a key touchstone for Grammy voters. Raitt, 73, was the surprise winner of song of the year — beating Adele, Beyoncé, Swift, Lizzo and Styles, whose songs were huge hits — for “Just Like That,” a tender meditation about an organ donation that had only modest commercial success. She accepted it as a recognition of the job of songwriting itself, and thanked other writers for providing her with material throughout her career.

“I would not be up here tonight,” Raitt said, “if it wasn’t for the great soul-digging, hard-working people that put these songs and ideas to music.”

Samara Joy, a singer who brought fresh interpretations to jazz classics, and began her career posting them online, won best new artist.

In classic Grammy fashion, the ceremony also included some loving nods to the past.

Stevie Wonder led a Motown revue that included Smokey Robinson and the country songwriter Chris Stapleton. One of the highlights of the night was a 12-minute celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop — the genre’s origin is tied to a birthday party in the Bronx in 1973 — that featured LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Salt-N-Pepa, Method Man, Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, Missy Elliott, Future, Grandmaster Flash and many others.

A somber, multipart “In Memoriam” segment included the country singer Kacey Musgraves singing Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” barefoot in a blood-red dress; a tribute to Takeoff of the Atlanta rap trio Migos led by his bandmate Quavo; and Raitt, Sheryl Crow and Mick Fleetwood singing “Songbird,” one of the signature compositions by Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, with Fleetwood tapping a drum like it was a gently beating heart.

Styles performed his bubbly, pensive hit “As It Was” in a silvery sequined suit with tassels that shook as he danced. “Harry’s House” also won Styles the award for pop vocal album.

Kendrick Lamar won three rap prizes: best performance and best song, for “The Heart Part 5,” and best album, for “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.” Accepting the album award, he thanked his family “for giving me the courage and giving me the vulnerability to share my truth and share these stories.”

Brandi Carlile, a Grammy darling in recent years, won best rock performance and best rock song for “Broken Horses,” as well as best Americana album for “In These Silent Days.”

The 89-year-old Willie Nelson, who was not present, won for best country album for “A Beautiful Time,” and best country solo performance for the song “Live Forever.”

Swift ended the night with one victory, best music video for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” but lost her three other nods — including her sixth career loss in song of the year for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” an extended remake of a song she first released in 2012.

The first lady, Jill Biden, announced the winner of a new award, best song for social change, which went to the 25-year-old Iranian songwriter Shervin Hajipour, whose song “Baraye” became an anthem for the women’s rights protests there last year. The prize was chosen by what the academy described as a “blue-ribbon committee.”

For an industry that has lately gotten worried about the difficulty minting stars amid the fire hose of content in the age of streaming and social media, this year’s list of nominations was about as good as it gets. It guaranteed plenty of star power and some drama over winners and losers. On Grammy night, drama is a good thing.

As much as the Recording Academy, the nonprofit institution behind the Grammys, promotes its mission of celebrating artistic excellence and being a supportive home for creators year-round, the Grammys is also a television show that needs to attract a large audience.

As they have for all major awards shows, ratings for the Grammys have been slipping for years. But the past two years have been brutal. In 2021, when the Grammys put on an outdoor show with no audience, its viewership fell to 8.8 million, the lowest ever; last year, when the show was delayed by the spread of the Omicron variant and held for the first time in Las Vegas, the number was only marginally better, at 8.9 million.

This year’s awards recognized music released between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022, and were selected by the 11,000-member voting body of the Recording Academy, which includes artists, songwriters, producers and other music professionals.

Of the 91 awards this year, all but a dozen were given out in a nontelevised ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

The actress Viola Davis won best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording for her memoir “Finding Me,” making her the newest EGOT — the coveted acronym for the winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

Among the new categories this year was songwriter of the year (non-classical), intended to recognize the writers who work behind the scenes. It was won by Tobias Jesso Jr., who has written songs for Adele, Styles and others. Stephanie Economou was the first winner for best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media for her work on the game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.

Below the superstar level, the Grammys have the power to transform artists’ careers. The Tennessee State University Marching Band was the first college marching band ever nominated for best roots gospel album, and it won with “The Urban Hymnal.”

Accepting that award, Sir the Baptist, one of the album’s producers, addressed the straitened finances of historically Black colleges and universities. “HBCUs are so grossly underfunded to where I had to put my last dime in order to get us across the line,” he said. “We’re here with our pockets empty but our hands aren’t.”

Samara Joy wins best new artist.

Made up of rising stars, the category encompassed a range of styles, including the indie rock of Wet Leg and the TikTok-era jazz of Domi & JD Beck. Other nominees in the category included Anitta, Omar Apollo, Latto, Maneskin, Muni Long, Tobe Nwigwe and Molly Tuttle.

Joy, a 23-year-old jazz singer, saw several of her songs go viral, including her performance of Duke Ellington’s “Take Love Easy,” a song recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1970s.

Joy also picked up the award for best jazz vocal album for “Linger Awhile,” which features notable musicians like the guitarist Pasquale Grasso, the pianist Ben Paterson, the bassist David Wong and the drummer Kenny Washington.

In previous years, the best new artist award has gone to the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion and Billie Eilish.

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Harry Styles takes album of the year, giving Beyoncé a fourth career loss in the category.

“Harry’s House,” the third pop-rock solo album by the de facto frontman of the British boy band One Direction, had previously picked up awards for best pop vocal album and best engineered album, non-classical. But most eyes — ahead of the ceremony and after Beyoncé’s four wins earlier in the event gave her the most all-time Grammys ever — had been on “Renaissance,” the singer’s blockbuster seventh album, a genre-spanning tribute to Black and queer dance music.

“I’ve been so, so inspired by every artist in this category with me at a lot of different times in my life,” Styles said in his acceptance speech. “I think on nights like tonight, it’s obviously so important for us to remember that there is no such thing as best in music.”

Beyoncé stood and applauded during the remarks. Instead of becoming just the fourth Black woman to ever win album of the year — following Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill — Beyoncé’s record in the top Grammy categories fell to 1 for 16, after also losing in song and record of the year. Her only win in an all-genre category came in 2010, as a writer of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

The album of the year nominees also included “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” by Lamar, who has lost in the category four times as well (not counting “Black Panther: The Album,” which he produced and featured heavily on, which also lost). A rap album has not won album of the year since Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” in 2004.

The field this year was rounded out by Adele’s “30”; Lizzo’s “Special”; Carlile’s “In These Silent Days”; Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous”; Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres”; Abba’s “Voyage,” the Swedish group’s first new album in 40 years; and Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” the most popular album of last year, which was the first release performed entirely in Spanish to be up for album of the year.

According to figures from the Recording Academy, the largest Grammys voting blocs by genre are pop at 23 percent and jazz at 16 percent. Rock and alternative are counted separately, but, if combined, would make up 25 percent of voters; R&B sits at 15 percent, and hip-hop comes in under 10 percent.

Beginning with last year’s show, the Grammy Awards expanded the top categories, including album, to 10 nominees from eight, having already increased the number from five for the 2019 ceremony.

Bonnie Raitt wins song of the year, while Lizzo takes record of the year.

Soon after, Lizzo was visibly shocked to win record of the year for “About Damn Time,” topping tracks like “Break My Soul” by Beyoncé, “Easy on Me” by Adele, “As It Was” by Styles and “The Heart Part 5” by Kendrick Lamar, which had already taken home two rap prizes.

“This is so unexpected,” Lizzo said, dedicating the win to Prince. After the musician’s death, Lizzo said, “I decided to dedicate my life to making positive music.”

Raitt, too, praised a musical forebear, noting that “Just Like That …” had been inspired by the folk singer John Prine, who died of Covid-19 in 2020.

“I just started fingerpicking, and I had the lyrics in front of me, and the song poured through me without any thinking about it,” Raitt said in a recent interview with The New York Times, recalling how a news segment about a heart donation had inspired her song’s story.

“They followed this woman with a film crew to the guy’s house who received her son’s heart,” she said. “There was a lump in my throat — it was very emotional. And then when he asked her to sit down next to him and asked if she’d like to put her head on his chest and listen to his heart — I can’t even tell the story to this day without choking up, because it was so moving to me.”

In song of the year, Raitt topped the writers of Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” Adele’s “Easy on Me,” Styles’s “As It Was,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Gayle’s “Abcdef” and DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend and Fridayy.

“This is just an unreal moment,” Raitt said onstage while accepting the award.

Song and record of the year, which is presented to the artists, producers and engineers behind a single track, were two of the Big Four categories — also including best new artist and album of the year — that expanded to 10 nominees for last year’s ceremony, following an earlier expansion to eight from five for the 2019 show.

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‘Baraye,’ the anthem of Iran’s protest movement, was honored with a Grammy.

The first lady of the United States, Jill Biden, introduced the award. “A song can unite, inspire and ultimately change the world,” she said. “Baraye,” she added, was “a powerful and poetic call for freedom and women’s rights” that continues to resonate across the world.

And as Hajipour’s image and song played on two screens, she reiterated the bedrock slogan of Iran’s uprising: “For Women, Life, Freedom.”

“Congratulations Shervin, and thank you for your song,” she said.

Hajipour lives in Iran and did not respond to a request for comment. “We won,” he posted on Instagram after the award was given.

A video circulated on social media that seemed to capture the moment when Mr. Hajipour, surrounded by friends and watching the ceremony on television, heard his name announced as the winner. He appeared stunned as friends screamed, cheered and hugged him.

“My God, my God, I can’t believe it,” said one of his friends, according to the video.

He was arrested by the intelligence ministry shortly after his song went viral in September, generating some 40 million views — close to 87 million people live in Iran — in 48 hours. He is currently out on bail and awaiting trial, and has made only one short video message since his release.

“I wrote this song in solidarity with the people who are critical of the situation like many of our artists who reacted,” said Hajipour in the video message, from early October.

In late September, protests erupted across Iran as tens of thousands of people, led by women and girls, demanded liberation from the Islamic Republic’s theocracy. The protests were set off by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been in the custody of the morality police on the allegation of violating hijab rules.

Iranians tweeted their reasons for protesting using the hashtag #baraye (or “#for”). Hajipour wove those tweets into lyrics, naming his song after the hashtag. He composed and recorded the song from his bedroom in his parents’ house in the coastal city of Babolsar.

As Iranians shared the reasons they were protesting via tweets, Hajipour wove some of them into his verses:

“For embarrassment due to being penniless; For yearning for an ordinary life; For the child laborer and his dreams; For this dictatorial economy; For this polluted air; For this forced paradise; For jailed intellectuals; For all the empty slogans”

For the past five months, everywhere Iranians congregated inside and outside the country, be it protests, funerals, celebrations, hikes, concerts, malls, cafes, university campuses, high schools or traffic jams, they blasted the song and sang the lyrics in unison:

“For the feeling of peace; For the sunrise after long dark nights; For the stress and insomnia pills; For man, motherland, prosperity; For the girl who wished she was born a boy; For woman, life, freedom…For Freedom.”

The Grammy will raise the song’s profile even more.

“‘Baraye’ winning a Grammy sends the message to Iranians that the world has heard them and is acknowledging their freedom struggle,” said Nahid Siamdoust, the author of “Soundtrack of the Revolution: The Politics of Music in Iran.” “It is awarding their protest anthem with the highest musical honor.”

Siamdoust, who is also an assistant professor of media and Middle East studies at the University of Texas at Austin, said that while music has played an important political role in Iran since the constitutional revolution a century ago, no song compared to “Baraye” in terms of reach and impact. “Music can travel and traverse homes and communities and spread sentiment in a way that few other means can achieve,” she said.

In a 2019 documentary short about his musical journey that recently aired on BBC Persian, Mr. Hajipour said that he began training as a classical violinist at the age of 8, started composing music at 12. He also said he has a college degree in economics but works as a professional musician, composing music for clients and recording his own songs.

He said that his passion was creating music that broke form and that he drew inspiration from the pain and suffering he experienced and witnessed.

“My biggest pain and my biggest problems have turned into my best work. And they will do so in the future as well,” he said in the documentary in what turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

While Hajipour was in detention, “Baraye” disappeared from his Instagram page. Iranians mobilized, posting and reposting the song. “For Shervin” trended on Twitter with demands of his release.

“Shervin is an extremely talented, innocent and shy young man,” said a prominent Iranian singer, Mohammad Esfahani, who had met him when he was a contestant on the television show.

The Recording Academy said it was “deeply moved” by the overwhelming number of submissions for “Baraye,” which received over 95,000 of the 115,000 submissions for the new category. The award was proposed by academy members and determined by the Grammys’ blue ribbon committee, a panel of music experts, and ratified by the Recording Academy’s board of trustees.

“Baraye” became the vehicle through which people around the world displayed their solidarity to Iranians. Scores of musicians have covered the song, including Coldplay and Jon Batiste. The German electronic artist Jan Blomqvist remixed it as a dance tune. The designer Jean Paul Gaultier used it as a soundtrack as models walked the runway last month at his show during Paris fashion week, and Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, played it in the background in a message to the girls and women of Iran.

The lyrics have been translated and performed in various genres: jazz and opera in English, metal in Germany, choir by French school children and pop in Swedish among others. It has also inspired a number of dance performances, including in Israel. Some artists around the world have covered it verbatim in Persian, including one in Ukraine who said she sang it to highlight the plight of the Iranian people.

Hajipour’s Grammy win stirred pride among many Iranians online after the award was announced.

“God, I am crying from joy,” a Twitter user named Melody posted about Hajipour’s victory.

“A song about the most basic rights of a human, the most simple wishes of an Iranian,” an Iranian journalist, Farzad Nikghadam, tweeted. “A nation crying for gender equality and freedom.”

In the documentary, Hajipour spoke about the importance of music. “The biggest miracle in my life has been music,” he said. “I would like to be successful and to be able to make a living with music that comes from my heart.”

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The Grammys celebrate 50 years of hip-hop in a joyous performance.

Opening with Grandmaster Flash performing his traditional record-scratching and drum-machine techniques, the first of three segments breezed through the late 1970s and 1980s with appearances by Run-DMC, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Salt-N-Pepa, Rakim and Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Flava Flav. (Jazzy Jeff — along with the Fresh Prince, a.k.a. Will Smith — and Salt-N-Pepa were among the first-ever Grammy nominees in a rap category, though both groups boycotted the ceremony in 1989 because the award was not being televised.)

Representing the next waves, including early gangster rap, Southern hip-hop and 21st-century pop crossovers, were artists like Queen Latifah, Big Boi of Outkast and Missy Elliott, who performed her 2005 hit “Lose Control,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. In a showstopping moment, Busta Rhymes transitioned from “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,” his 1997 single, to his 2011 verse on Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now,” a feat of vocal speed, verbal dexterity and breath control.

Moving toward the present day in the high-energy third act, Nelly, Too Short and the Lox made way for the current crop of rap stars, including Lil Baby and GloRilla.

Concluding the set was Lil Uzi Vert, hitting viral dance moves alongside LL Cool J, to his Jersey club-influenced TikTok hit “Just Wanna Rock,” as clear an example as any of how unpredictably hip-hop has evolved.

Here’s the full set list:

Grandmaster Flash, “Flash to the Beat”/“The Message”

Run-DMC, “King of Rock”

LL Cool J and DJ Jazzy Jeff, “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”/“Rock the Bells”

Salt-N-Pepa, “My Mic Sounds Nice”

Rakim, “Eric B. Is President”

Chuck D and Flavor Flav, “Rebel Without a Pause”

Black Thought and LL Cool Jinterlude (“Rump Shaker”)

Posdnuos of De La Soul, “Buddy”

Scarface, “Mind Playing Tricks on Me”

Ice-T, “New Jack Hustler (Nino’s Theme)”

Queen Latifah, “U.N.I.T.Y.”

Method Man, “Method Man”

Big Boi of Outkast, “ATLiens”

Busta Rhymes, “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”/“Look at Me Now”

Missy Elliott, “Lose Control”

Nelly, “Hot in Herre”

Too Short, “Blow the Whistle”

The Lox and Swizz Beatz, “We Gonna Make It”

Lil Baby, “Freestyle”

GloRilla, “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”

Lil Uzi Vert, “Just Wanna Rock”

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Kim Petras, a transgender woman, wins the Grammy for best pop duo performance.

“My mother — I grew up next to a highway in nowhere, Germany, and my mother believed me that I was a girl, and I wouldn’t be here without her and her support,” Petras said.

Petras also thanked Sophie, a transgender Scottish producer who died in 2021 at age 34. Sophie received a Grammy nomination in 2018 for “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” in the best dance electronic/album category.

“Sophie, especially, my friend who passed away two years ago, who told me this would happen and always believed in me,” Petras said. “Thank you so much for your inspiration, Sophie. I adore you and your inspiration will forever be in my music.”

Other nominees included “Don’t Shut Me Down,” by Abba; “Bam Bam,” by Camila Cabello featuring Ed Sheeran; “My Universe,” by Coldplay and BTS; and “I Like You (A Happier Song)” by Post Malone and Doja Cat.

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Beyoncé wins her 32nd Grammy, making history at the awards.

Beyoncé’s fourth win of the night — after taking home best R&B song for “Cuff It” and two awards at the preshow ceremony — came in a category that showed the breadth of her two-decade career: “Renaissance,” her tribute to Black and queer dance music, beat work by Bonobo, Diplo, Odesza and Rüfüs du Sol. Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win in the dance album category, which has been awarded since 2005.

Earlier, her No. 1 single “Break My Soul” had won in best dance/electronic recording, while “Plastic Off the Sofa,” from the same genre-spanning album, won best traditional R&B performance.

After the winner for dance/electronic album was announced by James Corden — “This is an honor, because we are witnessing history tonight!” — Beyoncé, who had not yet arrived at the ceremony when she won her first televised award of the night, took the stage to a standing ovation.

“I’m trying not to be too emotional,” she said, “and I’m trying to just receive this night.” (Already, a post had been uploaded to Beyoncé’s official Instagram celebrating her wins so far: “We won 3 y’all,” the caption read, alongside a photo of the singer with a trio of trophies. “‘Plastic Off the Sofa’ is my favorite song on ‘Renaissance’ most days. It’s hard to pick though. Haaa.”)

Beyoncé went on to thank her “Uncle Jonny,” whose battle with H.I.V. she has cited as an influence on her turn to dance music, with its historical ties to the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

“I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre,” the singer said.

Nominated nine times overall on Sunday, mostly for “Renaissance” and its songs, Beyoncé will have a chance to add to her total with the top categories still to come: song, record and album of the year, a prize she has never won despite three previous chances. Of the singer’s 32 trophies, just her song of the year victory in 2010, for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” came in one of the Grammys’ major, all-genre fields.

Beyoncé’s status as both a perennial, now-unmatched Grammy favorite and also a high-profile loser under the ceremony’s brightest lights — including album losses to both Adele and Taylor Swift, each of whom has won the category multiple times — has underlined the show’s complex relationship with contemporary Black music.

While the Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, has in recent years emphasized its commitment to showcasing hip-hop and R&B on the telecast, and to broadening its voter base, critics have contended that Black music has too often been overlooked in the top categories.

Beyoncé had entered the night already the most awarded woman in Grammy history, and tied with the producer Quincy Jones, who has 28 wins, for second most overall trophies. Alison Krauss, the bluegrass singer and violinist who was nominated twice on Sunday but lost both awards, has 27, as does Chick Corea.

Here’s Beyoncé’s entire speech:

“I’m trying not to be too emotional, and I’m trying to just receive this night. I want to thank God for protecting me. Thank you, God. I’d like to thank my Uncle Jonny, who’s 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’d 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 the genre. God bless you. Thank you so much to the Grammys. Thank you.”

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Loretta Lynn, Takeoff and Christine McVie receive musical tributes.

Christine McVie, the Fleetwood Mac hitmaker, was honored by a musical power trio: Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow and Mick Fleetwood, who performed “Songbird,” a McVie composition and one of the band’s most beloved songs. McVie, who made a name for herself as a singer, songwriter and keyboardist, died last year at 79.

With those songs as a backdrop, Jeff Beck and David Crosby, two musical luminaries who died earlier this year, received video tributes. Beck, one of the most influential guitarists in rock history, died at 78. Crosby, who helped create two of the most influential and beloved American bands of the classic-rock era — the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — died at 81.

The awards show acknowledged a long list of industry veterans lost in the past year, including Naomi Judd, the chart-topping country music star; Jerry Lee Lewis, the rockabilly artist who helped define the sound of rock ’n’ roll; Anita Pointer, the lead vocalist of the family bad the Pointer Sisters; Pharoah Sanders, the prolific saxophonist and composer; Lisa Marie Presley, the singer-songwriter and only child of Elvis Presley; Olivia Newton-John, the pop singer and star of “Grease”; Coolio, the 1990s hip-hop star behind “Gangsta’s Paradise”; and Pablo Milanés, a socially and politically conscious Cuban musician.

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Harry Styles returns to the Grammy stage.

On the road, Styles’s ongoing Love on Tour was the fourth-highest-grossing run of the year in North America. After spending June and July overseas, Styles set up camp in just five North American cities, playing 42 shows as part of residencies that included 12 sold-out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif.‌ — with another three makeup dates in January — and 15 sellout nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden. His‌ feats at the Forum and the Garden earned him commemorative banners hung from the rafters at each venue. Love on Tour will resume in Australia on Feb. 20.

Styles earned six nominations at the 2023 Grammy Awards, a count exceeded only by Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Adele and Brandi Carlile. He previously has been nominated three times, and won once — best pop solo performance in 2021 for “Watermelon Sugar.”

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Bad Bunny wins best música urbana album and could make history yet again.

An album of the year win for “Un Verano Sin Ti” would be momentous, making it the first exclusively Spanish-language release to earn the honor. But even the nomination was historic, as no other fully Spanish-language album had ever been included among the field. “The album is very Caribbean, in every sense: with its reggaeton, its mambo, with all those rhythms, and I like it that way,” Bad Bunny told The New York Times upon its release last May.

For Bad Bunny, the past few years have been filled with firsts: His third solo album, “El Último Tour Del Mundo,” released in 2020, was the first all-Spanish-language album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, pulling that off in the same year that he became the first non-English-language artist to top Spotify’s year-end streaming chart.

While achieving these musical milestones, he’s also found the time to act — playing a knife-wielding assassin opposite Brad Pitt in “Bullet Train” and signing on to portray the Marvel superhero El Muerto in a 2024 feature — and even wrestle. Last year, in the latest of many WWE appearances, he competed in the organization’s famed Royal Rumble event.

In addition to his album of the year nomination, Bad Bunny is up for best pop solo performance on Sunday. “Un Verano Sin Ti” was named best urban music album at last year’s Latin Grammys.

Grammy has a Christmas tree moment with that silver fringed tinsel.

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Stevie Wonder sings the hits.

Wonder closed with one of his own hits, “Higher Ground,” from his 1973 album “Innervisions,” which he performed with the country singer Chris Stapleton, himself a nominee this year for best country song for co-writing Willie Nelson’s “I’ll Love You Till the Day I Die,” from Nelson’s 2022 album “A Beautiful Time.”

Last year was the 50th anniversary of “Talking Book,” Wonder’s 15th album, which featured two of his most-loved classics: “Superstition” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” “Talking Book” set the table for Wonder’s 16th LP, “Innervisions,” his most personal and perhaps most cohesive record, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in August.

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Beyoncé Ties the Record for Most Grammy Wins Ever

Beyoncé was not present to accept the award. In her place, the songwriter The-Dream, one of the eight writers credited on “Cuff It,” took the stage, his opening remarks bleeped by the telecast. “Beyoncé thanks y’all,” he added quickly before leaving.

Trevor Noah, the show’s host, insisted that Beyoncé was “on her way,” blaming Los Angeles traffic.

Beyoncé, 41, had previously won at the afternoon preshow ceremony for best dance/electronic recording (“Break My Soul”) and best traditional R&B performance (“Plastic Off the Sofa”), but was not present to collect those trophies.

Nominated for nine Grammys on Sunday — five of which are airing during the prime-time show — Beyoncé could pass Solti, who died in 1997, with a win in any of the remaining categories in which she was recognized, including song, record and album of the year. She is also nominated for best dance/electronic album and best R&B song (for “Cuff It”).

“Cuff It” lost best R&B performance during the preshow to “Hrs and Hrs” by Muni Long; and “Be Alive,” from the Will Smith film “King Richard,” lost best song written for visual media to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from “Encanto.”

All of Beyoncé’s nominations this year except for “Be Alive” stemmed from her hit album “Renaissance,” including nods for the LP’s No. 1 single, “Break My Soul,” in the top three all-genre categories; and R&B field nominations for “Cuff It,” “Virgo’s Groove” and “Plastic Off the Sofa.”

Beyoncé’s first career Grammy wins came in 2001, as a member of the R&B group Destiny’s Child. In the years since, she has consistently been awarded in genre categories, but has won just one major award, for song of the year, as a writer of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” in 2010.

The most nominated artist ever — with 88 nods, tied with her husband, Jay-Z — Beyoncé has lost album of the year three times and record of the year six times.

Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Brandi Carlile win early awards.

At the preshow, which took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Beyoncé won for her songs “Break My Soul” (best dance/electronic recording) and “Plastic Off the Sofa” (best traditional R&B performance). Both titles come from her album “Renaissance,” which is up for album of the year and would be her first win in that major category.

Lamar, who has eight nominations across the night, won early awards for “The Heart Part 5,” a single later added to his newest album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.” The track won for best rap performance and best rap song.

Brandi Carlile won three awards before Sunday’s main telecast. Two (best rock performance and best rock song) were for her song “Broken Horses,”, which is on the singer-songwriter’s seventh studio album, “In These Silent Days.” The album was also named best Americana album at the ceremony.

Bonnie Raitt, who came in with 10 Grammys under her belt, won two more before the main event: best American roots song for “Just Like That,” the title track of her 2022 album, and best Americana performance for “Made Up Mind,” also on that album.

Also in the spotlight at the preshow was Wet Leg, an English indie-rock duo that released its self-titled debut album last year. The band won best alternative music album and best alternative music performance for “Chaise Longue,” its catchy first single, which helped Wet Leg ascend into the mainstream last year.

See the full list of winners here.

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A New York youth orchestra and Terence Blanchard’s opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” are among the classical winners.

The ensemble won for its debut album, which featured works by Black composers, including Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery and Valerie Coleman. The orchestra was inspired to record the pieces after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the social justice protests that spread throughout the United States that summer.

Other winners in the classical field on Sunday included Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” which had its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 2021, the first opera by a Black composer in the Met’s history. It won for best opera recording, for a performance conducted by the Met’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and starring the singers Angel Blue, Will Liverman, Latonia Moore and Walter Russell III.

“Letters for the Future,” featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of the conductor Xian Zhang performing works by the composers Kevin Puts and Jennifer Higdon, won for best classical instrumental solo. Puts also won best contemporary classical composition for “Contact,” a four-part work that is featured on the album.

The soprano Renée Fleming’s “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene,” a collaboration with Nézet-Séguin, who accompanied her on piano, won best classical solo vocal album.

And the Attacca Quartet won for best chamber music/small ensemble performance, for “Evergreen,” featuring works by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw.

Bonnie Raitt is finally recognized as a songwriter.

“I put my heart and soul into every record, and I never know which ones are going to resonate,” she said in a recent interview with The New York Times, adding that “Just Like That” was inspired by John Prine, a master of folky, laconic character studies, who died of Covid in 2020.

“This particular time, I wanted to write, but not about my personal life, because I really had covered that,” she said. “I didn’t have anything else to say. So I was looking for a story.”

She found it on a news program about a mother whose son’s heart was donated after he was killed in an accident: “They followed this woman with a film crew to the guy’s house who received her son’s heart. There was a lump in my throat — it was very emotional. And then when he asked her to sit down next to him and asked if she’d like to put her head on his chest and listen to his heart — I can’t even tell the story to this day without choking up, because it was so moving to me.”

When she sat down to finish the track, “We had just lost John, and I just had him in my heart,” she said of Prine. “I just started fingerpicking, and I had the lyrics in front of me, and the song poured through me without any thinking about it.”

Raitt added that she’s had a handful of amusing run-ins at the awards show over the years. “My favorite story about the Grammys was going through the metal detector at the Staples Center, at the afternoon ceremony,” she recalled. “I was in the line between two guys in Slipknot, and the guy behind me is like in a Hannibal Lecter kind of a mask, and he goes, ‘I really dig your music!’”

Another time, “Pharrell Williams, when he was in N.E.R.D., he grabbed me as I was walking back to my seat at the Grammys, and he said, ‘Any time you want to do something together …’”