The 60th annual Grammy Awards went live Sunday night, January 28. The show opened with Kendrick Lamar’s intense performance of “XXX”. That was not the only time the audience saw Lamar on stage during the evening: the artist later won the best rap album of 2017 with “DAMN.”, best music video and rap song with “HUMBLE,” best rap performance (single or track) and finally best rap/sung performance with his song “Loyalty” which featured Rihanna. Some fans were pleasantly surprised and others, not so much. “Jay-Z shoulda won for best rap album, Kendrick’s an incredible artist but what Jay did was deeper than music” one fan tweeted. Others would have liked to see some other artists take home these awards but Lamar earned five Grammys by the end of the night, and was also a nominee for two other awards both won by Bruno Mars.
Bruno Mars was also a heavily discussed artist at the award show. Lots of controversy sparked when Mars beat artists like Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino. Mars won song of the year with “That’s What I Like,” beating the emotional song “1-800-237-8255” by Logic. This sparked lots of tension because fans felt Logic’s song has “more emotion and meaning.” Mars also won album of the year with “24K Magic”, record of the year with “24K Magic”, best R&B performance with “That’s What I Like”, best R&B album with “24K Magic”, and best engineered album, non-classical with “24K Magic” sweeping away with a total of six Grammys by the end of the night. Mars also put on an amazing performance of his song “Finesse” with artist Cardi B, ranking as the second best performance after Lamar’s medley performance with U2 and Dave Chappelle.
The Grammys also had a lot of emphasis on the #MeToo movement and chose Kesha to perform her song “Praying”, which delivered lots of emotions related to the movement. Some criticism was given to the performance about whether or not too much of the #MeToo movement was stuffed into this one song. Whether or not, it was a spellbinding performance supported by an all-female chorus including Camila Cabello, Cyndi Lauper and Andra Day. Kesha’s emotional performance about overcoming abuse was one of the most powerful moments of the ceremony.
Another huge song of 2017 was “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber. This was arguably the best song of 2017, which was decided by twitter polls, but fell short and didn’t win any Grammys although it was nominated for three awards. “Despacito” lost record of the year to “24K Magic”, song of the year to “That’s What I Like” and best pop duo/group performance to “Feel It Still”.
Throughout the night, politics were a heavy topic and were exceptionally delivered in Kendrick Lamar’s performance. His compilation of songs performed started with an army of troops in front of the American flag, then the screen switched to say “THIS IS A SATIRE BY KENDRICK LAMAR.” Lamar’s performance was showstopping and was greatly appreciated by the majority of the audience.
The Grammys handed out more than 80 awards in total, with a few even honoring sound in film and television. Other notable and controversial wins from the ceremony included Alessia Cara for best new artist and Ed Sheeran for best pop solo performance with his song “Shape of You.”
