The 65th Annual Grammy awards took place on Feb. 5 — the first to occur in Los Angeles since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hosted for the third time by comedian Trevor Noah, the Grammys took place in the “crypto.com” stadium in downtown Los Angeles.
Starting off with a blast, Puerto Rican native and Latin Urbano superstar Bad Bunny performed quite an extravagant spectacle, with many dancers in colorful outfits dancing all around the center stage.
The Grammys quickly transitioned into its staple formula. Noah, who is likable enough to not cause any major turbulence for audiences, delivered quite a dull performance for his third time around, guaranteed to make your eyes roll.
The talk of the night mainly surrounded Beyoncè and her new Grammy record.
Before she was crowned with her second Grammy of the night, putting her in the lead for having the most grammys ever, Beyoncè wasn’t even at the venue to accept the first one.
Awkwardness ensued as one of Beyoncè’s writers had to accept the award.
The Grammys this year were highlighted by multiple star-studded performances. Music industry legends Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson performed “Tears of a Clown” to a standing ovation from the crowd.
The performance hearkened back to a simpler time for music and was a great segway into the latter half of the show.
Sam Smith and Kim Petras performed their song “Unholy” after an introduction by industry legend Madonna. Petras later made history by being the first openly transgender woman to win a Grammy.
Later on, Harry Styles performed his hit song “As It Was,” going on to win the coveted Album of the Year award towards the end of the night. Styles notably stumbled and almost fell off the stage during his performance, however Styles was unphased and continued to deliver a fun and idiosyncratic song and dance number for the audience.
The second half of the night included two iconic Hip Hop performances.
The high energy and fun performances of the first group of rappers really stood in stark contrast to the boring and monotonous performance of DJ Khaled and company.
It’s worth noting that even though he’s entertaining, it’s perplexing how DJ Khaled is even considered a Hip Hop artist, especially when it comes to the Grammys.
Ultimately, the Grammys provided a standard fair when it came to the awards, and the performances. It’s great to see Beyoncè become the most decorated artist in Grammy history, and it’ll be fun to see what the Grammys have in store next year.