The 66th Grammy Awards gala had not yet begun, held this morning at the Crypto Arena (former Staples Center) in Los Angeles, and the winners of this edition were already known: women, absolute dominators of the greats categories in which they took 7 of the 8 places for best song, best album and best recording among others. Taylor Swift took the jackpot for album of the year on a night where the gramophones were widely distributed, although it was always women who went up to collect them. A world separated these images from the controversial statements of the former director of the awards, Neil Portnow, who said that women had to “be more noticed” to win awards. Six years have passed, Portnow is missing and facing a rape complaint while at the awards he directed, women are getting noticed, and how.
Especially one in particular, Taylor Swift, winner of the awards for best album and best pop album achieved with Midnights, with which she has 14 gramophones and what's more, she becomes the first artist to win four awards for best album of the year. year, one more than Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. A success that Swift received from Celine Dion (she reappeared by surprise after the worrying news about her illness from the Canadian), and that she wanted to share with Lana del Rey, to whom she dedicated both awards after stating that “there wouldn't be so many extraordinary artists without work what she has done.”
Her rival in the pools, SZA, won two of the nine statuettes she aspired to, winning the best R album categories.
She also won two Miley Cyrus awards, for best recording and best pop solo performance, both for Flowers. Another favorite, Billie Eillish, won song of the year for What I Was Made for?, a song she composed for the movie Barbie, and Victoria Mónet did the same with the award for best new artist. Only Olivia Rodrigo, who was competing with the album Guts and the best-selling song Vampire, came away empty-handed from a gala that lasted more than three hours.
Beyond the big awards, women won trophies usually reserved for men such as the Grammy for best country album, which went to Lainey Wilson, or the award for best urban music album, which went to Karol G The Colombian, who had never been nominated before, thus endorsed the success achieved at the Latin Grammys in Seville with Mañana will be beautiful. And we must not forget Kylie Minogue, who achieved her first gramophone by winning the category of best pop/dance recording thanks to Padam Padam.
If women topped the list, the gala was not far behind, a compilation of the best of Anglo-Saxon music with great performances punctuated by interruptions of equally considerable size to adapt to the changing scenario. Dua Lipa opened the night with an explosive performance in which she performed a new song, Training season, followed by Houdini and a small memory of Dance the night from the Barbie soundtrack, with which the Albanian was nominated for two of the eleven candidates. which the film starring Margot Robbie added in different categories. Among these nominations was best song for What I Was Made For?, a song that Billie Eillish performed last night in an intimate version accompanied by piano and violins shortly before going on stage to collect the trophy for best song, the second she has won in this category and seventh of his career at only 22 years old.
The young American artist was not the only female voice to take the stage, and although Taylor Swift - relentlessly pursued by the event's camera - did not perform any song, SZA could be seen, who caused a Tarantinian massacre with a blow of katana with Kill Bill. Miley Cyrus also took the microphone, ecstatic after receiving the first statuettes of her career, to sing Flowers, while Olivia Rodrigo performed Vampires on the same stage where, among others, Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and Jon Batiste – one of the few male candidates – while Travis Scott put on hip hop the year in which the genre turns 50 and Jay-Z was honored with the musical impact award.
It was on a night where the artists who died during 2023 were remembered, a tribute dedicated especially to names like Tonny Benneth, to whom Stevie Wonder dedicated For once in my life, or Sinead O'Connor, of whom Annie Lennox performed Nothing compares to you as a posthumous tribute to the artists who died this year, a review that causes a certain chill since the deceased include Burt Bacharach, Shane MacGowan, Jane Birkin and Ryuichi Sakamoto. And of course Tina Turner, nicknamed the panther, who was remembered last night with her performance of Proud Mary, the strength and pride of an artist who, had she still been alive, would undoubtedly have applauded the choral triumph of women's music represented by these Grammys. .
