On the first anniversary of a year without massive concerts, the 63rd Grammy Awards managed to be a historic gala. Beyoncé broke the record for the female artist with the most awards this Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center after winning the award for best R&B performance for Black Parade , the song she released on the day of the emancipation of blacks enslaved to the heat of the racial protests in the United States.
With that award, the fourth of the night for the diva, she surpassed the 27 of the bluegrass singer , Alison Krauss , and reached 28, a figure that is already legend.
Taylor Swift won – for the third time in her career – in the category for best album with Folklore , produced entirely during the quarantine . And 19-year-old Billie Eilish raised the award for best song in disbelief, for the second year in a row, for her song Everything I Wanted.
“This is very embarrassing for me,” said the singer on stage and assured that the award should go to the Texan rapper Megan Thee Stallion, for her success Savage . The top four awards fell into the hands of women.
The organizers wanted to avoid at all costs that the ceremony had a whiff of the virtual ceremonies forced by the pandemic. They almost made it. Harry Styles making Billie Eilish dance to his song Watermelon Sugar , which would later earn him his first Grammy for best pop solo performance, was a refreshing scene.
The same when seeing Bad Bunny , awarded with the best Latin album by YHLQMDLG , singing to the rhythm of Don’t Start Now , while Dua Lipa did his magic on stage. Later, the young English woman would take the Grammy for best vocal pop album for Future Nostalgia, crowning his swift immersion into the global music scene.
The ceremony featured live and recorded performances. The presenter, Trevor Noah, with enough grace and fluidity, managed that the abrupt changes of costumes and scenery were not heavy and the focus was on enjoying, in some way, the new normal.
All 2021 Grammy winners
The Grammys have been criticized for years for the lack of recognition of music created by the African American community. And although this year was no exception, the racial issue was very present during the day. Beyoncé hasn’t had a major category win since 2010.
The two best albums of her career, the namesake Beyoncé and Lemonade , did n’t win the gold gramophone. This year, she came to the ceremony topping the list of nominations – led by women – with nine nominations, and it was her music about racial injustice in America that led her to make history.
When she took the stage to receive the award for Black Parade , visibly moved, she assured that the song wants to honor “the beautiful black kings and queens.” He also dedicated it to his nine-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, who won a Grammy for best music video for Brown Skin Girl, shared with her mother.
“As an artist, I think it is my job, and the job of all of us, to reflect the moment and it has been a very difficult moment,” said the popularly known as Queen B. The fourth main award went to HER, who took the song of the year for I Can’t Breathe, also inspired by George Floyd’s death at the hands of the police.
The throne of the night was scheduled to be contested by Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. The second lived an important milestone in her career by becoming the first female singer-songwriter to win the award for best album three times, after Fearless in 2010 and 1989 in 2016. With this feat, the 31-year-old artist tied with Frank Sinatra , Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon, as the only artists with three Grammys in that category.
One of the most outstanding performances was that of Megan Thee Stallion, winner of best new artist and who together with Beyoncé became the first couple of women to win in the best rap performance for the Savage remix .
Her performance gave way to Cardi B, who performed UP using the stiletto heel of a giant shoe as a dance pole. Then she got into bed with Thee Stallion, to sing her song WAP together for the first time on television , achieving one of the most applauded performances of the night.
In such a heartbreaking year for the music industry, it wasn’t all a party. The coronavirus , in addition to forcing the premises to close, has taken away numerous artists that the Recording Academy wanted to honor through a video accompanied by songs by musicians who died last year: Little Richard, Kenny Rogers, John Prine or Gerry Marsden. Silk Sonic also took the stage to honor Little Richard with a powerful rendition of Good Golly, Miss Molly , while Lionel Richie honored his friend Kenny Rogers with Lady .