Powered by her smash hit album “Renaissance” and hit “Break My Soul,” Beyoncé made Grammy history Sunday night as she carried a leading nine nominations into the 65th annual rendition of Music’s Biggest Night.
Already the record-holder for the winningest woman of all time, with 28 Grammys overall, with just four wins Sunday, Beyoncé overtook the late conductor Georg Solti as winningest artist of all time. Solti won a leading 31 career Grammys.
She has already won Sunday for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for the song “Break My Soul;” Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa;” Best R&B Song for “Cuff It,” and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for the album “Renaissance.”
Her 32 Grammys put her ahead of the late conductor Georg Solti, who had the previous record of 31.
The nine nominations Beyoncé earned this year put her in a tie with her husband, Jay-Z, for the most-nominated artists in Grammy history, with 88 nods each.
But while she became Grammy’s winningest artist ever, Beyoncé yet again did not stake a claim on the Recording Academy’s top honors.
Of her 28 Grammy wins, only one was in the general-music categories – a 2010 Song of the Year victory for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).” All of her other wins were in so-called “down-ballot” genre categories.
Heading into Sunday’s event at Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles, many pundits suggested that with a chance to set a Grammy record, this is the year the Recording Academy could finally recognize her in the top categories of Album, Record and Song of the Year.
She was nominated in all of those categories, with “Renaissance” up for Album of the Year and “Break My Soul” nominated for Record and Song of the Year. The Record of the Year award honors performers, while Song of the Year honors songwriters.
The competition, however, was stiff. Kendrick Lamar had eight nominations going into the event, while Adele and Brandi Carlile each had seven. Lamar and Adele were also nominated with Beyoncé in the top three Grammy categories, as were Lizzo and Harry Styles.
Styles, with “Harry’s House,” prevailed against Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” for Album of the Year, against “Voyage” by ABBA, “30” by Adele, “Un Verano Sin Ti” by Bad Bunny, “Good Morning Gorgeous” by Mary J. Blige, “In These Silent Days” by Carlile, “Music of the Spheres” by Coldplay, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” by Lamar, “Special” by Lizzo.
Lizzo, with “About Damn Time” beat Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” for Record of the Year against “Don’t Shut Me Down” by ABBA, “Easy on Me” by Adele, “Good Morning Gorgeous” by Mary J. Blige, “You and Me on the Rock” by Carlile with Lucius, “Woman” by Doja Cat, “Bad Habit” by Steve Lacy, “The Heart Part 5” by Lamar and “As It Was” by Styles.
Bonnie Raitt won Song of the Year. Among the hopefuls were the writers behind GAYLE’s “abcdefu,” Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” Styles’ “As it Was,” Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” Adele’s “Easy on Me,” DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5” and Raitt’s “Just Like That.”
In the other top category of Best New Artist, Samara Joy won over nominees Anitta, Omar Apollo, DOMi & JD Beck, Muni Long, Latto, Maneskin, Tobe Nwigwe, Molly Tuttle and Wet Leg.
Trevor Noah hosted the 3 1/2-hour Grammy telecast. The vast majority of Grammy Awards will be presented during the Premiere Ceremony which began at 12:30 p.m. at the Microsoft Theater.
The main ceremony at Crypto.com Arena marked a return to the Grammys’ traditional home, following two years of COVID-related relocations. Last year’s ceremony was moved to Las Vegas due to surging infections in Los Angeles County. The 2021 event was scaled down due to the pandemic and held on an outdoor event deck at L.A. Live.
As usual, the Grammy telecast will be heavy on musical performances. Scheduled to take the stage are Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Luke Combs, Brandi Carlile, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras, Harry Styles and Sam Smith.
The ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment featured a series of performances honoring those who died in the past year. Kacey Musgraves will perform “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in a tribute to Loretta Lynn. Sheryl Crow, Mick Fleetwood and Raitt honored Christine McVie with a performance of “Songbird.” Meanwhile, Maverick City Music and Quavo teamed up on a performance of “Without You” in tribute to rapper Takeoff.
The show also featured an all-star celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop. LL Cool J introduced the segment and performed during the tribute, produced and arranged by Questlove, with music provided by The Roots and narrated by Black Thought.
Performing during the segment will be Big Boi, Busta Rhymes with Spliff Star, De La Soul, DJ Drama, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, Future, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Mele Mel & Scorpio/Ethiopian King, Ice-T, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rakim, RUN-DMC, Salt-N-Pepa and Spinderella, Scarface, Swizz Beatz and Too $hort.
Among those who served as presenters during the ceremony are First Lady Jill Biden, Madonna, James Corden, Billy Crystal, Viola Davis, Dwayne Johnson, Olivia Rodrigo and Shania Twain.
The Grammys were broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
– City News Service
Updated 7:40 and 9 p.m. Feb. 5, 2023