Taylor Swift Makes Grammy History
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Taylor Swift made history (or should that be herstory?) at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards on Monday, becoming the first female artist to take Album of the Year twice for albums on which she was the lead artist. She won for her fifth album, 1989, six years after winning for her sophomore set, Fearless.
Swift, 26, is the youngest two-time Album of the Year winner since Stevie Wonder, who was 24 in 1975 when he won in the category for the second time. 1989 (the title is a reference to the year of Swift’s birth) was released in October 2014, near the beginning of the eligibility year.
Swift, who won Best Country Album six years ago for Fearless, is also the first artist to take Best Album honors in both pop and country.
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“Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, which was the best-selling song of 2015, was named Record of the Year. This is Ronson’s second award in that category. He won eight years ago as the producer of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.”
“Uptown Funk,” an irresistible throwback to the R&B sound of the 1980s, won a BRIT Award for British Single of the Year last February. It’s only the second single to win both of these awards. The first was Phil Collins’s 1989 smash “Another Day in Paradise.”
Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” (which the pop star co-wrote with Amy Wadge) was named Song of the Year. The exquisite ballad reached No. 2 on the pop charts. (It was kept out of the top spot by “Uptown Funk.”)
Meghan Trainor, who rocketed to pop stardom with the 2014 single “All About That Bass,” was named Best New Artist. She’s the first female pop artist to win in this category since Adele seven years ago.
Kendrick Lamar was the night’s top winner, with five awards. That puts him in a tie with Lauryn Hill as the hip-hop artist with the most awards in one night. She swept five Grammys at the 1998 awards.
Lamar, 28, went 0-7 at the Grammys two years ago, losing in four categories to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. He won two awards last year for “i,” the first single from To Pimp a Butterfly. He won four more awards for the album this year. That total of six Grammys for the album puts it in a tie with Jay Z’s The Blueprint 3 as the rap album with the most Grammy wins. (Jay Z’s album won three 2009 awards and three more the following year.)
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Swift and Alabama Shakes each took home three awards.
All five Album of the Year contenders took awards in their respective genres. Swift’s 1989 won as Best Pop Vocal Album. Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color won for Best Alternative Music Album. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly won for Best Rap Album. Chris Stapleton’s Traveller won for Best Country Album. The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness won for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Traveller is the second album in as many years to win both the CMA award for Album of the Year and the Grammy for Best Country Album. Miranda Lambert’s Platinum took both prizes last year.
Alabama Shakes, which is fronted by Brittany Howard, is the second mixed-gender group or duo to win for Best Alternative Music Album. The first was the White Stripes.
Adding to the historic night for hip-hop at the Grammys: Hamilton won for Best Musical Theater Album. Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü won for Best Dance/Electronic Album. It’s Skrillex’s third win in the category, which sets a new Grammy record. A single from the album, “Where Are Ü Now,” with Justin Bieber, won for Best Dance Recording. It’s Bieber’s first Grammy win.
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Pitbull also won his first Grammy, not for one of his pop hits, but for Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album. He won for his album Dale, released through Sony Music Latin. He tied with Natalia Lafourcade, who won for her album Hasta la Raíz.
Muse’s Drones won for Best Rock Album, in a mild upset over James Bay’s Chaos and the Calm. Muse is the first British band to win twice in this category. The band won the award five years ago for The Resistance.
Tony Bennett took Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, a collaboration with jazz pianist Bill Charlap. It’s Bennett’s 13th win in the category. He beat Bob Dylan’s Shadows in the Night, in which the rock legend covered songs associated with Frank Sinatra. (Dylan’s older music was remembered by Grammy voters: The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11, which collects vintage tracks he recorded with the Band, won for Best Historical Album. Alas, that award goes to the compilation producers and mastering engineer, not to the artists.)
Joni Mitchell won for Best Album Notes for writing the notes to her album Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced. Here’s the surprising part: The multitalented Mitchell won in another “craft category” – Best Recording Package – 20 years ago for her design work on her album Turbulent Indigo. To be sure, Mitchell has also won many Grammys for her music.
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Lalah Hathaway won Best Traditional R&B Performance for her version of “Little Ghetto Boy,” a song written by her father, Donny Hathaway (who died in 1979). This is Lalah Hathaway’s second win in this category. She won last year for Robert Glasper Experiment’s “Jesus Children,” on which she was featured. Lalah Hathaway has now won more Grammys than her father did. His only Grammy was for “Where Is the Love,” his 1972 duet with Roberta Flack.
D’Angelo and the Vanguard took Best R&B Album with Black Messiah, which was his first album in nearly 15 years. D’Angelo won in this category with his last album, Voodoo. He’s only the second male artist to win twice in this category – following John Legend.
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, the soundtrack from the movie about the country superstar, who is battling Alzheimer’s disease, won for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media. It beat such high-profile soundtracks as Fifty Shades of Grey and Empire: Season 1. Two songs from the Campbell soundtrack won Grammys last year: Campbell’s “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” (which won as Best Country Song) and the Band Perry’s cover of his classic “Gentle on My Mind” (which won for Best Country Duo/Group Performance).
Comedian Louis C.K. took Best Comedy Album for the second time in five years with Live at Madison Square Garden.
Jeff Bhasker, who co-produced “Uptown Funk” with Ronson and Mars, won Producer of the Year (Non Classical). He prevailed despite strong competition from the likes of Diplo and Dave Cobb, both of whom won two awards in other categories.
“Bad Blood” by Swift featuring Lamar won as Best Music Video. The big-budget, star-studded video previously won a VMA as Video of the Year.
Amy, a look at the life of the late Amy Winehouse, won for Best Music Film. The film is also nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary (Feature).
Former President Jimmy Carter took Best Spoken Word Album for A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety. Carter is the first former president to win twice in this category. He won the 2006 award for Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis. (Note: Barack Obama won twice in this category before he became president.) Carter, 91, is among the oldest people ever to win a Grammy, but he’s not the oldest. Blues musician Pinetop Perkins was 97 when he won. Comedian George Burns was 95.
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Rapper-turned-actor LL Cool J hosted the Grammys for the fifth consecutive year. The telecast included tributes to several performers who died in the past year, including David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Lemmy Kilmister, and B.B. King. The Grammys were held at Staples Center in the Los Angeles for the 16th time in the past 17 years.
