Zoë Strickland | Editor-in-Chief
On Jan. 28, the “60th Annual Grammy Awards” hit the small screen. The show was hosted by James Corden.
The awards show, which broadcasted from Madison Square Garden in New York City for the first time after a 14-year stint at the Staples Center, aims to award music and recording professionals from a myriad of different positions for their excellent musical contributions. All of the awards are decided by The Recording Academy, which is comprised of people in the field.
The Grammys opened up with a performance by Kendrick Lamar, featuring a brief interlude by Bono, who sang the hook to “XXX.” from Lamar’s album “DAMN.”
Other performances during the show included: Childish Gambino performing “Terrified,” off of his album “Awaken, My Love!”; Kesha performing “Praying,” off of her album “Rainbow”; Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B performing “Finesse”; a joint performance by Sting and Shaggy featuring a performance of Sting’s “Englishman in New York” and their new single “Don’t Make Me Wait”; amongst a handful of others.
There were 84 gramophone awards on the table — including the 75 that were given out before the show began.
For the first time, the award for Best Comedy Album was presented on TV, rather than being given off-camera. The award was given to Dave Chappelle for his Netflix special “The Age of Spin.” The special was Chappelle’s first in 13 years, since his 2004 release “For What It’s Worth.”
The award for Best New Artist went to Alessia Clara, whose 2015 album “Know-It-All” debuted at number nine on the Billboard top 200 list.
By far the biggest winner of the night was Bruno Mars — he went home with six awards, including Album of the Year for “24K Magic,” Song of the Year for “That’s What I Like,” as well as Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance. Kendrick Lamar also took home a stack of Grammys, winning four of the seven he was nominated for. Lamar took home Best Rap Album for “Damn,” Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “HUMBLE.” and Best Rap Collaboration for “Loyalty” with Rihanna.
Ed Sheeran, who wasn’t in attendance to accept the awards, won both Best Pop Vocal Album for “Divide” and Best Pop Solo Performance for “Shape of You.”
The next major award show to sweep the screen will be the BAFTA Awards, which is airing on Feb. 18 on BBC America.
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Photo by: latimes.com
