Beyoncé, Taylor Swift among big GRAMMY winners

The 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards were held in Los Angeles

Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Dan + Shay are among the big winners at the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards. Each artist brought home record-breaking trophies at Music’s Biggest Night on Sunday (March 14th) with women dominating the show.

Beyoncé brought home her 28th GRAMMY for Best R&B Performance for “Black Parade,” making her the most awarded female artist in history. She breaks Alison Krauss’ record of 27 and is now tied with Quincy Jones for the second-most GRAMMY wins. Hungarian conductor George Solti currently holds the record with 31 wins.

“I am so honored, I am so excited. Thank you guys,” an emotional Beyoncé shared from the stage. “As an artist, I believe it’s my job, and all of our jobs to reflect the times, and it’s been such a difficult time. So I wanted to uplift, encourage and celebrate all of the beautiful black queens and kings that continue to inspire me and inspire the whole world.”

Earlier in the night, Beyoncé won for Best Music Video for “Brown Skin Girl,” featuring her daughter Blue Ivy and WizKid. That makes Blue Ivy the second youngest to ever win a GRAMMY. The youngest is Leah Peasall who was eight during the 2002 ceremony for her work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundrack.

Taylor Swift won her third Album of the Year award for Folklore, making Swift the first female and fourth artist in history to accomplish the feat. Swift previously won in 2010 for Fearless and 2015 for 1989. She was joined by her Folklore collaborators, The National’s Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, to accept on stage.

“I want to thank all of my collaborators who are on the stage,” Swift said. “But mostly, we just want to thank the fans. You guys met us in this imaginary world that we created, and we can’t tell you how honored we are forever by this. Thank you so much, and thank you to the Recording Academy. We will never forget that you did this for us. Thank you so much.”

Billie Eilish won Record of the Year for the second consecutive year with “Everything I Wanted.” She swept last year’s show by taking home six trophies, including three for “Bad Guy.”

However, Eilish honored Megan Thee Stallion during her speech, claiming the rapper deserved it more.

“This is really embarrassing for me,” Eilish said immediately. “Megan, girl … I was gonna write a speech about how you deserve this but then I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to choose me,’ I was like, ‘It’s hers.’ You deserve this. You had a year that I think is unstoppable. You are a queen. I want to cry thinking about how much I love you. You are so beautiful. You are so talented. You deserve everything in the world. I think about you constantly. I root for you always. You deserve it, honestly.”

Megan Thee Stallion had a monumental night herself at the show, taking home the awards for Best New Artist, Best Rap Song (“Savage Remix Ft. Beyonce), and Best Rap Performance (“Savage Remix Ft. Beyonce). These were Megan’s first GRAMMY wins. “Savage Remix ft. Beyonce” became her first No. 1 single and ignited a global dance sensation on TikTok and Instagram. With over 1.2 billion global streams to date, the song also had a huge charitable impact; both Megan and Beyonce donated their proceeds from the song to Houston’s Bread of Life, raising over $1 million.

Dan + Shay made GRAMMY history as they clinch the Best Country Duo/Group Performance category for the third consecutive year with their global hit “10,000 Hours” (with Justin Bieber), making them the first artist to do so consecutively since the category’s inception. The duo won the category for the first time in 2019 with 6x platinum smash “Tequila,” going on to win again in 2020 with 5x platinum multi-format hit “Speechless.”

Selena, Marilyn Horne, Salt-N-Pepa, Talking Heads, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, and Lionel Hampton were all honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The accolade celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.

Deadline reports the ratings were the lowest ever for the GRAMMYs by snagging 7.9 million viewers with a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic, in early results. The show fell 60% from 2020 that attracted 18.7 million viewers in its final numbers. Before last night, the 2006 show held the record for the lowest numbers with 17 million.

Below are some highlights of the winners. The full list can be viewed at the GRAMMYs website.

Album of the Year

Folklore – Taylor Swift

Song of the Year

“I Can’t Breathe” – Dernst Emile II, H.E.R. & Tiara Thomas, songwriters (H.E.R.)

Record of the Year

Everything I Wanted – Billie Eilish

Best New Artist

Megan Thee Stallion

Best R&B Performance

“Black Parade” – Beyoncé

Best Pop Vocal Album

Future Nostalgia – Dua Lipa

Best Rap Song

“Savage” – Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé

Best Pop Solo Performance

“Watermelon Sugar” – Harry Styles

Best Country Album

Wildcard – Miranda Lambert

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical​

Andrew Watt

Best Country Song

“Crowded Table” – The Highwomen

Best Country Duo/Group Performance

“10,000 Hours” – Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber

Best Country Solo Performance

“When My Amy Prays” – Vince Gill

Best Rock Album

The New Abnormal – The Strokes

Best Rock Song

“Stay High” – Brittany Howard

Best Metal Performance

“Bum Rush” – Body Count

Best Rock Performance|

“Shameika” – Fiona Apple

Best Rap Album

King’s Disease – Nas

Best Rap Performance

“Savage” – Megan Thee Stallion ft. Beyoncé

Best Melodic Rap Performance

“Lockdown” – Anderson .Paak

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

American Standard – James Taylor

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

“Rain on Me” – Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande

Best R&B Album

Bigger Love – John Legend

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com