The 61st Annual GRAMMYS brought about many major antics. Not only did we score our first look into Disney’s latest Aladdin trailer but we witnessed red carpet looks that championed conservative looks over bare skin, females dominated the Album Of The Year nominations and the award ceremony made firsts in the world of hip hop.
There are over 84 categories at the GRAMMYS ranging from Best Spoken Word Album to Best Remixed Recording but only four peak major interest around the world and have been dubbed the most prestigious GRAMMY awards — Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist.
Artists that take out these categories are basically donned as music gods for the rest of their lives (kind of) so here’s everything you need to know about the biggest wins at the 2019 GRAMMYS.
Record Of The Year
Childish Gambino — This Is America
Nabbing a first for hip hop under this category, Childish Gambino’s prolific This Is America took out the award for Record Of The Year. This win was a massive win and a huge political statement for hip hop and let’s be honest, it was either this banger or the multi-genre and pro-multicultural I Like It by Cardi B and J Balvin that would take out this title.
Album Of The Year
Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour
Kacey Musgraves was also among some of the night’s biggest winners taking out Album Of The Year with her radiant LP Golden Hour (not to mention sweeping up another three GRAMMYS including Best Country Album, Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance). Golden Hour has been Musgraves’ most dynamic album to date and doesn’t sound like your typical set of country tracks with Bee Gee-inspired disco infiltrating tunes like High Horse.
Best New Artist
Dua Lipa
For Best New Artist, it was Dua Lipa who won over GRAMMYS voters for this category. Over the past year, the British-Kosovan singer and song-writer has notably impacted the music industry with her music having been streamed more than 2.7 billion times on Spotify. The 24-year-old has easily smashed romantic clichés throughout her music, defined herself as a feminist and collabed with major artists like Silk City and Calvin Harris.
Song Of The Year
Childish Gambino — This Is America
It came as a shock to no one when Childish Gambino’s thickly-layered tune This Is America snatched up Song Of The Year. It was easily the most artistic and significant commentary on race issues in America illustrated through police brutality, gun violence and Jim Crowe references which all lay at the forefront of the song’s visual integrity.
Notable shout outs: Cardi B also scored her first GRAMMY award and made another first being the first solo woman to take out a rap album GRAMMY with her album Invasion of Privacy, Drake’s God’s Plan scored best rap song and Lady Gaga’s Joanne and Shallow both took out Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Song Written For Visual Media respectively.
And here's everything worth a binge right now.
Image credit: Kevin Mazur/AMA2018