Normally, the Grammys are like a visit from your parents: Familiar, comforting, maudlin, not that funny, includes a series of speeches, and goes on a little too long. Over the years, the telecast has become a predictable parade of tributes, medleys, and artist showcases, all sandwiched between award presentations that seem to please no one but the person who wins them—and even then, that’s not guaranteed. Because of all this, we generally like to poke fun at the Grammys in these recaps. Make a few jokes about not knowing who Teddy Swims is, have a laugh at Benson Boone’s backflips, something something “music brings us all together,” and call it music’s biggest night.
But this year, the longtime Los Angeles ceremony took place less than a month after the Eaton and Palisades wildfires devastated several of the city’s residential neighborhoods. It transformed the Grammys from a glamorous pop spectacle to a heartfelt telethon to raise money through MusicCares Fire Relief (late in the evening, they announced $7 million in donations from people watching at home). The telecast kept L.A. at the forefront, highlighting local businesses, bringing out city firefighters for a standing ovation, giving Kendrick seven Grammys for “Not Like Us,” and letting supergroups cover Randy Newman. It’s decidedly harder to take cheap shots at a telethon.
This all gave the nearly four-hour ceremony an air of impenetrable seriousness. But when host Trevor Noah was not soliciting donations or delivering his trademark mid zingers, the Grammys leaned into its blockbuster music performances, increasingly the one true reason to tune in to the Grammys. Maybe it was the soft anti-Trumpian rebukes, the reined-in energy, or the general lack of shenanigans, but the performances were the highlight of the whole show: The Weeknd ended his years-long boycott and lit up the stage; Cynthia Erivo blew the roof off Crypto.com arena; Sabrina Carpenter va-va-voomed all around an Old Hollywood set; Stevie Wonder ripped through “We Are the World”; Doechii left a superstar.
And so are 11 really great moments that we’re still thinking about the next morning.
Sabrina Carpenter’s Oopsie-Daisy
Sabrina Carpenter
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English (US) ·