Beyonce turns on social media when she appears on stage with Megan Thee Stallion. Swift wins best record for third time.
The female performers dominated the best contemporary music awards Sunday night as Beyonce and Taylor Swift made history at the Grammys and 19-year-old Billie Eilish took the record of the year.
Beyonce broke the record for most wins for a female artist, while Swift’s surprise record folklore was named album of the year and Eilish’s Everything I Wanted won the record of the year. Sunday’s win made Swift, 31, the first woman to win the album three times a year.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion, known for promoting women’s empowerment, was named the best young artist as she won three awards at the socially distanced ceremony.
The 26-year-old also won for her rap performance of the single Savage, with Beyonce.
Taylor Swift made history by winning the album of the year for the third time [Kevin Mazur/The Recording Academy via EPA]
R&B artist HER’s I Can’t Breathe screenwriters won the song of the year, which recognizes composers instead of performers and was written to mark last year’s Black Lives Matter protests at United States.
“I didn’t imagine my fear and my pain turning into an impact,” the 23-year-old musician said as he accepted the trophy. “This struggle that we had inside us, in the summer of 2020, keeps the same energy.
The ceremony, organized by Trevor Noah, anchor of The Daily Show, took place a year after COVID-19’s ground tours and the obligation to close the performance spaces and is part of an effort by the music world to try to overcome an overwhelming 2020.
“Hopefully all of this can be in 2021, full of joy, new beginnings and coming together. Never forgetting what happened in 2020, but full of hope for what is to come,” Noah said.
Harry Styles was one of the performers on Sunday and took home the award for best solo performance [Kevin Winter/The Recording Academy via EPA]
British singer Harry Styles, a feather boa hanging around his neck, kicked off the performances and took home the award for best solo performance for his song Watermelon Sugar. Stars such as Dua Lipa, DaBaby, Swift and Eilish also took the stage.
Beyonce won her 28th Grammy for Black Parade, which was named best R&B song, giving her four wins a night.
It wasn’t even clear that Beyonce was attending the event, held outside of Los Angeles, but she turned on social media after appearing live on the Los Angeles stage alongside Megan Thee Stallion to accept her award for Savage.
“As an artist, I think it’s my job and all our work to reflect the times. And it’s been such a tough time, ”Beyonce said, with her husband Jay-Z watching.
“So I wanted to elevate, encourage, celebrate all the beautiful black queens and kings who continue to inspire me and inspire the whole world.”
British star Dua Lipa won Best Pop Vocal Album for Future Nostalgia, while Nigerian superstar Burna Boy won the award for Best World Music Album for the first time.
Accepting the award, he said it was “a great triumph for my generation of Africans around the world”.
The South Korean band BTS, meanwhile, lost in the best pop duo or performance of the group to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande for their single Rain on Me.
The seven-member South Korean band hoped to be the first K-Pop act to win a Grammy after an advanced year in the United States. They performed their English Dynamite hit during the show.
Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas accept the Record of the Year award for everything they wanted during the 63rd annual Grammy Awards [Kevin Winter/The Recording Academy via EPA]