The 67th Grammy Awards were held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2. Trevor Noah returned for the fifth consecutive year to host. This year the Grammys had over 20 performances — which included Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, John Legend and Charli XCX.
During the four-hour awards show, the Grammys only actually announced nine awards during the live broadcast. According to the Grammys website, “Because of the large number of award categories, and a desire to feature several performances by various artists, only awards with the most popular interest are presented directly at the televised award ceremony.”
Trevor Noah’s opening monologue
Trevor Noah opened the Grammys by paying tribute to the city of L.A. and sharing how the city has rebounded from one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history. “We are not only celebrating our favorite music, we’re celebrating the city that brought us our favorite music.” Noah then tossed it to Dawes to open the show.
Following their performance, Noah did a more “traditional” opening monologue. He shouted out many of the celebrities in attendance like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, made a few political jokes targeted at immigration and tariffs and ended the speech saying, “This may be the last time I host anything in this country, so I’m going to enjoy it.”
Giving back to L.A.
Throughout the entirety of the Grammys, Trevor Noah reminded those at Crypto.com Arena, and at home, to donate to fire aid relief efforts. At the end of the night, Noah announced that just viewers at home have raised over 7 million dollars for relief efforts.
During each commercial break, the first or last commercial highlighted a small business that was impacted by the wildfires, offered ways to support and help them and featured an artist that would be at the Grammys.
Most of the performances included tribute to L.A. and the community. Billie Eilish ended her performance saying, “I love you L.A.,” Kendrick Lamar dedicated his Record of the Year to the city of L.A. and about an hour into the show Noah played video footage that captured the destruction caused by the wildfires.
L.A. County Firefighters, who battled the wildfires, took the stage to present Album of the Year — with Fire Chief Anthony Marrone saying, “Thank you for supporting all of us and recognizing the heroes that are standing behind me, and the sheroes.”
Noah also paid tribute to the D.C. and Philadelphia plane crash victims saying, “Tonight, as we reflect on the devastation that has hit L.A. this month, we also want to send our thoughts to all those impacted by the tragedies that occurred recently in Washington and Philadelphia just this past week.”
Dawes opening performance
Dawes, the Los Angeles-based folk-rock band that lost their homes in the wildfires last month, opened for the 2025 Grammys. Brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith performed a cover of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” alongside John Legend, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent. The performance included a graphic that read, “We Love L.A.” and images of residents finding lost items among rubble.
Record & Song of the Year
Kendrick Lamar took home Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Not Like Us,” a diss track aimed at rapper Drake. The song topped the Billboard singles charts, and Lamar swept his categories receiving all five Grammys for his nominations in Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Rap Song, Rap Performance and Music Video.
Beyoncé
The biggest award of the night — Album of the Year — went to Beyoncé for “Cowboy Carter.” This comes just a year after Jay-Z took the Grammys stage and said, “She [Beyoncè] has more Grammys than everyone and has never won Album of the Year.”
“Cowboy Carter” also secured her two wins earlier that night for Best Country Album and Best Country Duo Performance with Miley Cyrus for “II MOST WANTED.”
A number of country artists have taken to social media to express their frustration with the Academy’s choice of Best Country Album. Dylan Scott took to the comments of one social media post saying, “Time to let the fans vote! Award shows have become fake and what the narrative is.” Connor Smith and Greylan James also commented on a post regarding the win saying, “Lol” and “wut” respectively.
However, Beyoncé extended her record of being the most awarded artist in Grammys history with 35 wins — with her win for her Album of the Year making her the first Black woman to win in that category since Lauryn Hill in 1999, and the first Black singer to win Best Country Album.
Sabrina Carpenter
25-year-old singer songwriter, Sabrina Carpenter, won her first Grammy with “Short n’ Sweet” for Best Pop Vocal Album. Carpenter then took the stage, dressed in light blue, to perform a mashup of “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” Carpenter also took home the award for Best Pop Solo Performance for “Espresso.”
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan took home the award for Best New Artist. During her acceptance speech, she called our record labels saying, “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists. Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?” Roan then took the stage to perform “Pink Pony Club” which featured clowns and a pony.
Kanye West, Bianca Censori
During the red carpet, Bianca Censori, wife to Kanye West, removed her fur coat to reveal a see-through slip that left her completely nude for cameras. Following the red carpet, West and Censori were nowhere to be found inside the Grammys. That’s when a rumor began to circulate the pair had been kicked out of the event and were not officially invited to attend.
According to Variety, they reported a source close to the Grammys shut down that rumor, saying it was “not true” and that West simply “walked the carpet, got in his car and left.”
Who took home the most awards?
Kendrick Lamar took home the most wins this year with five. Sierra Ferrell was next with four in Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song, Best Americana Performance and Best American Roots Performance — her awards were shown at the Grammys “Premiere Ceremony” prior to the actual show. Beyoncé and Charli XCX tied next with three, followed by Sabrina Carpenter with two.
Speaking out
Several artists took the time to speak out during their acceptance speeches. When accepting Best Latin Pop Album, Shakira said, “I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters. You’re loved, you’re worth it and I will always fight with you.” Lady Gaga said, “I just want to say tonight, trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love,” when accepting her award for Best Duo/Group Performance with Bruno Mars. Chappell Roan called out record labels during her acceptance speech, and Alicia Keys spoke on DEI during her Dr. Dre Global Impact Award acceptance speech.
Best New Artist nominees perform
Some of the Best New Artist nominees — Benson Boone, Doechii, Teddy Swims, Shaboozey and RAYE — all took to the stage each performing one after another. Benson Boone started it off with “Beautiful Things,” followed by “CATFISH” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER” by Doechii, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims, then Shaboozey starting off with “Good News” then “A Bar Song,” followed by RAYE performing “Oscar Winning Tears.” Chappell Roan took home the Best New Artist award.
Alicia Keys receives the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award
Alicia Keys received the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, an award given out by the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective that recognizes “personal and professional achievements in the music industry.” Queen Latifah presented the award to Keys, where Keys accepted the award saying, “This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices we’ve seen on this stage: talented, hardworking people from different backgrounds, with different points of view. And it changes the game. DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift.”
Recording academy CEO addresses criticism and growth
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, took the stage for a speech focusing on the recording academy’s steps to modernize. He introduced new initiatives, like the addition of 3,000 new academy members and an overhaul of the traditional voting system.
Previously, the recording academy would select 20 committee members who would select the winners from a pool of previously voted candidates. Now the system has been changed to where the 13,000 of the academy members all vote to select the winner — something that was stated every single time before each presenter announced the winner.
Following Mason Jr. ‘s speech, he welcomed surprise artist The Weeknd to the stage ending his feud with the awards show.
Honoring artists we lost
Cynthia Erivo and Stevie Wonder took the stage in memory of the late producer and multi-grammy winner Quincy Jones. Will Smith gave a speech in his honor noting how the late artist always had faith in him — which was followed by Janelle Monáe performing “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough,” while wearing a shirt that read “I heart QJ.”
Chris Martin then took the stage to honor those in the music industry we lost this year, with Grace Bowers accompanying him on guitar. Among the first to be featured in the tribute was the late One Direction singer Liam Payne.
The Beatles
“Now and Then” became the first Grammy Award-winning song produced with the help of artificial intelligence. It won best rock performance. The song was released in 2023 and featured the voice of John Lennon — who died in 1980. Band members used A.I. tools to enhance a low-quality cassette tape of Lennon singing and playing piano in the late 1970s.
Lady Gaga
During a Mastercard ad, Lady Gaga released her new song and music video, “Abracadabra.” The artist teased that her new album, “MAYHEM,” is set for release on March 7. Gaga opened the commercial saying, “The category is… dance or die.” Fans can listen and watch the video here.
Winners
A full list of winners can be found here.
This story was written by Allison Scherquist & Sophie Goldstein. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].