Beyoncé makes Grammy history, with more career awards than any singer ever

Beyoncé broke the record for most total Grammys ever won by a singer, and Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, H.E.R., and Billie Eilish were also among the big winners at this year’s unconventional, COVID-era Grammy Awards, broadcast Sunday from outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Host Trevor Noah joked early in the proceedings that the show would be “the biggest outdoor event of the year, besides the storming of the Capitol,” and that the evening would be bringing people together “as only music can — and also vaccines.” Unlike last year, when Billie Eilish made a clean sweep of major categories, no one winner dominated.

Megan Thee Stallion won three awards, including best new artist, while also taking home rap performance and rap song honors for her “Savage” remix with Beyoncé.

Beyoncé also won best music video for “Brown Skin Girl” — featuring her daughter and fellow Grammy winner Blue Ivy Carter — and best R&B performance for “Black Parade.” That award brought her to 28 career Grammy wins, one more than country-bluegrass singer Alison Krauss and equal to the number won by producer Quincy Jones. (Only British conductor Georg Solti is still ahead of her, with 31.)

In accepting, Beyoncé said: “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 the beautiful Black queens and kings who inspire me and inspire the whole world.”

In her acceptance speech for the “Savage” remix, Megan said that in difficult situations she asks herself: “What would Beyoncé do? And then I make it a little ratchet.” Her 2020 album Good News was just part of a breakout year for the artist, which also saw her teaming with Cardi B on the hit single “WAP” — a Grammy Awards highlight they performed together.

When she won best new artist, Megan removed her orange mask and then had to pause her acceptance speech, waiting for some traffic noise to subside. “It’s been a hell of a year,” she said as fellow nominee Phoebe Bridgers looked on, dressed in her trademark skeleton suit. “But we made it.”

Swift also made history, becoming the first woman to ever win the prestigious album of the year trophy three times, for Folklore, one of two albums she surprised-released in 2020. (Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, and Paul Simon are the men who have done it.)

Another of the night’s major awards, for Song of the Year — an award presented for songwriting rather than for a recording — went to ”I Can’t Breathe” by H.E.R..

She said she co-wrote the Black Lives Matter anthem over FaceTime and recorded it in her bedroom in her mother’s house. “Remember, we are the change that we wish to see,” she said in accepting the award, and urged fans to “keep the same energy” they showed during the protests over the police killing of George Floyd last summer.

Lil Baby’s performance of “The Bigger Picture” also had an anti-racist, socially conscious energy, with staging that included a racial profiling police stop and an appearance by activist Tamika D. Mallory, who addressed President Biden in an in-song speech that demanded “justice, equity, and everything else that freedom encompasses.”

The show’s country music performance segment featured all women performers, starting with Mickey Guyton, the first solo Black female artist to be nominated in a country category. She was followed by Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris, who sang her hit “The Bones” with John Mayer guesting on lead guitar.

But the show stealer here was Guyton, who sang “Black Like Me,” the anti-racism song that turned her into a star, accompanied by a gospel chorus.

Eilish won the final award of the evening, for record of the year for “Everything I Wanted,” which she accepted with her brother and musical partner Finneas O’Connell. She dedicated her acceptance speech to the greatness of Megan Thee Stallion, who she called “a Queen” and said was the rightful winner.

After Eilish’s win, as the 3-hour, 40-minute show came to a close, Noah quipped, “Now it’s time for the after party, at home on my couch.”

This year’s Grammy Awards show made a point to spotlight independent music venues around the country that have struggled to survive while being shuttered for the year since the pandemic began.

JT Gray, owner of the Nashville bluegrass bar Station Inn appeared virtually from Music City to announce that the winner of best country album was Lambert’s Wildcard. Rochelle Errathcu of the L.A. club The Troubadour gave the best pop solo performance award to Harry Styles, for “Watermelon Sugar,” who had audio cut out on him during his winning speech, as the Strokes had during their win for best rock album earlier in the day.

And the winners at the Grammys — billed even during a pandemic as “Music’s Biggest Night” — aren’t necessarily those who go home with trophies, but those chosen to perform on the show before a mass audience.

A highlight of the early part of the evening was Silk Sonic, the new super-smooth 1970s style collaboration of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, who sang their delectable “Leave the Door Open” from a new album that’s on the way. The duo later starred in a Little Richard memorial segment.

Throughout, the telecast mixed pre-produced segments that spotlighted artists nominated in the Record of the Year category with live-in-L.A. performances. It was an effective strategy, showcasing acts like rapper DaBaby and dance-pop star Dua Lipa for a broad network TV audience that’s not always current.

A pre-telecast afternoon virtual ceremony in which many of this year’s Grammys were awarded was hosted by hip-hop R&B vocalist Jhene Aiko, who was nominated for the prestigious album of the year prize, along with Swift, Lipa, rapper Post Malone, multi-instrumentalist wunderkind Jacob Collier, retro-soul duo Black Pumas, Coldplay, and Los Angeles sister band Haim.

In the afternoon show, Gaga won with Ariana Grande for best pop duo performance for “Rain on Me.” Kanye West won best contemporary Christian album for his gospel-rap Jesus Is King, and University of Pennsylvania grad John Legend’s Bigger Love took home R&B album honors.

Folk-rock songwriter John Prine and jazz keyboard player Chick Corea each won two posthumous trophies. Prine, who died in April of COVID-19 complications at age 73, won for America roots song and Americana performance for the haunting “I Remember Everything,” which was released after his death.

“John had a way of pointing out the most simple everyday things that we sometime overlook,” his widow, Fiona Whelan, said in accepting the awards. “I feel John’s presence today very strongly.” Brandi Carlile sang a quietly moving “I Remember Everything” during the telecast, which also included a powerhouse rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” sung by Brittany Howard in an in memoriam segment for artists who died since last year’s awards ceremony.

Corea, who died in February at age 79, won for instrumental jazz album for Trilogy 2, sharing the award with Philadelphia bassist and bandleader Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade. (It’s McBride’s seventh Grammy.) Corea also won for improvised jazz solo for his playing on “All Blues” on that album.

» READ MORE: Philly bluesman Frank Bey is up for a posthumous Grammy for his final album ‘All My Dues Are Paid’

Frank Bey, the Philadelphia blues singer who died last June at 74, was up for a posthumous award for his sublime final album, All My Dues Are Paid. But the award for best traditional blues went instead to Louisiana singer Bobby Rush’s Rawer Than Raw.

A nominated Philadelphian also failed to win in the contemporary blues category, where guitarist and vocalist G. Love was up for The Juice. Fantastic Negrito’s Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? took the honors.

For the first time, all of the nominees in the best rock performance category were women. Fiona Apple beat out Brittany Howard, Big Thief, Haim, Grace Potter, and Phoebe Bridgers during the afternoon ceremonies, winning for “Shameika,” her song about honoring a childhood friend.

Apple also won best alternative music album for Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which, along with Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways (which she played piano on) were the two most lavishly praised releases of 2020.

Both were left out of the album-of-the-year nominations and can be counted among those most snubbed by this year’s Grammys, along with Canadian R&B star The Weeknd, who scored an enormous hit with his song “Blinding Lights” yet received no nominations.