Beyonce on Sunday finally won the Grammy for the year’s best album for her culture-shaking Cowboy Carter, as rapper Kendrick Lamar posted a clean sweep on a night that served as a love letter to fire-ravaged Los Angeles.
Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter emerged as big winners at the performance-heavy gala, while heavyweights Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish went home empty-handed.
Beyonce’s win for Cowboy Carter now makes her the most nominated, most decorated artist at the awards show ever — as well as the first Black woman to claim the top prize in this century.
Photo: AP
The triumph was all the more relevant as the 43-year-old’s ambitious, historically rooted album elevated and showcased the work of Black artists in country music, whose rich contributions the industry has repeatedly sidelined.
“I just feel very full and very honored,” she said, her husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy cheering from the crowd of A-listers at Crypto.com Arena.
She dedicated the prize to Linda Martell, a pioneering Black country musician featured on the album.
Photo: AP
“I hope we just keep pushing forward, opening doors,” Beyonce said.
The win brought Beyonce’s total Grammys on the night to three: she also won for her collaboration with Miley Cyrus, and snagged the best country album trophy.
“I really was not expecting this,” she said as she accepted that prize, her voice audibly shaking. “Sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists.”
“I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about and to stay persistent,” she added.
LAMAR, CHAPPELL ROAN OWN THE STAGE
Hip-hop laureate Lamar cleaned up thanks to his smash diss track Not Like Us, one of a series of songs from the Los Angeles-area native that skewer rap rival Drake.
He won in all five categories in which he was nominated, including Record and Song of the Year. He lost only to himself — he was twice up for two of the rap genre prizes.
“Nothing more powerful than rap music,” the 37-year-old Lamar said in accepting the top song trophy. “We are the culture.”
Not Like Us shattered streaming records, catapulted to the top of the charts and quickly became a West Coast rap anthem, beloved for its pounding bass line, rhythmic strings and exaggerated enunciation.
Lamar dedicated his best record win to his hometown, which is still reeling from the fires that razed whole neighborhoods and left thousands of people displaced.
The coveted prize for Best New Artist went to Chappell Roan, capping a meteoric year for the Midwestern artist who went from struggling singer to music’s It girl seemingly overnight.
But in a powerful acceptance speech, she recounted how it wasn’t always easy — she was dropped from her label during the pandemic and struggled to find work.
Roan demanded that labels provide artists with a “livable wage and health care.”
“Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees,” she said. “Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
‘ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE’
Doechii emerged as another big winner, becoming just the third woman to ever win the prize for best rap album. The second-ever winner, Cardi B, presented her with the prize.
“Anything is possible,” Doechii said as she accepted the trophy through tears, speaking directly to Black girls and women like herself.
“Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you that tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic or you’re too loud,” she said.
“You are exactly who you need to be.”
Sabrina Carpenter won for best pop vocal album, her second award of the night that followed a slapstick, Old Hollywood-inspired performance of her nominated hits Espresso and Please Please Please.
And Shakira scooped Best Latin Pop Album, before delivering a jaw-dropping performance of her classics and new work, gyrating around the room.
‘LOVE YOU, LA’
Sunday’s gala was an homage to the city of Los Angeles.
Yet it was not a somber evening but rather one of warmth, celebrating first responders while urging donations. Host Trevor Noah said at least US$7 million was raised from viewers for wildfire relief.
Top LA County firefighters presented Beyonce with her big award, while students who lost their schools sang with Stevie Wonder on We Are The World as part of the tribute to the late music powerhouse Quincy Jones. The show opened with a supergroup including Sheryl Crow and John Legend performing Randy Newman’s track I Love LA, while Eilish sang her hit Birds of a Feather in an LA Dodgers baseball cap.
I love you LA, she said to cheers.
Feb. 17 to Feb. 23 “Japanese city is bombed,” screamed the banner in bold capital letters spanning the front page of the US daily New Castle News on Feb. 24, 1938. This was big news across the globe, as Japan had not been bombarded since Western forces attacked Shimonoseki in 1864. “Numerous Japanese citizens were killed and injured today when eight Chinese planes bombed Taihoku, capital of Formosa, and other nearby cities in the first Chinese air raid anywhere in the Japanese empire,” the subhead clarified. The target was the Matsuyama Airfield (today’s Songshan Airport in Taipei), which
China has begun recruiting for a planetary defense force after risk assessments determined that an asteroid could conceivably hit Earth in 2032. Job ads posted online by China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) this week, sought young loyal graduates focused on aerospace engineering, international cooperation and asteroid detection. The recruitment drive comes amid increasing focus on an asteroid with a low — but growing — likelihood of hitting earth in seven years. The 2024 YR4 asteroid is at the top of the European and US space agencies’ risk lists, and last week analysts increased their probability
For decades, Taiwan Railway trains were built and serviced at the Taipei Railway Workshop, originally built on a flat piece of land far from the city center. As the city grew up around it, however, space became limited, flooding became more commonplace and the noise and air pollution from the workshop started to affect more and more people. Between 2011 and 2013, the workshop was moved to Taoyuan and the Taipei location was retired. Work on preserving this cultural asset began immediately and we now have a unique opportunity to see the birth of a museum. The Preparatory Office of National
On Jan. 17, Beijing announced that it would allow residents of Shanghai and Fujian Province to visit Taiwan. The two sides are still working out the details. President William Lai (賴清德) has been promoting cross-strait tourism, perhaps to soften the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attitudes, perhaps as a sop to international and local opinion leaders. Likely the latter, since many observers understand that the twin drivers of cross-strait tourism — the belief that Chinese tourists will bring money into Taiwan, and the belief that tourism will create better relations — are both false. CHINESE TOURISM PIPE DREAM Back in July