The nominations for the 65th Grammy Awards already raised suspicions about the Recording Academy’s intentions with the show, and the winners confirmed it. Regardless, the show still provided some well-deserved recognition for overlooked musicians as well as some entertaining pop culture moments for those watching from home. Here are a few thoughts and highlights. 

The Awards

In the most coveted category, my previously stated fear came true. “Harry’s House” was in no way deserving of this Grammy. Although Beyoncé has now broken the record for most Grammy wins ever with 32 awards, she was robbed yet again of Album of the Year. I appreciate categories such as Best Rap Album and Best Musica Urbana Album, but it seems they are becoming an excuse to overlook people of color and foreign artists in the bigger categories. 

Kendrick Lamar rightfully cleaned house with his album “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” winning Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, but like Beyoncé, he didn’t stand a chance when it came to Album of the Year because of this bias. 

Even if the Recording Academy considers music’s popularity among its quality, Bad Bunny, who was also nominated, has almost a million more monthly listeners on Spotify than Harry Styles and is arguably more popular worldwide. The Recording Academy cannot get past their Western-centric mindset when voting on the most coveted Grammys and artists are being overlooked year after year because of it. Styles is oblivious to this fact, stating “​​this doesn’t happen to people like me very often” in his acceptance speech. No, Harry — it only happens to people like you.

Regardless of opinions on the winner, listening to audience members yelling and booing during Styles’ acceptance speech was not enjoyable for anyone. While I’m on the same page they are, heckling isn’t at all necessary and they should save it for Twitter next time. 

Bonnie Raitt received a lot of hate for beating out the collection of renowned pop stars she was up against for Song of the Year, but this plot twist was one of the Recording Academy’s better decisions. Yes, I would have liked to see Lamar or Steve Lacey win, but “Just Like That” is a well-written, well-produced song. It has been over 30 years since Raitt won Album of the Year, so hopefully this new award will bring the impact she had on the music industry back to light. This Grammy was well deserved by Raitt and restored my hope in the Recording Academy for a moment. 

Upon the initial release of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2001, the album didn’t receive a single nomination. Luckily, Tweedy gave the Recording Academy a chance to fix their mistake from two decades ago, and Wilco’s remastered album finally received the recognition it deserved with the win of Best Historical Album. 

Live Performances 

Questlove’s hip-hop tribute performance was executed extremely well, easily the best part of the entire award show. The performance included Missy Elliot, Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, Big Boi of OutKast and Queen Latifah, as well as dozens of other hip-hop artists who paid tribute to 50 years of hip-hop. 

Harry Styles performed “As It Was” and did a fantastic job of distracting the audience from his mediocre music with a glittery muppet-like outfit paired with choreography straight from a department store advertisement. Styles usually has a great voice, but his extensive touring has seemed to wear him dry as his voice sounded exhausted, resulting in an overall very poor performance. 

Samara Joy stunned the audience with her live performance, which was followed by her win of both “Best New Artist” and “Best Jazz Vocal Album.” 

Honorable Mentions and Moments 

The Grateful Dead won their first-ever Grammy after their art director, Dave Van Patten, won the Grammy for “Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package” for his work on “In and Out of the Garden: Madison Square Garden ’81, ’82, ’83.” This category is often overlooked, but depicting music using art is just as important and impressive as creating music, and this award was well-deserved. 

Viola Davis becomes the 18th person to join the EGOT club with her win of “Best Audiobook, Narration and Storytelling Recording,” for her memoir “Finding Me.” Davis is the third Black woman to win. 

Taylor Swift was applauded for the loyalty of fans, but when asked by host Trevor Noah if the fanbase could lower the current price of eggs, she clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Swift is well on her way to becoming a billionaire, so I guess we can’t expect her to laugh at a joke only a commoner would understand. In Swift’s defense, Noah rarely made a joke that hit home all night, but neither did the rest of the hosts. 

A full list of the 2023 winners and nominations, as well past Grammy winners, can be found here.