The curse has been broken: Beyoncé finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year. While the Grammys have always been somewhat controversial as being designated as the one music award of merit (we’ll unashamedly defer to our own Best Music of 2024 as a viable North Star), any award show that runs this long will encounter any number of fans and historians. Even with the politics of the nominating and voting process coming into question regularly, it was foolish that as game-changing an artist as Beyoncé is, she was always deprived of the top prize despite her four prior nominations in the category.
Even though Cowboy Carter received mixed reactions from fans and critics, it unquestionably started many valuable conversations about race, genre, and acceptance. After Taylor Swift‘s unstoppable march in the category in recent years, it felt correct that Beyoncé finally got her flowers.
Yet, as well-made as the 67th Annual Grammy Awards broadcast was, the heartfelt pleas for rebuilding a wildfire-struck Los Angeles soon gave way to urgent political messaging. Women spoke out on the Grammy stage in favor of diversity and inclusion. Meanwhile, the Grammy’s own gestures in this regard were undercut by actions that, at best, could be described as “deeply questionable”.
Like more recent Grammy ceremonies, “Music’s Biggest Night” increasingly cuts out less broadcast-friendly genres like jazz and classical in favor of performances by the biggest pop-rock and rap artists out there, and 2025 proved to be no exception. Outside of Lainey Wilson showing up during the Quincy Jones tribute, the only dedicated country number on stage was by Shaboozey, and the only Latin appearance was by Shakira. (Props, however, to the last-minute inclusion of slow-rock nominees Khruangbin on the performer’s list, even if their rendition of “May Ninth” was notably shortened.)
After opening the show with a mawkish all-star rendition of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”, runs of songs like “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish and a fun medley of hits by Sabrina Carpenter set a fun mood. While Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars delivered a passable take on “California Dreamin'” and Charli XCX had a serviceable closing set, the show’s performances veered from boring rehashes (Benson Boone’s backflip-off-a-piano routine for “Beautiful Things” is identical to his rendition of it at the 2024 VMAs), to outright stunners.
Chappell Roan loves a good stage concept, and her rodeo clown set for her gorgeous queer anthem, “Pink Pony Club”, was a great fit. While Cynthia Erivo’s take on “Fly Me to the Moon” during the Quincy Jones tribute was stellar, it’s clear that rising Florida rapper Doechii is the real deal, unafraid of delivering complex, performance-heavy renditions of her deliberately non-linear songs. Contorting her body into numerous shapes while two dozen dancers created a bevy of stunning stage pictures, her delivery of “Catfish” and “Denial is a River” made for the unquestioned highlight of the evening. She refuses to do the same stage setup twice and is working to make her songs pop, which is more than we can say for some of the other Best New Artist nominees who gave it their best go.
Doechii was rewarded with the Best Rap Album going before her performance, and she spoke about how stunning it was that only two other women, Lauryn Hill and category presenter Cardi B, had received that gong. She also went viral for a moment early in the evening when host Trevor Noah, on his fifth outing MC’ing the event, made a bad joke about deportation, and Doechii was caught on camera rolling her eyes at it.
Noah can quickly pivot when a bit isn’t working. However, following Chappell Roan’s passionate plea for record labels to give health care to their developing artists following her Best New Artist win, he was left speechless for what may be the first time in his Grammys tenure. No matter how high-def the rotating screens facing the audience were, few people knew what to do with raw, genuine emotion.
It was women who made the most of their time on stage. Even if thoughtful words from celebrities on a national television broadcast pale in comparison to genuine action, there is power in visibility, and hearing Alicia Keys note that “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift”, felt close to radical given the number of corporations who have gutted said programs following the start of the second Trump administration.
It was Lady Gaga, in accepting the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance trophy with Bruno Mars, who bluntly stated that “trans people are not invisible”. Even two years ago, neither of these would be particularly defiant statements. However, in a new and unrelenting political climate, these simple sentences were reminders that there were real stakes outside the walls of the Crypto.com Arena, and, unsurprisingly, they both got roars of applause.
While the Grammys have never pivoted themselves as a specifically progressive organization, many Democratic leaders lend their voices to audiobooks and narrative titles regularly, leading to wins for the likes of Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill and Hilary Clinton. (To their credit, Richard Nixon is also a one-time nominee.) Yet despite his increasingly controversial statements on trans people, Dave Chappelle has won Best Comedy Album six times in the last eight years, with one of those off years seeing the award go to Louis C.K. Chappelle was a non-broadcast recipient during this Grammy night.
There would be no reason to draw any political distinction to this were it not for the fact that Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. felt the need to do it himself. Before discussing the Weeknd engaging in a years-long feud with the Grammys for their lack of transparency (before giving the Weeknd a stage for a comeback performance, all on the same weekend he released a new full-length album, no less), Mason Jr. pointed out that the Grammy foundation had created new initiatives like the Black Music Collective, Academy Proud, and Women in the Mix as a way to show off just how inclusive and transparent they had become. They even went as far as to enlist music stars to show up in Grammy-produced commercial slots for local Los Angeles businesses rebuilding following the tragic wildfires.
Yet many fans clocked that late in the broadcast (and well after the premiere of Lady Gaga’s excellent new “Abracadabra” music video), the Grammys/CBS/Paramount felt the need to accept money to run an ad for Yeezys, the shoe brand by the ever-controversial Nazi apologist Kanye West. He was nominated that night for his song “Carnival”. He even walked the red carpet with his wife Bianca Censori who then revealed a nude illusion look before promptly leaving, which caused a stir for anyone keeping up on the news online. No one is genuinely canceled if they still end up being profitable. Still, for all of this posturing and statements about unifying the music industry, the Grammy Awards continue to have a history of saying one thing while doing another.
While the Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters received a deserved standing ovation from the entire arena while presenting the Album of the Year prize, the Los Angeles Police Department were dispersing protesters who were protesting the surge in ICE raids and deportations, itself a microcosm of the country at large. We’re all looking for escapism even as we push back against the horrors around us, with everyone recovering from one trauma or another. (While the Grammys were making a point about how much carnage the recent fires have wrought, the overuse of said footage bordered on retriggering from some Los Angeles residents.)
The Grammys may put on a great show and raise a lot of money for fire relief, but a one-time fundraiser isn’t enough. If Harvey Mason Jr.’s initiatives for inclusion are meant to be taken seriously, their actions should be loud and clear instead of being readily dismissed due to some questionable associations. Despite women winning a majority of the major broadcast awards, men still won 61% of the total awards after amassing nearly 70% of the nominations. The Grammys have never been a perfect organization (look up previous organization CEO Neil Portnow if you have some time), but strides are needed if the Grammys are intended to be the kind of big tent event that everyone can feel welcome in.
With that said, few moments were as satisfying as hearing an entire stadium sing one of Kendrick Lamar‘s punchlines as he walked up to accept Record of the Year for “Not Like Us”. There’s nothing quite like the shock of seeing Beyoncé win for Best Country Album; she couldn’t believe it. A sense of serenity hits every musician in the room when Diana Ross walks on stage, even to present an award. For all the misgivings and the too-long spoken word passages during the Quincy Jones tribute, the 2025 Grammy Awards made for a good ceremony and points towards a bright future. The Grammys could always improve, but even in as simple a gesture as giving Beyoncé Album of the Year, they might just be on to something.