It seemed like there was something for everybody at the 2016 Grammy Awards.
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Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won two awards for “Uptown Funk”, including record of the year.
“Basically, I wanted something that was simple and felt like a – what would I do if I was going on a date, and this is what I would do, and my date is Taylor Swift”.
Odd: LL Cool J spent the night introducing the introducers and a show devoted to music had persistent sound troubles. In certain ways, neither won outright – but both genres’ reigning queen and king emerged as winners. Overall, the singer-songwriter picked up three Grammys on Monday, including for best pop vocal album.
West and Swift’s feud, of course, originally began during the 2009 Video Music Awards, when West infamously walked on stage in the middle of a Swift acceptance speech to announce Beyoncé should have been the one onstage instead.
ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Swift finally fired back at Kanye West after he dissed her in his new album.
British rock band Muse also won best rock album for Drones.
To whom could that speech possibly have been directed?
The troupe performed the show’s opening number, “Alexander Hamilton”, with its muttered demand, “Just you wait”. His song “Alright”, is also nominated for song of the year and best rap performance.
But the Grammys are as much – if not more – about performances as they are about awards.
Meghan Trainor, 22, won another key award, Best New Artist, after the breakthrough success of “All About That Bass”, her tongue-in-cheek doo wop take on weight struggles and self-acceptance.
“This is for hip-hop”, Lamar said upon receiving the award for Best Rap Album.
Despite his new solo success, Stapleton is a country veteran.
Meanwhile, drummer and bandleader Antonio Sanchez, who was denied an opportunity to win an Oscar past year for Best Original Score after his work for the film “Birdman” was declared ineligible, was awarded Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media.
The Weeknd also had a pair of Grammys in the early going: R&B performance for “Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)” and urban contemporary album for “Beauty Behind the Madness”.
The 26-year-old, who has fashioned herself as a feminist campaigner, spoke to her legions of girl fans as she accepted her second Album of the Year award.
Wild swings between what’s comfortable and what’s actually artistically current – or even forward-looking – are familiar to longtime Grammy voters and observers, myself included.
Swift immediately turned to hug Lamar upon her victory, which prompted gasps backstage.
Some of the Recording Academy’s more tone-deaf choices may be attributable to how the voting is intrinsically structured.
Earlier in the week, Swift’s rep issued a statement saying that West did not ask Swift permission to use the controversial line in the track, and claimed that Swift advised against releasing a song with such a “strong misogynistic message”.
The night featured touching tributes: Lady Gaga was in David Bowie-inspired makeup and gear as she ran through 10 of the icon’s hits, including “Space Oddity”, “Changes”, “Fame”, “Let’s Dance” and “Heroes”.
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Beyonce later made the briefest of appearances to present an award at the end of the 3-1/2-hour show, but did not perform. See the full list of winners here.
