Historical Wins:
Bad Bunny and his album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” made history by being the first to win Album of the Year with a Spanish-language album. Like Kendrick Lamar in 2025, his next stop is the Superbowl halftime show. Speaking of Kendrick, he won 5 more awards, officially surpassing Jay-Z for most awarded rapper with Jay-Z having five and Kendrick having 27. His momentum from last year carried over, as he won Record of the Year again for “Luther (feat. SZA )”. Aura V, an 8 year old girl from Maryland won a grammy for Best Children’s Music Album with her dad Fyütch for their collaboration on “Harmony”. She is now the youngest person to win a grammy, next to other young winners like Blue Ivy Carter and Leah Peasall.
Performances:
There was a bit of a rock in roll twist to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and ROSÉ and Bruno Mars “APT.”. Justin Bieber appeared at the ceremony for the first time in 4 years and performed “Yukon”. He performed in his boxers with only a guitar and microphone. A memorial segment by Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark, Lukas Nelson, and Post Malone was made to Ozzy Osbourne ( who died in July ) with Chad Smith, Slash, Duff McKagen, and Andrew Watt. Lauryn Hill also led a memorial for D’Angelo and Roberta Flack. Sabrina Carpenter sang “Manchild” in her airport themed performance, and Tyler, The Creator performed “Thought I Was Dead”, “Sugar On My Tongue”, and “Like Him” with a guest appearance from Regina King.
Speeches:
Most speeches of the night were heartfelt and political, often speaking about immigration. Bad Bunny gave his speech ( mostly in Spanish ) dedicating it to the people who left their homeland. “I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.” He also used his speech for Best Música Urbana Album to address ICE raids in cities across America, stating “We’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans and we are Americans.” Olivia Dean spoke about being a granddaughter of an immigrant. Billie Eilish accepted Song of the Year with a controversial statement, saying that “No one is illegal on stolen land”. Critics were upset with this and pointed out that her home in Los Angeles sits on Tongva land. The winner of the Best pop solo performance, Lola Young, stayed true to her hit “Messy”, admitting that she hadn’t made a speech. “Obviously I don’t, it’s messy. Do you know what I mean?”. She also accidentally dropped the F-Bomb during her speech which was partially censored. This is her first time coming back into the spotlight since she took a break due to health reasons.
