Music’s biggest night is here.
Most of the genre categories were already announced for the 68th Grammy Awards during the pre-telecast Sunday afternoon, and heading into the main ceremony, the biggest storyline is who will come away with hardware in the remaining general field categories. Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter all have nominations for album of the year and record of the year and all have history on the line.
For a running winners list that will be updated throughout the night, click here.
Billie Eilish had one of the bigger surprises of the evening so far as “Wildflower” took home song of the year, winning out in a category that featured the likes of Kpop Demon Hunters smash “Golden,” Carpenter’s “Manchild” and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” among others. The superstar was one of several tonight to get political, saying “fuck ICE” during her acceptance speech.
Bad Bunny won his first Grammy of the evening for best música urbana album with DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, also giving the an impassioned and political speech as he started by saying “ICE Out.”
Lamar, who came into tonight’s show as the top nominee with nine nominations overall, started the night strong, winning the first award of the night for best rap album with GNX, beating out Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia. All three rap albums are up for album of the year. Before the telecast, Lamar already won two other awards for best melodic rap performance and best rap song. Clipse, meanwhile, took home a Grammy during the pre-telecast for best rap performance with “Chains and Whips,” which featured Lamar as well. Lamar is now the most awarded rapper in Grammy history, breaking Jay-Z’s previous record.
Olivia Dean won out for best new artist, beating a group of budding stars that also included Leon Thomas, Addison Rae, Sombr, KATSEYE, The Marias, fellow Brit Lola Young and Alex Warren. During her acceptance speech, the “Man I Need” singer called herself “a granddaughter of immigrants.”
“I’m a product of bravery and I think those people deserve to be celebrated,” Dean said. “We’re nothing without each other.”
While Thomas didn’t win for best new artist, he won two Grammys earlier Sunday for best traditional R&B performance and best R&B album, and his album Mutt is up for album of the year. Young managed to beat out Gaga and Carpenter to take home the Grammy for best pop solo performance with “Messy,” opening up afterward about mental health struggles as well as her collapse on stage last year and return now.
“We constantly have to be protected as artists always, and I had to make a decision to do it for myself and to be kind to myself, give myself space,” Young said. “But now I am back. I feel better. I will do as much as I can to be good for my fans and to be good for the people that love me, and thank you to all of my fans and everyone who supports me and has followed me on this journey.”
The performances have been strong Sunday. Rosé and Bruno Mars opened the show with global smash “Apt.,” and Carpenter followed soon after with an instant classic “Manchild” performance that had Carpenter playing the role of pilot running through an airport. All eight best new artist nominees took the stage for a segment as well.
Justin Bieber, who hasn’t performed at the Grammys since 2022, returned to the stage Sunday night, playing his Swag hit “Yukon.” Bieber’s vocals were impeccable, and he played the song completely on his own, with little more than a guitar looper by his side. Gaga put a harder rock spin on “Abracadabra,” and Tyler had one of the most fiery performances of the night with his medley of “Thought I Was Dead,” “Like Him” and “Sugar On My Tongue.”
Post Malone fronted an all-star tribute to Ozzy Osbourne alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith along with Duff McKagan, Slash and Andrew Watt. Lauryn Hill pulled off one of the most memorable in memoriams in recent memory, paying homage to friend and collaborator D’Angelo as well as Roberta Flack, bringing up a wide collection of stars to help including Thomas, Raphael Saadiq, Jon Batiste, Lucky Daye, John Legend and Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean.
Clipse is still set to take the stage tonight.
Lamar, who swept record and song last year with “Not Like Us,” could finally win his first album of the year after getting nominated in the category four times. Gaga is waiting for her first-ever win in the general field after nearly a dozen previous nominations, and Bad Bunny hopes to become the first-ever artist to win album of the year for a non-English-language album. The Latin superstar won’t perform tonight but will play next in a widely anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, which garnered conservative backlash.
Sunday’s show marks Trevor Noah’s sixth and final time serving as emcee after he first took the reins back in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s hosted every show since then. It’s also the last time the Grammys are airing on decades-long partner CBS before the show is set to move to Disney next year.