As the most recent night of the ‘Grammy Awards’ has been and gone, as it was the fourth of February, the reoccurring question of people questioning what the “Grammys” truly are, was bound to come up. Despite this being a well-known event, 46% of students admitted to not knowing what truly goes on at ‘The Grammys’.
The award ceremony recognises ‘outstanding’ achievements in the music industry, having 94 categories in 2024, and going on to have its 66th annual event. Despite the large range of categories, some are seen as better to achieve than others, and are deemed to be the ‘Big Four’:
-Song of the year
-Album of the year
-Record of the year
-Best new artist
Hundreds of celebrities gather each year in Los Angeles for the night in hopes for media publicity, winning an award, giving a speech, or much more. Famous names you may recognise consist of Beyoncé, who has won 32 overall, ‘Michael Jackson’, who won 8 in one night, groups such as U2, with 22 awards and many more.
So how are the winners decided?
Picking a winner is a long and difficult decision, as it can cause backlash from the media a lot of the time, so once all nominations have been announced, academy voting members vote in several fields and categories.
Last year we saw lots of hatred on social media after the announcement that Bonnie Raitt had won ‘Song Of The Year’ for ‘Just Like That’. This was seen as unexpected to many people, as younger generations hadn’t heard of them and expected another artist to win. However, despite not winning, all nominees are given a Nominee Medallion and certificate.
This year, at the awards 66th annual night, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa performed, all who have previously won ‘Best New Artist’. Alongside them, Billie Eilish, SZA and Lana Del Rey have all been nominated for ‘Song of the year’, and we saw many of their fans tuned in on the 4th of February., however the winner was Billie Eilish, with her recent release “What Was I Made For?” For the Barbie soundtrack.
All that is left to do now is wait patiently for the 2025 Grammys, in which the artists are to be nominated by August the 30th, 2024.
Sources: https://www.grammy.com/