Kendrick Lamar and Bad Buddy won big at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, with Lamar taking home five trophies, including Record of the Year for “Luther” with SZA while Bad Bunny made history with “Débi Tirar Más Fotos”, the first-ever Spanish-language record to win Album of the Year.
Lamar, nominated nine times, also won four early trophies for Best Rap Album (“GNX”), Best Rap Song (“TV Off”), Best Melodic Rap Performance (“Luther”) and Best Rap Performance (“Chains and Whips”).
That brought him to 27 lifetime Grammys, surpassing Jay-Z (25) for the most of any rapper. It also made it the second straight year he took home at least five golden gramophones.
In addition to Album of the Year, Bad Bunny also won Best Musica Urbana Album and Best Global Music Performance for “EoO.”
“Thank you to everyone who believed in me for my entire career, to everyone who worked on this album,” he said in Spanish while accepting Album of the Year. “I wanna dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.”
Earlier in the night, Billie Eilish won Song of the Year for “Wildflower”, marking her 10th career victory at the show.
Eilish shared the award with her brother, Finneas O’Connell, who wrote the song alongside her. Both Eilish and O’Connell wore “ICE Out” pins, a popular accessory throughout the night.
“I feel so honoured every time I get to be in this room,” Eilish said in her acceptance speech. “As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land.”
“It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now,” the 24-year-old singer added. “I feel really hopeful in this room, and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter.”
Olivia Dean won Best New Artist, beating out a crowded field that included girl group Katseye, Addison Rae and Sombr.
“I never really imagined that I would be up here,” the British singer-songwriter said through tears.
“I wanna say I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant,” she added, referencing her Guyanese grandmother, who is part of the Windrush generation who were asked to relocate to the United Kingdom from their homes in the Caribbean to address labour shortages. “I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.”
During the afternoon Premiere Ceremony, Steven Spielberg became the 22nd person to achieve “EGOT” status, winning his first Grammy for producing the film “Music by John Williams”, which won Best Music Film. Spielberg, 79, also has three Oscars, four Emmys and a Tony.
For the first time, a K-pop song won a Grammy, with “Golden” from the film KPop Demon Hunters winning for Best Song Written for Visual Media. The smash hit by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami was also nominated in three other categories, including Song of the Year.
The Dalai Lama also won his first Grammy, winning in the star-studded Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording category for his book of meditations. He beat out host Trevor Noah and US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in the category.
“I am not the Dalai Lama,” Rufus Wainwright joked while accepting the award on his behalf. “It was a privilege to participate in this project.”
