By Kimia Degani
There seems to be so many different music awards in America, that it can get confusing when trying to understand the difference between them. For those that don’t know, the Grammy Awards are presented by The Recording Academy, and recognize achievements in the music industry. The Grammys are the second of the Big Three major music awards held annually (between the American Music Awards in autumn and the Billboard Music Awards in the summer). It is also considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards along with the Academy Awards (film), the Emmy Awards (television) and the Tony Awards (theatre and Broadway).
The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on January 26, 2020, at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Alicia Keys hosted the ceremony, having hosted the previous year’s ceremony as well. Lizzo received the most nominations of any artist with eight, and Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas received the most awards, with five wins each. As of the 2019 ceremony, there are 84 categories, including the General Field and many others such as Pop, Rock, R&B, Rap and Country that have their own awards. To see the nominees and winners for all the awards, visit this link:
The General Field (also known as the ‘Big Four’) are four major awards for musical works that don’t restrict nominees by genre like other awards:
· Album of the Year is awarded to the performer, songwriter(s) and the production team of a full album
· Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a single song
· Song of the Year is awarded to the songwriter(s) of a single song
· Best New Artist is awarded to an artist without reference to a song or album
Billie’s success is definitely worth a mention; in winning those four major awards, she replaced Taylor Swift as the youngest-ever solo winner for album of the year and became the first woman and second person ever to win all four awards in the same year. If that’s not making history, I don’t know what is. But she was by no means arrogant – before winning her fifth award, the camera caught her mouthing “Please don’t be me. Please.” While accepting the album of the year award, she said, “Can I just say that I think Ariana deserves this?” There has been a lot of debate in the media about whether or not Billie deserved these wins, but as the first artist born in the 2000s to hit No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart for her debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, she’s an amazing role model for young women all around the world.
Like many red carpet events, the outfits were just as exciting as the awards themselves, so here are a few honourable mentions:
Sources: