The 65th Annual Grammy Awards were held this year at the Crypto.com Arena on February 5th. The Grammys is an event presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize achievements among various artists in the music industry. The grammy award is one of the most well-known, and prestigious awards worldwide. Many families gather around their television on the night of the Grammys and tune in exclusively on CBS. 

Although it was a year of success, many controversies occurred at the Grammys. The winner of album of the year, and song of the year was Harry Styles. Harry Styles is a British singer who gained popularity from the boy band ‘One Direction’ in 2010. After being in One Direction for quite some time the group disbanded, and Styles branched out into being a solo artist. In the year 2022 Styles had come out with the album Harry’s House, which won along with the lead single ‘As it was’.  A lot of people were very excited for him, mostly his fans, which consist of young teenagers. Although the older crowd complained, saying people like Adele were scammed and that Adele should’ve won because she worked harder and has better vocal abilities. Others said the same thing about Beyonce, but since Beyonce has the most amount of grammy’s ever, and the majority agreed it’s fair to give others a chance to win. During Harry Styles’s acceptance speech, he states “This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is so, so nice. Thank you very much,”. This sets off a fan-fueled firestorm, civilians wonder what Styles suggests by “people like me” since he is a white male artist nominated in the same category as women and artists of color. Towards the end of the speech, a journalist named Ernest Owens yells at Styles saying things like “Get off the stage” and “Beyonce should’ve won”. It was loud to the point where everyone could hear Owens. A former girlfriend of Styles and female artist Taylor Swift immediately stands up and claps for support after hearing this. Fans are saying this brought up deja-vu for Swift since 13 years ago at the VMA’s Swift was interrupted during her acceptance speech when rapper Kanye West took her mic and told the audience “Beyonce had one of the greatest music videos of all time.”.  So this instance hit close to home. 

Sam Smith and Kim Petras performed their hit single “Unholy” that night. Viewers are saying it’s satanic, because of the content such as costumes and dancing. Conservatives are complaining saying that people like them should not be role models and that their lifestyle should not be promoted. People who grew up with the singer Sam Smith are upset at the way he’s changed, referring to the fact he and Kim Petras are a part of the LGBTQ+  community. This is quite contradicting because Smith came out to the public in 2014. The pair took home the Grammy award for best pop duo/group performance. Smith gave Kim Petras the stage to commemorate being the first transgender woman to win in the category. Again, viewers disagreed arguing the song is not good, and it shouldn’t have won whatsoever. Smith nor Petras have publicly responded to the backlash on any platform.

The Grammys this year was also filled with a lot of joy! It is always hard to have everyone be satisfied by opinionated nominations that are voted on. There will always be opposing sides but it’s important to be mature and congratulate the ones who do win. Like Lizzo, Bonnie Raitt, Nile Rodgers, and Kendrick Lamar.