The annual Grammy awards for music was hosted on February 2, 2025 5 p.m.. For the past five years, comedian and former host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, has hosted the award show with viewers loving his jokes and funny quips with artists spectating.
One of the main parts of the show was shining light on the Los Angeles wildfires and asking both viewers and participants to donate funds to help both survivors of the fires, and over the course of the night, the funds raised were over 7 million dollars. Along with this, in an advertisement, the Jonas brothers helped fund and formally introduced a project in the Los Angeles community, the Lost Stuffy Project. The goal of the project is to assist in reuniting children with their missing stuffed animals in the fires.
First-time nominated artist Doechii made history on Grammy night, becoming the third woman to win best rap album for her record “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” “I know that there is some black girl out there, so many black women out there that are watching me right now,” says Doechii after receiving the award. “I want to tell you [that] you can do it, anything is possible and I am a testimony [of that].” Then, Sabrina Carpenter performed at the Grammys for the first time, then received the best pop vocal album award.
After Noah introduced the nominees, all of the nominees for the category of best new artist, all of the nominated artists performed their hit songs. From Benson Boone performing his hit song “Beautiful things” to Raye performing “Oscar winning blues” the medley sounded great. The category for best new artist was presented by the previous winner, Victoria Monét, to Chappell Roan who went up stage in a dress and, most notably, a fairy hat. She brought up a diary with her onstage to read her speech off of. Chappell Roan read in a powerful stand to what actually goes on in the music industry. Her speech was commenting on how the record label industry is corrupt with the way they treat their artists. She opened up on how she was signed as a minor to a record label, then years later dropped from that same label for their benefit. “I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance,” says Roan. “Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
Harvey Mason Jr., the CEO of the academy, brought up criticisms from the well renowned artist The Weeknd who believes that the academy had a “lack of transparency” in the votes ,and went as far as announcing that he’s boycotting the awards. Mason Jr. states that ever since the criticisms, they have attracted younger voters, diversified the voters with both racial and gender diversity. After, he introduced The Weeknd to perform three songs from his new album, São Paulo, Cry For Me and Timeless and brought out Playboi Carti for the performance.
Following the short ad break, the iconic duo Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars took to the stage to perform the song “California Dreamin’” to raise more awareness and money for the California wildfires. After the stellar performance, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars took home the Grammy for best pop duo/group performance for their hit duet “Die With A Smile.” Both artists took a moment to thank each other and their loved ones, but after, Gaga took a moment to speak up for transgender rights. “Trans people are not invisible, trans people deserve love,” says Gaga. “The queer community deserves to be lifted up. Music is love.”
The last two categories, best song and best album, were very close standings to which song or album was going to win. The song of the year award was given to Kendrick Lamar for “Not Like Us” for winning best record, best rap song, best music video and best rap performance. Preceding the award for album of the year, Charli XCX performed her hit songs “Von Dutch” and “Guess” in an interactive way, starting off with a video then entering the stage to finish off the performance. The album of the year was given to Beyoncé for her studio album “Cowboy Carter” after previously winning best country album.
