Bruno Mars dominated the most prestigious award’s night, Grammys 2018 as his 24K Magic upsets Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z in album category and winning all six prizes he was nominated for.
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony hosted by James Corden, was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was the first time since 2003 that the ceremony was held outside Los Angeles.
Bruno Mars pulled off a clean sweep of album, record and song of the year categories at the 2018 Grammy awards, upsetting odds-favorites Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z to take home the evening’s three most prestigious awards.
The 24K Magic singer won all six awards he was nominated for, while Lamar went home with five and Jay-Z, who had the most nominations of any performer with eight, was left empty-handed.
Lamar, the second most nominated artist of the night, kicked off the ceremony with a medley of songs from his album Damn. Lamar, who has nabbed a nomination in at least one category for six consecutive Grammys, was joined by Dave Chappelle and Bono, who features on Lamar’s song XXX.
“The only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America,” said Chappelle, who returned to present Lamar with the award for best rap album, in a preamble to the rapper’s performance. “Is this OK? On CBS?”
Ed Sheeran, who was snubbed out of major categories, picked up the award for pop vocal album, Country star Chris Stapleton, who also performed, picked up two Grammys.
The ceremony was not without its gimmicks, too, most notably a recorded segment that featured the host James Corden auditioning various celebrities to narrate the audio version of Michael Wolff’s bombshell book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. John Legend, DJ Khaled, Cardi B and Cher all made cameos, but none were more surprising than that of Hillary Clinton, who read a line from the bestselling exposé aloud, much to the chagrin of the UN ambassador, Nikki Haley.
Many of those attending walked the red carpet with white roses to honor the victims of sexual abuse, a piggyback off the Time’s Up pin badges celebrities wore to the Golden Globe awards this month. A group called Voices in Entertainment, led by Meg Harkins of Roc Nation and Karen Rait of Interscope Records, spearheaded the initiative.
Cara, nominated in four categories, beat SZA and Khalid to take the coveted best new artist award, past recipients of which include Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse. SZA was the most nominated female artist of the year, up for awards in five categories for three songs, but won none.
Ed Sheeran, who won in the two categories for which he was nominated (best pop solo performance and best pop vocal album), was a no-show at Madison Square Garden, a decision that peeved fans who felt he had triumphed over more deserving (and present) competitors such as Lady Gaga, Kesha and Pink, each of whom performed.
Even without appearances from Grammy mainstays such as Adele, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Drake and Taylor Swift – Beyoncé, who did not perform or present, arrived in the middle of the ceremony – the lineup of performers was high-profile. Rihanna cavorted alongside DJ Khaled and Bryson Tiller to their song Wild Thoughts; Childish Gambino did a falsetto-heavy performance of his song Terrified; Elton John and Miley Cyrus duetted to Tiny Dancer; and Jon Batiste and Gary Clark Jr teamed up for an impressive tribute to Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.
In another memorable moment, the Havana singer Cabello shouted out to the Dreamers in her introduction to a politically charged performance by U2. “I’m a proud Cuban-Mexican immigrant, born in eastern Havana, standing in front of you on the Grammy stage in New York City, and all I know is, just like dreams, these kids can’t be forgotten and are worth fighting for,” said Cabello.
Cameras then panned toward a barge along the Hudson river by the Statue of Liberty, the site of U2’s rendition of their song Get Out of Your Own Way. “Blessed are the shithole countries, for they gave us the American Dream,” said Bono.
