On Feb. 5, the 65th Annual Grammy Award ceremony was held in Los Angeles, with the addition of new artists and award criterias from last year. The award nominees and winners brought mixed responses from music fans.  

“I think that the award winners might be slightly controversial among different artists’ fans,” Alex Cho (10), an avid hip-hop listener said. “It’s because this year’s nominations were especially more competitive with all the albums being so good.”

Album of the Year was awarded to Harry Styles’s ‘‘Harry’s House”, which broke the record for most vinyl records sold within a week in just three days. Best Rap Album was given to “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers” by Kendrick Lamar, which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, selling 295,000 total album-equivalent units in the first week. Record of the Year was awarded to Lizzo and her song “About Damn Time”, which also went viral on social media. Beyoncé also received 4 awards, which tied her with Jay-Z as the artist with the most Grammy nominations with 88 total. 

“I think the Grammy Awards are a good way to look back at all the songs that were created throughout the year and summarize the musical achievements,” Andrew Kim (10), a Kendrick Lamar listener, said. “The ceremony isn’t only about who gets awards, but also about the gathering of all these talented artists.”

The ceremony itself also garnered lots of positive attention, as it also incorporated the performances of many artists such as Sam Smith, Lizzo, and Jay-Z. However, the nominations also created controversies regarding the artists. Harry Styles was accused of promoting white privilege when he said “ This doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” An additional controversy was that he won against Beyoncé, whose fans claim that she was robbed of awards due to her skin color.