The grand ceremony of Grammy Awards 2018 took place on January 28, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The star-studded ceremony not only recognized the contributions of singers and musicians but also raised the issue of rampant racism and sexual harassment in Hollywood in particular and society in general.
Overall, the Grammys 2018 ceremony was an exhibit of socio-political phenomena, apart from being an entertainment event. Before going into details of who talked about which issue, let’s have a look at who won big at Grammy Awards 2018.
Winners of Grammy Awards 2018
This year’s Grammys announced some unexpected lead winners. Soon after the nominees of Grammys 2018 were out; fans were expecting Jay-Z to be the lead winner. Contrary to the odds, Bruno Mars turned out the lead winner for pulling out a clean sweep in six major categories.
Here are the awards that Bruno Mars won.
- Best R&B Album for 24k Magic
- Best R&B Song for That’s What I like
- Best R&B Performance for That’s What I Like
- Best Record of the Year 24 k Magic
- Best Album of the Year 24 k Magic
- Best Engineered Album 24 K Magic
Bruno Mars
?Best R&B Song
?Best R&B Album
?Best R&B Performance
?Record Of The Year
?Song Of The Year
?Album Of The Year#GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/7ltbxMrxyf— George Rading (@rading19) 29 January 2018
Kendrick Lamar, made the second big win at Grammy Awards 2018, by taking home the five awards in following categories.
- General Field Album of the Year for DAMN
- General Filed Record of the Year for HUMBLE
- Best Rap Performance for HUMBLE
- Best Rap Performance for Loyalty
- Best Song for Loyalty
Ed Sheeran won two awards, one for ‘Shape of You’ in best pop solo performance category and other for Divide in best pop vocal album category. Jay-Z who was the lead nominee and Lady Gaga who received a nomination in two groups didn’t win an award.
Socio-Political Voices at Grammy Awards 2018
It seems that all the events and awards ceremonies in 2018 would echo the issues of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism. Earlier, the Golden Globes 2018 awards ceremony had also adopted the #MeToo theme to raise the need for women empowerment in Hollywood.
On Grammy Awards, it all began with red carpet walk, where participants carried a white flower in their hands to honor the victims of sexual harassment.
Many celebrities talked about the social issues in their capacity, but the worth mentioning is the Kesha’s performance on her song Praying. Her performance invigorated an emotional spirit and otherwise entertaining atmosphere of the ceremony.
In case if missed he killed it Kendrick’s powerful performance?? #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/YcQMP6O6L5“
— @vinny-boy (@MofokengKhopolo) 29 January 2018
Artists also took up the issue of suicide. Alessia Cara and Logic dedicated their performance on 1-800-273-8255 to those who took their lives by committing suicide. Cara also won the award for emerging artist in the ceremony.
Logic, Alessia Cara and Khalid perform 1-800 at the #GRAMMYs ?
When future icons come together???pic.twitter.com/HqKPLKi7ld
— Cyber-Active (@CyberFreak_T) 29 January 2018
Grammy Awards 2018 Go Political
Grammy Awards 2018 ceremony, saw two political moments as well. The notable one was a record segment that featured celebrities auditioning for the audio version of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. The recording also showed Hillary Clinton reading excerpts from the book to Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to UN. The skit on Fire and Fury was indeed a unique moment of its kind.
From Kendrick Lamar’s opening performance to Janelle Monae’s statement on #TimesUp, the #Grammys were full of political statements https://t.co/l0WRZ98d7d pic.twitter.com/B46OUVoEVz
— CNN International (@cnni) 29 January 2018
Another heart throbbing exhibit on a political issue came from the Havana singer Cabello emotionally expressed about her Cuban-Mexican origins during the politically charged performance by U2. Bono, the member of the Irish band also said, “Blessed are the shithole countries for they give us American dream.”
“Blessed are the Shithole Countries, for they gave us the American Dream”#Grammys pic.twitter.com/5z3u6L4FBD
— U2 (@U2) 29 January 2018
