The 68th Grammy’s took place Feb. 1. Hosted by five–time consecutive host Trevor Noah at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the Grammy Awards featured a different array of performances, artists, shout-outs, awards and speeches. While many awards were expected some were more shocking than others.

Awards

This year, 95 awards were given in a wide range of different recorded material. These awards at the Grammys were given for many records released in eligibility year of Aug. 31, 2024 through Aug. 30, 2025.

There were many notable winners including, Bad Bunny winning Album of the Year, Best Música Urbana Album, for his sixth solo studio album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Bad Bunny also gained an additional award for Best Global Music Performance with his song ‘EoO’.Kendrick Lamar won Best Rap Song with ‘tv off‘ and Best Rap Album with his most recent album ‘GNX‘. He also won two additional awards — Record of the Year and Best Melodic Rap Performance with the song ‘luther‘ featuring SZA. That night, Kendrick surpassed Jay-Z with the rapper with the most Grammy awards. Additionally, Olivia Dean won Best New Artist, becoming a first-time Grammy winner. Best Pop Vocal Album went to Lady Gaga for Abracadabra, and Best R&B Performance and Song went to Kehlani for ‘Folded‘.

The most notable win was Billie Eilish — after previously not winning any awards for her album ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft,’ she won Song of the Year with her song ‘Wildflower‘. Many fans were overjoyed with this since most believed she was most deserving of the wins from previous 67th Grammy awards. In my opinion, I was happy she got the award and was just so glad it didn’t go to ‘Golden‘ by Huntr/x , the K-pop group featured in the hit movie, “Kpop Demon Hunters.” While it’s a good song, it didn’t really hit like the other nominations did.

Olivia Dean, for many people watching online, were surprised on her win for best new artist, but honestly it was well deserved. Her music is so unique and her voice has soul that can’t be ignored. While, yes, I wish Leon Thomas received the award, Olivia Dean absolutely crushed it this year with her music.

Another surprising turnout was Tyler, The Creator not winning any major music awards but winning Best Album Cover. It’s understandable that it would be hard to compete with Kendrick Lamar since he earned many awards from his album previously, but all the hype with Tyler, The Creator’s performance, to him winning Apple Artist of the Year, just really made me and many fans think he would at least win something for Chromakopia or Don’t Tap the Glass.

Performances

There were many grand performances at the Grammy’s with the nominees for Best New Artists all having a small bit of time to perform some of their biggest hits. I thought that this was so smart, especially showing off each nominee and each artist giving the world their reason to be a sensation. However there were two performances that didn’t quite hit the mark everyone was hoping for. Addison Rae performed ‘Fame is a Gun‘, a song popular on TikTok, and while it was a very captivating, visually appealing dance performance, she sounded out of breath the entire time, which is obvious when you’re doing a lot of movement for a song. Addison Rae has a great voice, but I don’t think it was the smartest idea to perform something where you can’t showcase that.

Right after, girl group KATSEYE performed ‘Gnarly‘, which got a lot of mixed feelings online. Some people loved it while some wished they performed their other hit ‘Gabriela‘. I honestly agree — while I know most were performing their best song and what made them significantly popular, it was a lot of stuff we’ve seen them do before. Like Addison Rae, these singers sounded shakey, or they weren’t singing much. But, Katseye also had a lot of great dancing and it’s something a lot of Gen Z is familiar with.

The other performances were more notable with Bruno Mars performing ‘APT‘ with Rosé. While I don’t like the song, it was definitely a very captivating and amazing performance that caught my attention when I first tuned into the award show. Bruno also went on to perform his latest single ‘I Just Might‘, and it was one of my favorite performances of the night. It was so groovy and such a vibe, and it got my family and I up and dancing. I’m so excited for his album and this performance really solidified that for me.

While different, Lady Gaga’s performance of  ‘Abracadabra‘  was still pretty cool, especially the arrangement she did live and also the camera movements. I wish she danced a bit more, but I understand she just got off of tour and has done many amazing performances before, so I can’t expect her to perform 100% all of the time.

Tyler, The Creator performing ‘Thought I was Dead‘ was one of my favorites I’ve seen him done in awhile. He didn’t just cut out all of the profane lyrics for the Grammy’s — instead, he changed them and made a whole different meaning to the song. He called out people who were trying to cancel him from previous posts and his career in general. He didn’t perform his most popular song on the album, but an underrated one that I enjoy. After that song, he went on to do a mini skit with American actress and director, Regina King, which is something that shocked me and many people. From her usual hiatus from the screen there’s been speculation of her returning to the big screen in the near future. Tyler then went on to perform ‘Sugar on my Tongue‘ from his latest album ‘Don’t Tap the Glass’. This was a really cool performance to see him do and sing along to.

Speeches

Throughout the night, there were many impactful speeches from artists after receiving their award. After receiving his first award for best Música Urbana album, Bad Bunny started his statement with “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say: ICE out.” This was in response to the significant increase of arrests by the U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and enforcement operations. From ICE their were many highly controversial shootings including the death Minnesota resident Renée Good, along with arrests of immigrant children. Recent demonstrations around the U.S. have started up where these protesters oppose aggressive ICE activity. Bad Bunny, after called out multiple times and criticized him not being ‘American’. He then follows his first statement how people shouldn’t be seen as “savages,” “animals,” or “aliens” and that they are humans. He gave a statement emphasizing empathy and love over hate.

Following his win, British singer Olivia Dean used her moment after winning Best New Artist to talk about her immigrant heritage, nothing she is a “product of bravery” and that immigrants deserve to be celebrated. Billie Eilish, after winning Song of the Year, walked on stage with an “ICE OUT” pin, worn by many attending the award show, and used most of her speech to condemn immigration enforcement. She spoke about how “No one is illegal on stolen land” and emphasized the need to continue to speak up and keep protesting. Kehlani also spoke out on ICE after her win with Best R&B song for ‘Folded’. She ended her speech with “Together, we’re stronger in numbers to speak against all the injustice going on in the world right now… I’m gonna leave this and say, f*** ICE”. The Grammy’s became a moment where several artists through acceptance speeches and symbolism, used the visibility of the event to highlight concerns about ICE and showed their support for immigrant communities — something I thought was very important to have been shared at this moment.

On the flip side of speeches, Grammy host Trevor Noah took a lot of shots towards President Donald Trump poking fun at Nicki Minaj not attending the Grammy’s because was at the White House with President Trump, also doing an impression. Later in the broadcast, he made a satirical joke about Donald Trump and Greenland connecting to Jeffery Epstein’s island, and the rumor of the President’s relationship with Bill Clinton, stating “That is a Grammy every artist wants, almost as much as Trump wants Greenland… because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton.”(Noah). This got a lot of reactions from the crowd and while it is his last time at the Grammy’s, he certainly didn’t go without stirring the pot.

Tributes

There were three amazing tribute performances to the artists, performers, directors and musicians we lost in 2025 and started the night’s performances with Reba McEntire with her first ever performance joined by Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson performed “Trailblazer“, a very somber and calm song featuring all of the artists behind her. After was a tribute performance to the ‘Prince of Darkness’, Ozzy Osborne, and many other artists like band KISS singer Ace Frehley. This performance was done by veteran rock instrumentalists Slash and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses. They were also joined by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and producer Andrew Watt who did a cover of “War Pigs.” Joined was also singer, Post Malone, who did the vocals for the performance. It was one of my favorite performances of the night and truly electrifying. The last performance was a tribute to R&B singers D.Angelo and Roberta Flack, one that truly shook many fans to the core. Lauren Hill lead the tribute with many singers like Bilal, Lucky Daye, Leon Thomas, Raphael Saadiq, Jon Baptiste and Anthony Hamilton. I think my favorite part of this performance was “Killing me Softly,” a cover by Lauren Hill that resonated with me.