On Sunday night, the 61st Grammy Awards telecast did its best to balance several requirements — making amends to an entire gender, widening its palette of winners and honorees, and doing its best to award those who are affecting the mainstream now, not five years ago. Within the narrow lens of prime-time awards shows, it seemed to make some progress on each count, without drifting too far from its comfort zone.
Kacey Musgraves won the night’s top honor, album of the year — her fourth trophy of the evening — for Golden Hour (which also won country album of year). Childish Gambino won record and song of the year for his epochal “This Is America” (which also won best music video) but did not attend the ceremony.
Other major awards were given to Cardi B, who received the prize for best rap album for her debut solo effort Invasion of Privacy and Dua Lipa — who, seconds after performing alongside St. Vincent, was named best new artist (and pointedly observed that women must’ve really stepped up over the past year). Drake surprised everyone by showing up to accept the gramophone for best rap song. (You can find our complete list of winners here.)
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