Emmy award

The Grammy Awards are making somewhat of a comeback. Sunday’s telecast of the 65th annual ceremony delivered 12.4M viewers across the CBS broadcast and digital platforms, according to fast affiliates. That’s up 30% from last year and the largest audience for ceremony since 2020.

The viewership is a much-needed boost for the ceremony, which brought in just 8.93M viewers last year and had failed to grow meaningfully year-over-year from 2021 to 2022. The 2021 show marked the Grammy’s least-watched iteration ever, which is in line with the hit that every other major awards show took after the start of the pandemic. The 2021 ceremony was one of the first in-person live TV events during the pandemic but was a scaled-down affair with no audience.

RELATED: Grammys: Harry Styles Takes Album Of The Year As Beyoncé Makes History: Complete Winners List

However, this year’s telecast was still a fairly low audience in comparison to pre-pandemic numbers. Just for comparison, the 2020 show earned 18.7M viewers in final numbers while the 2019 edition raked in 19.9M sets of eyeballs.

According to CBS, Music’s Biggest Night also reached its largest live-streaming audience in history across Paramount+ and other CBS digital platforms, up by 33%. On Paramount+ alone, live viewership was up 42%.

Among those who took home trophies on Sunday were Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Lizzo , Bonnie Raitt, Ozzy Osbourne, Kendrick Lamar , Willie Nelson, Adele, Sam Smith & Kim Petras, Bad Bunny and more. See the full winners list here .

RELATED: The Grammys GOAT: Beyoncé Becomes All-Time Champion With 32nd Career Win

Among the performances was a salute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop that included a medley of such classics — performed by many of the originals — as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message,” Run-DMC’s “King of Rock,” LL Cool J’s “I Can’t Live without My Radio,” Salt-N-Pepa’s “My Mic Sounds Nice,” Eric B & Rakim’s “Eric B. Is President,” Public Enemy’s “Rebel without a Pause,” Ice-T’s “New Jack Hustler,” Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y,” Wu-Tang Clan’s “Wu-Tang,” OutKast’s “ATLiens,” Jay-Z’s “Show Me What You Got,” Missy Elliott’s “Lose Control,” Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle.”

Bad Bunny opened the show with a medley “El Apagón” and “Despues la Playa,” Lizzo played a medley from her Album of the Year candidate Special , Styles performed “As It Was,” and Mary J. Blige did her multi-nominated “Good Morning Gorgeous.” Smith & Petras returned to play their Grammy-winning “Unholy,” and Luke Combs did “Going, Going, Gone.” Steve Lacy was joined by Thunderclap to perform his chart-topping smash “Bad Habit.”

RELATED: Lizzo Gives Emotional Grammys Speech, Credits Prince For Inspiring Her & Calls Beyoncé “The Artist Of Our Lives”

Oscars 2022 was the second lowest viewership ever at 16.6M, and it remains to be seen how this year’s ceremony will fare. By comparison, the 2022 Emmy Awards fell to another all-time low , drawing less than 6M viewers. The Golden Globes, which returned to broadcast this year after taking a year off amid the HFPA’s controversy, also sunk to a record low audience with just 6.3M people tuning in.

It was of course Beyonce’s night – making history and becoming the most decorated Grammy artist of all time (although she’s still waiting to win the best album prize despite multiple critically acclaimed and commercially successful records).

Queen Bey’s triumph aside , British pop duo Wet Leg smashed it and took home two awards less than two years after performing their first-ever gig; Viola Davis became only the 18th person in history to nab EGOT status (having an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) and hip hop finally got a moment in the spotlight after being snubbed by the awards for years.

But aside from all that, what else got people talking on the night?

Harry Styles sparkles

He had three costume changes on the night – one of which has been likened to being “sucked into a box of Christmas decorations,” but Harry Styles had the last laugh, winning one of the biggest prizes of the night – best album.

After starting his career working in a bakery aged 14 (W Mandeville bakery in Cheshire if you’re wondering) he has come a long way – helped of course by his worldwide fame earned on X Factor and beyond in One Direction.

While his stint in a manufactured boyband may have helped him become a household name and popular with teenage girls around the globe, it’s never a boon to musical credibility, so to finally nab such a major award is a big deal (he won his first Grammy for best pop vocal performance for Watermelon Sugar back in 2021, but winning one of the Grammy ‘big four’ gongs is on another level).

Taking it all in his stride, Styles said his winning album – Harry’s House – had been “from start to finish the greatest experience” of his life.

Following up on a stellar 2022 (he got nominated for a Mercury Prize and had chunky roles in two films), 2023 looks set to see Styles continue to shine.

Ben Affleck looks bored and Adele gets a surprise

Do we love anything as much as seeing celebrities out and about with fellow celebrities? Like another species entirely, it’s compelling to see how stars from across the showbiz spectrum interact with one another in their own natural habitat – the awards ceremony.

Read more: All the best looks from the red carpet Grammys 2023: Full list of the winners

Adele meeting Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was a thing of joy – leaving her laughing and blushing a year on from fangirling about how great he was.

Host Trevor Noah introduced the pair during his opening monologue, with Johnson appearing from nowhere to hug a delighted Adele and kiss her on the cheek. He later awarded her the Grammy for best pop solo performance.

Meanwhile, someone who seemed less overjoyed to be at the event was Ben Affleck , who despite being beside his new wife J Lo (who seemed to be having a wonderful time), looked somewhat miserable.

He trended on social media after being caught on camera with a blank look that appeared to show he’d rather be anywhere else than at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.

Madonna’s appearance surprises

One of the performances of the night was from history-making singer Kim Petras – who became the first transgender woman to win best pop duo/group (alongside non-binary artist Sam Smith).

But it was the star who introduced her performance to the stage – Madonna – who got people talking.

The 64-year-old superstar, known for her chameleon-like ability to re-invent herself at the drop of a hat – left many fans scratching their heads over her altered appearance, and questioning her ultra-smooth skin and plumped-up cheeks.

Introducing the performance dressed in a floor-length black skirt suit and with her hair in pigtail plaits, Madonna told the crowd: “If they call you shocking, scandalous, troublesome, problem, provocative… or… dangerous, you are definitely on to something.”

Later accepting the Grammy for her duet on Sam Smith’s Unholy, Kim Petras highlighted her status as a transgender woman and paid tribute to heroes like the late transgender singer Sophie and of course Madonna.

Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon was also at the event – having managed to rock up in time – just days after being refused entry to a Marc Jacobs fashion show after arriving late.

Dave Chappelle’s controversial album triumphs

In 2021 his comedy album caused walkouts at Netflix after his special, The Closer, sparked controversy with the comedian being accused of transphobia. This year it’s won a Grammy.

In his show, Chapelle said “gender was a fact” and shared his backing for Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has also attracted criticism for her comments about biological sex.

Despite the backlash, he pipped fellow comedians Louis CK, Jim Gaffigan, Randy Rainbow and Patton Oswalt to the post in the best comedy album category, claiming the fourth Grammy of his career.

The show – which remained available to view on Netflix after the streaming service decided it did not cross “the line on hate” – also had two Primetime Emmy nominations.

Chapelle didn’t come along to collect his award, which was accepted on his behalf by presenter and record producer Babyface.

It’s not the first time a Grammy winner has raised eyebrows. Last year controversial comedian Louis CK (who was also nominated in the category this year) won a Grammy for his album Sincerely Louis CK , despite admitting to a string of sexual misconduct allegations made by numerous women.

The Prince Of Darkness nabs two gongs

His acceptance speech – delivered by producer Andrew Watt on his behalf – was short and sweet – “I love you all and f*** off. Perfectly on-brand for the Prince Of Darkness.

Brummie star Ozzy Osbourne – who took home two Grammys – announced just last week he’d be stepping back from touring due to ill health.

Calling the news “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to share,” he told his legion of fans he was no longer “physically capable” of performing planned shows in Europe and the UK.

The 74-year-old former Black Sabbath singer has had extensive spinal surgery and other treatment over the past four years, after a fall at home in 2019 aggravated injuries he suffered in a near-fatal quad bike crash in 2003. And in 2020, he revealed he has Parkinson’s disease.

He won best metal performance for Degradation Rules and best rock album for Patient Number 9, taking his lifetime Grammy wins to five.

Perhaps the worthiest win of the night

While many were chuffed to see Ozzy get a gong, the real heart-warming win of the night was that of Shervin Hajipour – the Iranian singer who was awarded best song for social change.

The 25-year-old singer was seen wiping away a tear on an online video after he was announced as the recipient of the new special merit award by first lady Jill Biden.

His song, Baraye, which translates as “For” in English, has become an anthem for young Iranians protesting against Iran’s ruling theocracy, which have been sweeping the Islamic Republic for months.

Not at the event, he is currently banned from leaving the country and is on bail facing charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “instigating the violence”, due to the content of his song. If found guilty he could face up to six years in prison.

Reacting on Instagram, Hajipour simply wrote: “We won.” His fans were more emphatic, with German politician Hannah Neumann summing up the mood in her Twitter post: “Beyoncé may have won 32 #GRAMMYs- but this one surely is the most important one this year.”

And possibly the most genuinely shocked Grammy winner in the history of the event

Blues singer Bonnie Raitt may not be a household name – but that didn’t stop her beating Beyonce, Adele, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Kendrick Lamar to one of the most prestigious prizes of the night.

Images of the 73-year-old guitarist looking beyond shocked went viral, as she found out her song Just Like That had taken the prize.

The touching break-up song was inspired by a story of a heart transplant and written in the style of the late singer-songwriter John Prine.

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After getting over her shock, she thanked the voters, saying: “I don’t write a lot of songs, but I’m proud that you appreciate this one”.

Her win marks the first time a song written by a solo songwriter has been victorious since Rehab by the late Amy Winehouse won in 2008.

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Harry Styles accepts the album of the year award for Harry’s House during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Harry Styles accepts the album of the year award for Harry’s House during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The Grammys love to brand themselves as “Music’s Biggest Night,” so it’s fitting that this year’s awards honored so many of music’s biggest names. Beyoncé , Adele , Harry Styles , Lizzo , Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny all took home trophies during Sunday night’s telecast, but some won bigger than others. Here are the storylines and takeaways that dominated the night.

1. The Grammys will have you believe this was Beyoncé’s night.

The star, whose RENAISSANCE was a towering career highlight, did set the biggest Grammy record of them all: With four wins Sunday, she has won the most Grammys of anyone, ever, with 32. In your face, Georg Solti!

But this was Grammy Groundhog Day for Beyoncé: She wins big in specialized categories — in this case ones centered on dance/electronic music and R&B — but gets shut out when it comes time for the general categories. She’s never won album or record of the year (which is to say, the Grammys’ biggest prizes of all) and she was shut out there again in 2023. RENAISSANCE lost album of the year to Harry Styles’ Harry’s House , while “Break My Soul” lost record of the year to Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and song of the year (a prize honoring songwriters specifically) to longtime Grammy favorite Bonnie Raitt and her song “Just Like That.” Beyoncé made history Sunday, but there’s a glass ceiling the Grammys just won’t let her crack.

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2. Expect more talk about Grammy voters.

The Grammys gave out awards in 91 categories Sunday, and in 87 of them, the voters cast ballots in categories that roughly correspond with their areas of specialty. But when it comes time for the Big Four — album, record and song of the year, plus best new artist — everyone gets a say. This system makes a certain amount of sense, but it means the Grammys sometimes go haywire when the general categories roll around: The voting body gets older, whiter and more traditional in its tastes, and that shows in the results.

Virtually no one, including Raitt herself, imagined Bonnie Raitt winning song of the year this year, great as she is. But she’s catnip to music-industry veterans, who’ve now given her 13 trophies, including Album of the Year in 1990. Samara Joy is a wonderful young jazz singer, but her win as best new artist follows a lengthy tradition of the Grammys celebrating pop-friendly jazz throwbacks like Norah Jones . And, though Harry Styles wasn’t exactly a Grammy mainstay before this year, Harry’s House hews much closer to approachable mainstream pop and rock than Renaissance , for example, or Kendrick Lamar’s barbed epic Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers .

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Lizzo celebrates her win of Record Of The Year for “About Damn Time” during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption

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Lizzo celebrates her win of Record Of The Year for “About Damn Time” during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

3. Lizzo’s big win was a major highlight.

The irresistible ” About Damn Time ” was one of 2022’s biggest and best pop songs, and the star’s win for record of the year provided one of the night’s great moments. Lizzo has made a habit of knocking her awards-show speeches out of the park and this win was no different, as she shouted out Prince (an early supporter and major influence) and Beyoncé. The singer has talked often about the doors she’s had to smash down as a plus-sized Black woman who sings of self-love and affirmation. Winning one of the biggest Grammys of them all felt like a welcome coronation, especially given that it’s a category even Beyoncé hasn’t conquered.

4. The sound wasn’t great, but one performance ruled them all.

The night was full of grabby performances, bookended by Bad Bunny and a star-packed DJ Khaled extravaganza. But a medley celebrating 50 years of hip-hop — overseen by Questlove of The Roots — provided one of the most exhilarating performances in Grammys history. This list isn’t comprehensive, but the artists on display included Black Thought , Run-DMC , LL Cool J , DJ Jazzy Jeff , Salt-N-Pepa , Rakim , Public Enemy , Ice-T , Queen Latifah , Method Man , Big Boi , Missy Elliott , The LOX, De La Soul , Busta Rhymes , Grandmaster Flash , Melle Mel , Nelly , Scarface , Lil Baby , GloRilla , Too $hort and Lil Uzi Vert . Every few seconds seemed to bring someone new, but the set never felt enervating or unnecessarily chaotic. There were quibbles — it could have showcased more Southern sounds, Lil’ Kim was in the building but didn’t perform, and so on — but the result was just glorious.

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From left: The Lox, Questlove (rear), City Spud and Too Short onstage during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption

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From left: The Lox, Questlove (rear), City Spud and Too Short onstage during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

5. The “In Memoriam” segment felt more personal than usual.

It’s always fraught to package a year’s worth of music-industry deaths as an awards-show segment: You’re trying to do justice to many lives and careers without cheapening the proceedings with a mawkish performance — or, worse, an applause-o-meter. This year, they tried something a little different, breaking the package into several pieces that prominently highlighted a few of the biggest names. Kacey Musgraves paid tribute to Loretta Lynn by performing “Coal Miner’s Daughter” as various names and faces were shown on a screen behind her. Takeoff, the Migos rapper, was memorialized by his uncle and groupmate Quavo, as well as members of Maverick City Music . And Fleetwood Mac ‘s Christine McVie received a tribute performance by Sheryl Crow , Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood. Those personal ties gave the package added poignancy.

6. The Grammys sure have a curious relationship with country music.

Country was represented through several of the night’s performances – Chris Stapleton popped up alongside Stevie Wonder (!), Kacey Musgraves paid tribute to Loretta Lynn and Luke Combs had the unenviable task of playing right after that amazing hip-hop tribute. But country was shut out of nominations in all four general categories this year, and the country-specific category that did get televised (best country album) went to someone who wasn’t in the room: Willie Nelson won it for the album he’d released on his 89th birthday, A Beautiful Time . (Nelson also won best country solo performance earlier in the day.)

Nelson has been astoundingly prolific in recent years, so it’s easy to lose track of which recordings might rise to the level of “Best Country Album.” A Beautiful Time is his 98th record, an astonishing number that signifies both a world-class career and a need to pay the bills. But Nelson’s wins Sunday also speak to the Grammys’ uneasy relationship with the genre: They love cred-soaked traditionalists like Stapleton, youthful disruptors like Musgraves and venerated legends like Nelson, but they’re not so big on the folks who actually get played on country radio.

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From left: Kim Petras, Sam Smith, Violet Chachki and Gottmik on the red carpet of the 65th Grammy Awards, Feb. 5, 2023 in LA. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption

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From left: Kim Petras, Sam Smith, Violet Chachki and Gottmik on the red carpet of the 65th Grammy Awards, Feb. 5, 2023 in LA.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

7. Sam Smith and Kim Petras scored a major milestone.

It’s hard to believe it was just 2016 when Sam Smith won an Oscar for the James Bond song “Writing’s on the Wall,” a song boring enough to stoke fears that some viewers might still be asleep seven years later. In the time since, Smith has come out as nonbinary and emerged as an almost infinitely friskier stage presence — thanks in part to “Unholy,” their collaboration with German pop star Kim Petras . The pair’s Grammy win, for best pop duo/group performance, was the first by an openly trans artist and the first by an openly nonbinary artist. Petras’s victory speech shouted out Madonna and, more movingly, SOPHIE , the pop innovator who died tragically in 2021.

8. Speaking of milestones…

Okay, so “best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording” doesn’t have the same ring to it as, say, best new artist or album of the year. But the category did make news Sunday, as Viola Davis’s win made her the 18th person ever to achieve EGOT status — that’s Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. She’s won ’em all, which if nothing else softens the blow of her borderline-inexplicable exclusion from the best actress field at this year’s Oscars.

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Viola Davis onstage during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption

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Viola Davis onstage during the 65th Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, 2023 in LA.

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9. Having friends and family introduce the performances made for some sweet moments…

The Grammys tried out a cute twist when introducing many of the night’s performers: They had friends, family members, colleagues and other admirers say a few words to illuminate their personal connections. This meant, for example, that Brandi Carlile was introduced by her wife and two sweet daughters, which made for a lovely scene. The intros were naturally a mixed bag, but the highlights — like the deeply welcome presence of Jayla Sullivan, a contestant on Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls — won out in the end, giving the evening a nice personal touch.

10. …but those fan-roundtable things were a better idea on paper.

On several occasions Sunday night, the Grammys set aside long stretches for roundtable conversations with fans of the artists nominated for album of the year. They were generally “influencers” of one sort or another, and it made a certain amount of sense to incorporate fans into the evening’s proceedings. But… hoo, boy. The Grammys telecast runs nearly four hours, and grinding the show to a halt for those conversations made no sense whatsoever. This is music’s biggest night! Literally hundreds of musicians are right there in the room, eager to perform for our amusement! Show, don’t tell!

Trevor Noah hilariously mocked Prince Harry over one of his most talked about revelations, while hosting the Grammy awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Noah, 38, mocked the Duke of Sussex’s revelation that he had suffered a “frost bitten todger”, which he had included in his newly released autobiography, Spare.

Hosting the 65th Annual Grammy Awards event, the comedian made a cheeky quip at the duke while introducing British star James Corden on stage to present an award – which saw Beyoncé make Grammys history with her win.

Noah said, “James Corden is a 12-time Emmy winner and the host of The late Late Show.” He added, “He’s also living proof that a man can move from London to L.A. And not tell everyone about his frost-bitten todger.”

Noah’s hilarious diss grabbed massive reaction on the internet as social media users commented on the jibe, writing, “A lot of people missed Trevor Noah’s Prince Harry diss and it was funny too.”

“Did Trevor Noah just diss Prince Harry while introducing James Cordon?” added another user.

“Honestly the highlight of the whole ceremony for me,” wrote a third user..

Others argued that Prince Harry would find the joke entertaining, “I’m sure Harry found it funny. He has a good sense of humor,” wrote one fan.