The most anticipated night of the year has just concluded, and here’s the rundown! Music lovers and enthusiasts were gifted with albums, singles, music videos and live performances from many artists this past year. Because of all the buzz around the possible winners for this year’s Grammys, many were either disappointed or content with the award outcomes, leaving us wondering – did music’s biggest night meet our expectations or fail them?
If you’re new this year, here’s some history: winners are selected in 25 categories, and more than 75 awards are held by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. To be eligible for a Grammy, an artist’s music and music video must be released in the United States between October 1st of the previous year and September 30th of the given Grammy year. There’s a total of 94 categories all with different titles, some being the more popular musical ones, others being technical as well as lifetime achievements. I’m here to highlight the main categories that made all of America tune in for the highly anticipated winners of the 2025 grammys.
To start the night off strong: Dochiei won best rap album of the year for her album “Alligator Bites Never Heal” released August 30th 2024. Well deserved award for her catchy 19 song album. Her most viral song from this album is “DENIAL IS A RIVER” which she then went on to perform later on in the night. During her speech Docheii proudly emphasized, “Three women have won: Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and Dochiei.” This inspirational and moving movement the audience was glad to share with the uprising rapper sensation.
One of the most awaited categories this year was Best Pop Vocal Album. A tough category with 5 competitive nominees. A tight race between well known artists like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, and Chappell Roan. Sabrina Carpenter ended up winning the well deserved award for her summer phenomenon album, “Short and Sweet”. Her hit album was blasting on every radio station and streaming skyrocketed in only the first week out. Before her award, she performed her two most popular songs, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”
Best New Artist, a tight race that had fans fiercely debating who deserved to win. Chappel Roan took home the grammy and used her acceptance speech to bring awareness to the music industry not properly helping and supporting innovative artists like Roan. After cordially accepting her award, Roan said, “I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially to developing artists” (Chappell Roan).
Kendrick Lamar sweeped Record, Song, and Best Rap Performance of the year with his hit Drake diss track, “Not Like Us.” The feud between the two stars has been going on for months now and because of it, fans are getting both sides of the story through song. With Lamar’s song “Not Like Us” being the biggest hit, he then went to perform this at the 2025 superbowl. Both these awards had fans satisfied but also confused as to why he won best record as well as best song considering the two are fairly similar. According to Vox, what separates the two, “Song of the year honors the songwriter. Record of the year is given to the performing artist, the producers, the sound engineers, the master engineer, and the song mixers…instead of thinking of ‘record’ as a physical, spinning record, think of it as the product of a recording studio” (Troilo and Mckinney).
Beyoncé’s unexpected win being best country album and album of the year award left country fans disappointed and pop album enthusiasts shocked. This is the iconic singer songwriters first (long awaited) album of the year grammy. Although all musicians and fans were happy for Beyoncé, fans expected and hoped for Billie Eilish’s album “Hit Me Hard And Soft” and Taylor Swift’s album, “The Tortured Poets Department” to bring home the album of the year award. Many Country fans argue Beyoncés “Cowboy Carter” album is not real country. A controversial win but an overall proud moment for Beyoncé and her lifelong legacy.
Considering this unexpected win, let’s dive into the most important award of the night, the facts and controversy of why “Cowboy Carter” deserved to win as well as why it didn’t. The most popular streaming platform, Spotify, uncovers the most stats on albums when they were released and further throughout the year. For example, Beyoncés “Cowboy Carter” album surged up to the 8th most streamed album in the world after the Grammys; there was a 795% increase compared to the day prior before the grammys. This stat highlights the impact and popularity that the Grammy awards have on artists albums and careers. The award sheds light on an underrated or overrated album or artists. Although Cowboy Carter won, Taylor Swift made history as the first album in Spotify to have over 300 million streams in a single day, the most streamed album in a day in 2024. This left many Swifties and fans to wonder why Taylor didn’t win. Did they want to take the spotlight off over her and shine it on an underrated legend? Considering Taylor’s big splash in the music and entertainment industry over this past year, it’s understandable how the academy would want to shine the spotlight on Beyoncé, especially considering she has never won Album of the Year while Swift has won it four times. While understanding this point, we can also speculate that awards shouldn’t be given for reasons such as who won before and who hasn’t; instead, they should focus more on the album and its streaming stats.
Despite the controversy and competition, all of these amazing artists who’ve shaped today’s music supported and lifted each other up and took the night to come together and appreciate fellow artists and musicians. And with that, the 2025 Grammys comes to an end. We’ll see what next year has in store!
