“Can we take a minute and make some noise for the city of f–king angels,” the Grammys‘ Premiere Ceremony host Justin Tranter demanded while opening up the show on Sunday (Feb. 2) in Los Angeles.
As commanded, the crowd cheered for the Grammys’ longstanding city of residence, and the duration of the show — which eventually moved from the Peacock Theater to Crypto.com Arena next door for the main telecast — gave significant love and airtime to L.A., where wildfires decimated entire neighborhoods in early January. The disaster prompted the cancellation of many Grammy parties and related events, but the awards show itself persevered, nodding to the disaster and corresponding relief efforts many times during the telecast while also functioning as a fundraiser and, of course, providing many non-fire related moments that emphasized music’s power to thrill and uplift.
The atmosphere backstage was essentially a facsimile, with artists finding a deft balance between celebrating their wins while acknowledging the awards happening in the wake of a major natural disaster. Even the commercial breaks included stars such as Doja Cat, Anderson .Paak and Avril Lavigne appearing in ads with local L.A. business owners.
But of course, the Grammys also went big on what it always aims too accomplish — celebrating the year’s biggest songs and artists with the awards and showcasing huge, glitzy performances from some of the world’s biggest stars. Even back in the press room, journalists were cheering as artists such as Doechii and Benson Boone electrified the stage.
Throughout the busy, jubilant and occasionally tear-jerking night, Billboard was positioned on the red carpet, backstage and in the audience to report on all things behind the scenes. Read on for everything you didn’t see on TV.
2:32 p.m. PT: “Never get into a rap battle with Kendrick Lamar,” says Sean Lennon, offering a word of advice to the Premiere Ceremony audience and livestream viewers while accepting the award for best boxed or special limited edition package for his work art directing Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection), the 1973 album by his late father, John Lennon. (Even at this early hour Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has already won Grammys for best rap performance, best rap song and best music video.)
2:50 p.m. PT: Lennon then accepts the best rock performance award on behalf of The Beatles, who won the award for “Now and Then,” with Lennon acknowledging the band and making a request. “It’s really incredible if you think about it, man,” he told the Premiere Ceremony crowd. “The Beatles have done so much incredible work and they’re still in the culture … and as far as I’m concerned, its the greatest band of all time. … Play The Beatles to your kids. The world can’t afford to forget about people like The Beatles. We need the peace and love of the ’60s and we need the magic to stay alive.”
3:00 p.m. PT: Backstage in the press room, Norah Jones reflects on her best traditional pop vocal album win for Visions, which comes 22 years after her album Come Away With Me swept the 2003 Grammys, winning for album of the year, record of the year, best female pop vocal performance, best pop vocal album and Jones winning best new artist. “I’m really grateful that I still have a job,” Jones says while reflecting on this accomplishment backstage. “This business is crazy, so I’m just really happy to make music that I love and that people listen to still. It’s special. [Winning those early awards] was exciting, it was crazy though, and I was so young. I really, definitely, probably appreciate this even more.”
3:12 p.m. PT: Backstage, Anderson .Paak reflects on playing the massive FireAid benefit concert that took place two nights ago to raise money victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. “It was awesome to be a part of an epic lineup and to unite the city and provide some much needed aid for the people who need it,” the son of SoCal says. “I loved playing in the Forum. I was able to bring out the big homie Dr. Dre, the big homie Sheila E. and with my band The Free Nationals — it was one of the greatest nights for sure in L.A.”
3:17 p.m. PT: Jason Carter, the grandson of late President Jimmy Carter, reflects on his grandfather’s posthumous win for best audio book, narration and storytelling recording for his Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration. The project features recordings from President Carter’s final Sunday School lessons delivered at Maranatha Baptist Church, in his hometown of Plains, Ga.
“He was such an enormous music fan,” Jason Carter said backstage in the Grammys press room after accepting the award on behalf of his grandfather, who died in December at age 100. “He loves the creative aspect of music, it’s an important part of his political life and an important part of his personal life. He was an artist in many ways himself. He was an author, he was a painter … so he really appreciates the aspect of the Grammys that recognizes creativity.”
3:35 p.m. PT: St. Vincent cradles the three Grammy awards she’s won during the Premiere Ceremony. When asked how she plans to celebrate, she says, “My sister is in town and we’re going to make the night ours, and probably be in bed by 10, if all goes well.”
She’s then asked about the representation of LGBTQ+ people at the Grammys, to which she responds: “There have always been queer people in the history of the world and especially in music, so I think there’s a bunch of queer people being celebrated this year especially. Of course it’s great. Empathy and humanity, let’s go.”
She also discloses that holding the three awards at once is making her biceps burn.
4:01 p.m. PT: In the press area, Sean Lennon is asked about “the burden” of carrying on the legacy of his father, John Lennon. “It’s not a burden,” the younger Lennon responds. “It’s honestly a great privilege for me. I just feel so lucky that I get to do good by my dad. It feels like a privilege as his son to be able give back. He gave the world so much, and he gave me so much and I just feel really honored to be able to do justice by him.”
4:57 p.m. PT: Celebrating her best R&B performance win for “Made for Me (Live on BET),” Muni Long reflects, “For me, moments like this are just a reminder that when you do what’s in your heart, you win no matter how much resistance you encounter, no matter how many opinions people might have, you have to be authentic, because that resonates with people.”
5:19 p.m. PT: Percussion legend Sheila E., who won an award for best global music performance for “Bemba Colorá” featuring Gloria Estefan and Mimy Succar, shares about temporarily evacuating her home during the L.A. wildfires. “I was one of the fortunate ones,” she says. “It was very, very close to my house. I had to evacuate the night of the fires … and the first thing that I took — because I had evacuated that area before — and this time I put all my music, all my hard drives in bins so I could carry them down the stairs by myself if I had to, and I just took my music, a pair of pajamas, a pair of sweats, and I left.”
5:25 p.m. PT: While speaking to the press after winning for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella, John Legend discussed the recent wildfires in Los Angeles and the broader occurrence of climate change-related disasters. “We’ve had floods in this country, we’ve had hurricanes in this country, and what I love to see is when all of us realize that our neighbors, our fellow countrymen and women are struggling and suffering, and we all come together and help each other out,” Legend says.
“L.A.’s going through it now, and folks around the country and around the world are going through it in other ways,” he continues. “A lot of it is due to climate and heightened disasters and the strength of these storms and winds … I think more than ever, we’re going to have to come together and support each other in these times. It’s L.A.’s turn right now, but we’re going to have to return the favor for other communities and other cities and states as they go through the same things. Hopefully, we’ll be there for each other, and we’ll all do the best we can to think long term about climate change and how it’s affecting all of us, and we’ll do the things we need to do as a society to help mitigate the damage.”
6:10 p.m. PT: Brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith of the band Dawes step backstage to discuss their show-opening performance of Randy Newman’s 1983 anthem “I Love L.A.” “We’ve never been nominated; we’ve never even been here,” says Taylor, “so for us this is just such a whirlwind of thinking [the Grammys] have never been a part of our journey, to going to the show and playing onstage. It’s a wild thing about how our childhood dreams could meet up with an opportunity to help our communities at such a tragic moment.”
7:22 p.m. PT: Inside the venue, Beyoncé — who has just won for best country album and attended the show with husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy — is escorted back to her seat just before a tribute to late genius Quincy Jones. The medley features Cynthia Ervio and Herbie Hancock performing “Fly Me to the Moon,” Lainey Wilson and Jacob Collier doing “Let The Good Times Roll,” Stevie Wonder and Hancock performing “Blusette” and “We Are the World” and Janelle Monáe singing “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.”
7:38 p.m. PT: After winning for best rap album and putting on a jaw-dropping performances of “Catfish” and “Denial Is a River,” Doechii arrived backstage and said the performance was one of the most difficult she’s ever done. “I really felt I needed to push myself harder than I ever have before,” she told the journalists assembled, who’d cheered when she entered the room. “It meant everything to me to prove myself tonight, to me, and so it was about Broadway and theater and art, and I think I brought that to the stage.”
8:35 p.m. PT: Backstage, SZA, whose “Saturn” has won for best R&B recording, is asked if she can reveal any secrets about her upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show special guest appearance with Kendrick Lamar. “Mm-mm,” she says, politely declining. “That’s King Kendrick’s performance, and all I can say is that he’s working really hard on it.”
She’s then asked what her future plans are in terms of not being “placed in a box” of R&B. “I don’t really think I’m actually really placed in a box,” she says. “I think these are the parameters in which I’ve been honored this evening, and I’m grateful for that, and I think within all the parameters I’ve been honored, regardless of the label, I’m grateful to have gotten the award, the but that’s not the point. The point is the reach, and the impact, and the experience I’ve had creating music.”
