After a year of Bruno Mars’ power collaborations, Femininomenons and a hyper pop-fueled “brat” summer, the Grammys honored last year’s bests in music across a sweeping array of genres and categories. 

The 67th Grammy Awards took place Feb. 2 at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, hosted by comedian Trevor Noah on CBS and Paramount. The ceremony saw star-studded performances by Benson Boone, Doechii, Stevie Wonder and Cynthia Erivo among others along with award presentations throughout the night. 

Amidst the blazing fires in Los Angeles, the show continued as scheduled. According to ABC, the Recording Academy’s affiliated charity MusiCares also donated around two million dollars in emergency relief. The ceremony also honored first responders and raised an additional seven million dollars through on-screen donation prompts during the ceremony.

The Grammys has over 90 nomination categories, ranging from Best American Roots Song to Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. However, the general category and its four main awards are often the most coveted.

Nominees in the general category dominated the industry with their videos, tours, albums, chart performances and cultural impacts. Artists like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan broke out into the pop mainstream with their inescapable TikTok earworms, while other artists continued their legacies of greatness like Beyoncé and her critically acclaimed “Cowboy Carter” release. The plethora of great releases this year definitely made it difficult for the Recording Academy voters to pick, but the top four saw some unexpected results.

After the Grammys, here are the winners for the general category.

• Record of the Year/Song of the Year – “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar

Through rapper Drake’s long-standing feud with Lamar and a heated lawsuit with their record label, it’s clear that Lamar struck a chord with his diss track “Not Like Us”. The track exploded the two’s feud, with Lamar accusing Drake of sexual misconduct and jabbing him with a doxxing scandal by using Drake’s house as the single album cover. This song’s impact was irrefutably huge online, sitting at number nine on TikTok’s US Top 10 Songs of the Summer list.

I think that the song was counterproductive to the beef and the immaturity of both rappers should not be honored with two of the Grammys’ largest awards. 

“Kendrick Lamar did not deserve the win, as ‘Not Like Us’ is a horrible song,” Calvin Bell ‘26 said. “It’s just so overplayed and dumb with bad lyrics.”

The song went face to face with other impactful tracks like Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga’s “Die With A Smile”, which battled Lamar’s track on the Billboard charts in the top 10 throughout the fall. The “Not Like Us” win is expected from its impact, but is disappointing because of the lack of true artistry behind the song.

• Album of the Year – “Cowboy Carter” by Beyoncé

When I think of this album, nothing comes to mind. I don’t really ever think about this album, and the fact that it won Album of the Year is honestly baffling. 

To preface, the album was not bad sonically and it opened important conversations within the country music industry about the inclusion of Black creatives within the genre. However, the album lacked impact within the general music space. 

Beyoncé did win her very first Album of the Year award with “Cowboy Carter”, but her other albums like “Lemonade” and even her more recent release “Renaissance” are more standout and had more impact compared to this album.

“I would say she deserves Album of the Year in the sense that she’s had such monumental pieces, and the Grammys are finally making up for [not awarding her],” Cierra Lorenz ‘26 said. “But in comparison to the artists she was against, I don’t think ‘Cowboy Carter’ deserved the win. Beyoncé did.”

Her accomplishments were significant within the country music space, but not in the mainstream like her competitors. Billie Eilish’s release of “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” came after the singer’s three-year hiatus, but was met with critical acclaim and chart-topping success. Sitting at fifth place on Billboard’s “50 Best Albums of 2024”, the album has sat on top of the charts for 36 weeks and counting. 

Every song on Eilish’s album was masterfully crafted into a story, each track infused with raw emotion across a wide range of genres. Beyoncé’s album has far to go compared to her competitors, which makes her win a little hard to swallow.

• Best New Artist – Chappell Roan

The self-dubbed Midwest Princess has met a series of rises and falls, but her journey to fame is inspiring and one definitely worthy of this award. Roan started her step into the limelight through her involvement with Olivia Rodrigo and their producer Dan Nigro, recording backing vocals for Rodrigo’s album “Guts” and opening for a select handful of shows on the album’s world tour. 

Her infectious cheer chant single “HOT TO GO!” subsequently gained popularity online, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and building a foundation for her next single’s takeoff. According to Chartmetric, “Good Luck, Babe!” exploded across TikTok, amassed over a billion streams on Spotify and flew to number four on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Her work as an artist has also made progress for queer creatives in the mainstream, and worker’s rights in the music industry. I haven’t ever seen a diva with such grandeur and glamour, along with a fervent passion for advocacy in the music industry which makes her win all the better. Chappell Roan is truly one of a kind.

Despite my criticisms and disdain, the Grammys saw a mix of tear-jerking award snubs and jaw-dropping performances which made it all the more entertaining to watch. Sabrina Carpenter paid tribute to old Hollywood and actress Goldie Hawn through a medley of her top hits, and “Wicked” breakout star Cynthia Erivo blew the audience out of this world with a rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon”. Other breakout stars like Benson Boone and Doechii also made their mark on the Grammys, backflips and all.

I will forever lament the loss of Billie Eilish’s Album of the Year award among other snubs, but this year’s Grammys made me excited to see what 2025 has in store for music.