Last Updated on February 5, 2023 by Scott Shetler
It’s time for the 2023 Grammys! We’ve made our predictions, and the show is ready to start. Trevor Noah is hosting for the third straight year, while performers include Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, and Brandi Carlile.
I’ll be here all day, live streaming both the afternoon pre-telecast and the show itself. Keep refreshing for the latest updates.
3:30 pm
The Blind Boys of Alabama open the pre-telecast with Cheche Alara and the Grammy Premiere Band, with a rousing performance of “I Just Want to Celebrate” featuring a number of guest vocalists.
3:37 pm
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason is energetic and enthusiastic about the upcoming festivities. Eight hours from now, if Beyonce doesn’t win Album of the Year, I have a feeling he’ll be in a very different mood.
3:49 pm
After 19 minutes, we have our first winner. Encanto wins for Best Soundtrack, beating Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick. Encanto also wins for Best Score, beating The Batman and No Time to Die.
3:58 pm
The first noteworthy categories are announced, and Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” has won Best Dance Recording. That’s her 29th career Grammy, breaking a tie with Quincy Jones. She now sits 2 behind the all-time leader, the late conductor Georg Solti.
They didn’t announce Best Dance Album, which means it will be presented on the air tonight. That’s a pretty good clue that Beyonce will be in attendance, because the Academy would have no reason to televise that award without her.
4:14 pm
Best New Artist nominee Samara Joy takes the stage for a wonderful rendition of Nina Simone’s “Can’t Get Out of This Mood.” The Grammys love them some traditional jazz. Will she take over the Natalie Cole role as the popular jazz singer who gets invited back to the Grammys year after year?
4:21 pm
Samara Joy wins Best Jazz Vocal Album and gets a huge ovation. She wins over the audience further with an endearing speech about her journey from The Bronx to the Grammy stage. Yep, she’ll be back at the Grammys again. Many, many times.
4:28 pm
So much for Diana Ross winning her first Grammy ever. Michael Buble instead captures the Traditional Pop Album category. It’s his fifth career win in the category. He also beat out Kelly Clarkson and Norah Jones.
🎶 Congratulations to @violadavis for becoming an #EGOT today!
✨ She won GRAMMY Gold for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording – “Finding Me” https://t.co/OuKk34l332 #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/9U5AOQLR7l
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 5, 2023
4:32 pm
“I wrote this book to honor the six-year-old Viola. To honor her joy, her life, her drama,” Viola Davis says as she accepts Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording. This win makes her the 18th EGOT winner in history. She’s now won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.
4:35 pm
Jimmy Jam announces that Muni Long has pulled a big upset over Beyonce for Best R&B Performance. But Bey wins Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa.” That’s award number 30 in her career.
4:37 pm
Steve Lacy nabs a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album. He’s in the running for Record of the Year tonight, so he was expected to take this one.
Meanwhile, Robert Glasper wins Best R&B Album in a minor upset over Mary J. Blige. By the way, how the hell is Chris Brown still getting nominated for awards like this?
4:40 pm
No surprise as Kendrick Lamar wins Best Rap Performance for “The Heart Part 5.” He also wins Best Rap Song, which goes to the songwriter.
Drake, despite his dislike of the Grammys, wins another one for “Wait for U” with Future and Tems for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
4:45 pm
Best Rock Performance goes to Brandi Carlile’s “Broken Horses.” She shows up at the pre-telecast ceremony and expresses surprise that she’s won a rock award. She wins again for Best Rock Song.
She’s up for seven awards tonight, and she has a really good chance to win Album of the Year tonight.
Ozzy Osbourne takes home two awards in the Metal and Rock fields, giving him five career Grammys.
4:53 pm
Critics’ darlings Wet Leg win Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Lounge.” They beat heavy hitters Arctic Monkeys, Big Thief, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Florence + the Machine.
More significantly, Wet Leg also wins Best Alternative Album, beating out Bjork and denying her the chance to win her first ever Grammy after 15 losses. She’s now 0 for 16.
5:13 pm
Rosalia’s Motomami wins Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album. The only question is why it’s not nominated for Album of the Year.
5:25 pm
Best Country Solo Performance goes to 89-year-old Willie Nelson, beating Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert. Best Country Duo or Group Performance goes to a shocked Carly Pearce (it was her first nomination) and Ashley McBryde, who has to take her time getting to the stage in a barely-there dress.
6:10 pm
Malcolm Jamal-Warner has been presenting a bunch of classical and opera awards. I’m amazed he hasn’t been canceled yet, given his constant defense of Bill Cosby in the last several years.
6:29 pm
Bonnie Raitt wins Best Americana Performance for “Made Up Mind,” a great song which fortunately received Academy recognition. This is her 11th career Grammy. She immediately wins #12 when “Just Like That” takes Best American Roots Song.
“Thank God for the Americana format. We straddle all these genres, and finally have a home,” Raitt says.
Raitt is beaten out for Best Americana Album by Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days. Carlile has 3 awards already tonight.
6:46 pm
Lin-Manual Miranda is the only one who can beat Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish at the same time. Best Song Written for Visual Media goes to “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto.
Taylor Swift’s 10-minute “All Too Well” wins Best Music Video.
Tobias Jesso Jr. wins the first Grammy ever given for Songwriter of the Year, while Jack Antonoff wins again for Producer of the Year.
8:19 pm
We’re into the real Grammy show now. Bad Bunny and Brandi Carlile opened with spirited performances, but both were nearly impossible to hear because of the hideous sound mix. The echo at the Crypto.com Arena is unbearable, and it’s killing the mix. The audience can’t even hear the vocals clearly. This is really bad, and they need to fix it quickly.
8:21 pm
Harry Styles wins Best Pop Vocal Album. That wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it’s still wild seeing Adele lose any category at the Grammys.
8:27 pm
Why are they giving us a roundtable of random people commenting on the nominees? Who wanted this? Who thought it was a good use of time?
8:31 pm
Beyonce ties the all-time Grammy record with her 31st career win, as “Cuff It” takes Best R&B Song. She’s not here to accept, though. Trevor Noah reassures us that she’s stuck in traffic. It’s just as likely that she’s waiting to make her dramatic entrance when she gets win #32.
8:40 pm
Can’t even focus on the show right now because of the awful sound mix. Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, two legends, deserved better than that atrocious sound mix.
8:45 pm
Sam Smith and Kim Petras win for “Unholy,” a historic moment for Kim as the first openly transgender artist to win a Grammy. She gets a standing ovation as she gives thanks. Sam is content to stand back and let Kim have her moment.
9:05 pm
Lizzo performs “Special,” a great song from a great album. Lizzo will probably get overshadowed tonight by Beyonce, Harry, Brandi, and Adele, but she deserves a ton of credit for her album.
9:09 pm
Bad Bunny gets his Grammy for Best Musica Urbana Album. He probably won’t win Album of the Year, so the Grammys did the right thing by televising this category to get him some recognition.
9:19 pm
Beyonce is in the building! Hopefully she takes home Album of the Year, and we can all live happily ever after.
Meanwhile, Harry Styles is singing “As it Was.” This would be a great performance if the vocals sounded right, but the sound quality issue isn’t going away. Credit to Harry for saving himself when he almost tripped off his circular platform.
9:30 pm
Kendrick wins Rap Album of the Year. That was the easiest call of the night. Mr. Morale wasn’t the masterpiece that his previous efforts were, but he’s a Grammy favorite now, so he’s going to win regardless.
9:47 pm
The “In Memoriam” segment is always tricky, but they pulled it off nicely this year by having actual superstars – Kacey Musgraves, Quavo, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt – perform songs in honor of those who died last year.
9:54 pm
Ah, now I get why they’re including the “fan roundtable” segment – they want to talk up each of the Album of the Year nominees, so people won’t be as mad if something other than Renaissance wins. That’s actually kind of a clever move to cover their backs if the big award doesn’t work out as planned.
9:55 pm
Sam Smith and Kim Petras perform “Unholy” after a welcome introduction from Madonna in which she thanked all the rebels and rulebreakers of the world.
10:05 pm
Beyonce has officially set the record with win #32, as Renaissance takes home Best Dance / Electronic Album.
10:26 pm
Here’s the much-anticipated performance in honor of hip hop’s 50th anniversary. Run DMC, LL Cool J, Salt N Pepa, Public Enemy, Ice T, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Nelly, and many more take the stage and take us back all the way to rap music’s early days.
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but the audio quality once again crippled the performance, as performers’ vocals were buried deep in the mix behind the music. The amount of talent on that stage was incredible. It could’ve been an all-time Top 10 Grammy performance. If only it had sounded good.
10:48 pm
Adele wins Best Pop Solo Performance for “Easy on Me.” That’s not a huge surprise – I predicted that one – although many observers thought Harry Styles would take it. This could be her only win of the night, so it’s nice that she won something.
11:06 pm
Jill Biden is onhand to announce Song of the Year, and it goes to Bonnie Raitt. In retrospect, we should’ve seen this coming. Americana artists who blur the lines between rock, folk, and country often do well in the Big Three categories.
11:14 pm
Lizzo wins Record of the Year for “About Damn Time.” That’s a big surprise, as most had thought Beyonce, Harry Styles, or Adele would take the trophy. She gives an incredibly exuberant speech that even has Beyonce cheering.
11:32 pm
As predicted earlier, Samara Joy is now immediately a Recording Academy favorite. She wins Best New Artist over Maneskin, Wet Leg, Latto, and many others. Expect to see her at the Grammys at least 5 times in the next 10 years, since the Grammys love their jazz.
11:39 pm
The final big award of the evening, Album of the Year, goes to Harry Styles. Exactly as we predicted, Beyonce got her record of 32 Grammy wins, but she failed again to win Album of the Year. Can’t wait to read the discussion tomorrow on Twitter!
Thanks for following along with our Grammy live stream blog!
