Worst Grammys Ever? Counting Down the Least Impressive Grammy Shows in History

Was this the worst Grammys ever?! Seemingly every year, voices on social media ask the question whenever someone they like doesn’t win, or when they don’t care for some of the performances.

Pop music fans are notoriously fickle, and when their favorites lose, they sometimes lash out and question whether the Grammy Awards telecast has reached a new low.

Similarly, aging rock fans who aren’t in touch with current music often believe they are watching the worst Grammy Awards in history — if they bother watching at all.

The answer is always: No, this wasn’t the worst Grammys ever.

But I was curious… what’s really the worst Grammy Awards show in history? Is there one specific year where everything went wrong at music’s biggest night?

Most articles like this suffer from recency bias, but as one of the few people on the planet who has watched all 60+ Grammy broadcasts in their entirety, I’m ready to provide an educated look at the contenders for the title of “worst Grammys ever.”

Worst Grammys Ever? Forget Recent Years

Here’s the truth: None of the Grammy broadcasts in the past 20 years are anywhere close to being the worst Grammys in history.

Modern Grammy shows have close to 20 live performances, so even if a few are bad, many others can make up for it. Contrast that to the ’70s and ’80s, when the Grammys had sometimes as few as 7 live performances. There was much less margin for error then.

Every show in the 2000s has at least a handful of brilliant live performances, and a number of deserving winners. Even if the Recording Academy chooses a few questionable award winners, that doesn’t invalidate the rest of the show.

For every bad performance these days, there are three good ones. For every questionable Album of the Year winner, there are other awards being given to the artists who truly deserve them.

So, despite the social media outrage that appears in some corners of the internet nearly every year after the Grammys air, there are simply no Grammy Awards shows from the 21st century that qualify as the worst ever.

The Three Worst Grammy Awards Shows

What makes a bad Grammy broadcast? To me, a bad Grammy show is when there’s a lack of star power, the performances aren’t memorable, few legendary artists win major awards or make appearances, or there’s an unexpected failure, like a technical malfunction or an uninspiring host performance.

In studying the nearly 70 years of Grammy broadcasts, very few years had this combination of unfortunate factors. Most shows were at least mediocre. It’s hard to find one that was outright bad. 

But I’m dedicated to this exercise. So here are the three years that I believe could be reasonably considered among the worst Grammy broadcasts of all-time.

3. 1981 Grammys

Aside from a powerful “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Patti LuPone, the performances from the 1981 Grammys were nothing to write home about. Aretha was here, but she did a song (“Can’t Turn You Loose”) that isn’t remembered.

Country music was given an unusually large amount of airtime, with Barbara Mandrell, the Oak Ridge Boys, and George Jones all getting performance slots. They’re all good artists, but they didn’t play any of their most enduring songs.

The Grammys decided to do a medley of the five Song of the Year nominees. Great idea! Except they chose to have the songwriters perform, instead of the actual recording artists. That’s how we got anonymous names like Amanda McBroom, Fred Ebb, John Kander, Dean Pitchford and Michael Gore performing on the Grammy stage.

Best New Artist Christopher Cross became the first artist to sweep all of the Big Four awards thanks to “Sailing,” one of the most critically-reviled soft pop songs of the era.

Also, Paul Simon hosted, and sadly, the gifted singer-songwriter was one of the more awkward and least energetic hosts in Grammy history.

2. 1982 Grammys

Are we seeing a theme here? The early ’80s were kind of a no-man’s land musically. It was after the peaks of punk rock and disco, but before the ’80s superstar explosion of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and Springsteen. Thus, for the second straight year, the Grammys were a dud.

The performances at the 1982 Grammys were unmemorable. The two best moments were Rick James’ funky “Give it To Me Baby” and the Oak Ridge Boys’ twangy “Elvira.” The most rocking performance of the night was actually Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” which is saying something.

Otherwise, some potentially great moments were cut short. Lionel Richie did “Endless Love,” but it was only a partial song, and without Diana Ross. Bill Withers was only given 100 seconds to do an abbreviated version of “Just the Two of Us,” leaving viewers wanting more.

There was a lengthy gospel music segment, and while the Grammys have had some terrific gospel segments over the years, this wasn’t one of them. 

The award winners were kinda meh as well, except for John Lennon’s posthumous Album of the Year win. Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” took Record and Song of the Year. It’s an underrated pop song, but one that gets little airplay anymore. 

The male, female, and group Pop awards — usually three of the most superstar-heavy categories — went to Al Jarreau, Lena Horne, and the Manhattan Transfer.

Just a thoroughly blah show all the way around.

1. 1977 Grammys

The 1977 Grammys can be summed up by the massive technical issues during Stevie Wonder’s performance of “Sir Duke.” 

Wonder performed live via satellite from Nigeria. Such a cross-continental live shot was ambitious at the time, and it didn’t work out. The video feed was ok, but the audio kept cutting out, even after repeated attempts. 

During the confusion, host Andy Williams, in one of the more notorious Grammy hosting gaffes, asked, “Stevie, can you see us?,” temporarily forgetting that Wonder is blind. The whole incident was so bad that the Grammys have never posted it anywhere, and it’s impossible to find clips from it online.

Once again, superstar acts were limited to brief cameos. The Jackson Five were given all of 45 seconds to sing a silly song about presenting a Grammy. Gladys Knight & the Pips were given 60 seconds to do teases of two of their biggest hits. 

Wild Cherry could have stolen the show with the lively “Play That Funky Music,” but for some reason, the band lip-synched to the record.

The best that can be said about some of these performances — Natalie Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Barry Manilow, Starlight Vocal Band — is that they were fine. 

The best performance of this mediocre show was a mere two-minute instrumental guitar duet from Chet Atkins and Les Paul. 

We rank 1977 as having one of the weakest groups of Record of the Year nominees. George Benson won Record of the Year for a mundane cover of “This Masquerade.” Manilow’s so-so “I Write the Songs” won Song of the Year for composer Bruce Johnston. 

There just wasn’t much star power outside of Wonder, who was on the other side of the globe. That makes the 1977 show the worst Grammy Awards ever.

Other Years That Weren’t Great

Here are a few more Grammy shows that weren’t great, but didn’t quite reach the level of “worst of all-time.”

1966

One of the earliest Grammy Awards shows (it was called The Best on Record then), the 1966 broadcast featured a whole lot of names who were big in their day, but aren’t necessarily viewed as legends today, such as Petula Clark, the Anita Kerr Singers, Jody Miller, and Robert Goulet.

Exceptions were Tony Bennett and Duke Ellington, who are both GOATs. But their duet was only a minute and a half long. 

In terms of the awards, the Grammys were still overlooking rock & roll acts like the Beatles. The Fab Four did finally get nominated for Album and Song of the Year, but lost to Frank Sinatra and Bennett. 

Bob Dylan was also famously snubbed, receiving zero nominations and not appearing on the show, despite releasing some of his most important music of his career during this time.

1972

Here’s another show light on star power. Sure, BB King and Tammy Wynette each performed, but they didn’t do their most iconic songs. Three Dog Night did a poorly lip-synched version of “Joy to the World.”

The Godspell Broadway musical was given two performance numbers. Jerry Reed, Freda Payne, and the Bill Evans Trio were among the other performers. 

What saved this show were the outstanding number of award winners, including Carole King for Tapestry, Isaac Hayes for “Shaft,” and Aretha Franklin for her cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Deserving artists like Loretta Lynn, James Taylor, and Quincy Jones also took home trophies.

1993

If you were a fan of tepid ballads or shallow country dance crazes, the 1993 program was made for you. This was the year of “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Tears in Heaven,” and “Beauty and the Beast” — and they all got live performance slots. 

The show was redeemed, though, by better performances from Arrested Development, kd lang, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers with George Clinton — plus Michael Jackson making an appearance to accept the Grammy Legend Award.

1995

The show had some good performances — Springsteen, Salt N Pepa, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etherdidge, Rollins Band — but also had some weird moments.

The 1995 Grammys saw Tony Bennett win Album of the Year at age 71, which was widely viewed as an embarrassment and caused the Grammys to change their rules the following year. 

The first award of the night went to Pearl Jam, leading Eddie Vedder to say to an incredulous audience, “I don’t know what this means… I don’t think it means anything.”

At one point, Bonnie Raitt’s band wasn’t quite ready for their performance, so host Paul Reiser had to kill time for two minutes by making up a nonsense story about BB King’s dentist.

The closing performance could’ve been great. Soul crooner Luther Vandross teamed up with Crosby, Stills & Nash to sing “Love the One You’re With.” But halfway through the song, the show abruptly ended. 

Graham Nash later said this was due to David Letterman’s new contract, which stipulated that his program could not begin late for any reason. So CBS chose to cut off the Grammys mid-song instead.

2009

If I have to pick the worst Grammys of the 21st Century, it would be the 2009 show. While Radiohead, Kanye, and Paul McCartney were highlights, many of the other superstars were forced into collaborations, in a misguided attempt to artificially create “Grammy moments.” 

Stevie Wonder was forced to sing with the Jonas Brothers, perhaps the worst of his many Grammy performances. Al Green had to sing with Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban. Adele had to sing with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles. 

Beyond that, U2 performed one of their most unremarkable songs, “Get On Your Boots.” Taylor Swift sang “Fifteen” with Miley Cyrus, but Swift had yet to reach the peak of her live performing abilities. Kid Rock and Kenny Chesney were both pointlessly given individual performance slots.

And the big winners weren’t anything special. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss took home both Album and Record of the Year.

What do you think is the worst show in Grammy history?

Last Updated on April 27, 2026