The Grammys are one of the most exciting ceremonies of every award season. The recipients that the Recording Academy select to win their awards carry significant weight beyond a simple popularity contest. The four main awards, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year are relegated to the most contentious debates.
This year, 26-year-old British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean, was awarded the coveted Best New Artist Grammy against a stacked category consisting of breakouts stars including Lola Young, Alex Warren, Leon Thomas, and Addison Rae. Upon examination of her contemporaries, it is clear to see why Dean was chosen. While Rae might be the best choice for a VMA, Dean’s calmer lyric-driven jazz-influenced soul pop is what critics of Dean would call “Grammy-bait.”
The Record of the Year award was also highly competitive, with all songs being huge mega-hits that any casual radio listener or department store-goer would know by heart. Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” winning this award comes as no surprise. When announcing the winner for Record of the Year on stage, a 79-year-old Cher excitedly exclaimed “Luther Vandross!” While the soul legend passed away in 2005, Vandross’ 1982 hit with Cheryl Lynn “If This World Were Mine” is sampled on the record. Later, on the red carpet, SZA commented on Cher’s mishap, “Of course, her brain and her energy is connecting that energy to the energy that we’re sharing,” she continued, “We’re mooching off of what Luther already gave us, so we’re grateful. I wish I could speak to him. Thank you, Luther.”
Onto Song of the Year, Billie Eilish took the award home for her song “Wildflower.” Admittedly a beautiful record, this win came as a shock to many due to the fact that this record was released on her 2024 album “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” which was notoriously ignored at the 2025 ceremony. Eilish was allowed into this category on a technicality, although the song is nearly two years old, it was rereleased as a radio single in February 2025, coinciding with the Grammys’ cut-off date. Fairness aside, Eilish’s “Wildflower” is a suitable winner of Song of the Year, written and performed in an almost transcendent arrangement that is unlike anything else on mainstream pop radio.
Finally, the biggest award of the night, Album of the Year. Bad Bunny’s win before his performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Similar to Beyoncé’s wins for “Cowboy Carter” at the 2025 Grammys, Bad Bunny’s goes beyond whoever might be the most trending on TikTok or has the most Spotify monthly listeners. The significance of the Academy rewarding this fully Spanish sung unapologetically Hispanic piece of art about Puerto Rico, nostalgia, resilience against gentrification, and cultural pride is an intentional and meaningful statement on their part.
“DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” is the first primarily Spanish language album to win Album of the Year, a well overdue milestone for a language spoken by roughly 65 million Americans. Latin artists have shaped the American music industry for decades, from Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, Marc Anthony, Celia Cruz, to Ricky Martin, Selena Quintanilla, and Enrique Iglesias. His win is on the backs of those who contributed heavily to the industry but were never recognized. On stage, Bad Bunny spoke in Spanish, thanking God, the Recording Academy, and his mother before stating, “Hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
