Olivia Rodrigo has won the best new artist crown at the Grammy Awards, joining esteemed previous company including Carly Simon, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tom Jones, the Beatles and Billie Eilish.
A veteran of the High School Musical series, Rodrigo became the breakout music star of 2021, leading with her massive viral hit Drivers License and following with the aching album Sour and the single Good 4 U.
So far on Sunday, Drivers License has earned her the trophy for best pop solo performance, and it is up for record of the year, while Sour is up for album of the year.
Rodrigo came into the night nominated for the night’s top four awards — best new artist, album, record and song of the year — but lost the best song trophy to Silk Sonic.
“This is my biggest dream come true,” she said.
Silk Sonic — the all-star union of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak — opened the Grammys in Las Vegas with their high-energy, infectious fix of retro soul and funk by performing their 777.
They returned to the stage a short time later to collect the song of the year trophy for Leave the Door Open.
By the time the show started on CBS, Jon Batiste has already taken home four Grammy Awards during the show’s pre-telecast ceremony, including his first ever.
Batiste, who lost in four other categories, entered the Grammys as the leading nominee with 11 nominations.
Dressed in all black, BTS took the stage with a flirty moment between V and Rodrigo before the group performed their hit single Butter.
Foo Fighters won three awards, but were not in attendance to pick up their trophies following the recent death of its drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The rock band did extend their record for most best rock album wins with five for Medicine at Midnight. The group’s song Making a Fire won best rock performance and Waiting on a War bested other nominees for best rock song.
During Eilish’s performance, she paid homage to the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins by sporting a black T-shirt with his image.
She stepped onstage in an upside-down house along with her brother Finneas before stepping into the rain to perform the title track from her Happier Than Ever.
TJ Osborne, who came out as gay last year, fought back tears as he and his brother accepted a Grammy for the Brothers Osborn song Younger Me. He noted the song was inspired by his coming out.
Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson won his sixth Grammy for best music film through Summer of Soul. His documentary also won an Oscar for best documentary feature last weekend.
Chick Corea and Vicente Fernandez each won posthumous Grammys. Joni Mitchell won best historical album for Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967).
Eilish could become the first artist ever to win record of the year three times in a row, and the only artist along with Paul Simon to take home the award three times.
She’s in position to join Adele as the only artists to ever win three major categories — record, song and album of the year — twice. She previously won for Bad Guy and Everything I Wanted.
The ceremony shifted from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because of rising COVID-19 cases and the omicron variant in January, with organisers citing “too many risks” to hosting the performance-filled show at the time.
Tony Bennett extended his record as the artist with the most traditional pop vocal album with 14 wins with “Love for Sale,” a duet album with Lady Gaga.
