Feb. 5 (UPI) — Beyoncé set a new record for most Grammy wins of all time Sunday with her 32nd award.
The milestone came with the announcement of the award for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for Renaissance. It was her fourth win of the night.
Beyoncé thanked her family for loving and pushing her, as well as the queer community “for your love and for inventing the genre.”
She also won the second award of the night, for Best R&B Song for “CUFF IT,” as well as two preshow awards for Best Traditional R&B Performance for her song “Plastic Off the Sofa” and Best Dance/Electric Recording for “Break My Soul.” She wasn’t able to accept the second award in person because she was delayed by traffic.
Beyoncé led the night’s nods with nine.
Harry Styles kicked off the 65th annual Grammy Awards, winning the first award of the night.
Accepting the statuette for Best Pop Vocal Album for Harry’s House, Styles called working on the album the “greatest joy I could’ve asked for.”
“This album, from start to finish, has been the greatest experience of my life,” Styles said.
He also won the biggest award of the night, Best Album for Harry’s House.
“On nights like tonight it’s obviously so important for us to remember that there’s no such thing as ‘best’ in music,” Styles said in accepting the award. “I don’t think any of us sit in the studio thinking what is going to get us one of these.”
Styles later performed his hit “As It Was,” atop a spinning stage similar to the one in the music video for the song. “As It Was” was also nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Fellow Brit Adele won Best Pop Solo Performance for her song “Easy On Me.” She dedicated the award to her son, Angelo. The win extends her record for most wins in the category at four.
Singer Lizzo won Record of the Year for “About Damn Time.” She dedicated the honor to Prince, saying she vowed to make positive music after he died in 2016.
Earlier in the night, Lizzo performed the hit along with her song “Special.”
Singer Bonnie Raitt said she was “so surprised” when presented with Song of the Year for “Just Like That.” First lady Jill Biden presented the award to her.
Raitt also performed with Sheryl Crow and Mick Fleetwood during the In Memoriam segment. They sang Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird” in tribute to Christine McVie. Country star Kacey Musgraves played Loretta Lynn‘s guitar to pay homage to the legend with her song “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” And Quavo also sang his tribute to the late rapper Takeoff, “Without You,” accompanied by the Maverick City Music choir.
Bad Bunny opened the show’s performances with “Después de la Playa,” leading a parade of dancers down the aisles at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, who then broke out into a dance party both on stage and in the audience.
He later picked up the award for Best Musicá Urbano Album for Un Verano Sin Ti.
Host Trevor Noah, in his opening monologue, called Bad Bunny’s performance “absolutely incredible!”
“You know, every time I listen to him, I get hips I never knew I had,” Noah said.
In a unique moment, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile‘s wife, Catherine Shepherd, and their two daughters, Evangeline and Elijah, introduced her before her performance of her hit “Broken Horses.” The song won two awards at the Grammys preshow earlier Sunday, for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.
She also nabbed the award for Best Americana Album for In These Silent Days.
Also known for her work in country, Carlile expressed shock at winning in the rock categories. She said her band had its roots in rock, noting that bandmates, Phillip John Hanseroth and Timothy Jay Hanseroth, had never played acoustic before joining with her.
Country legend Willie Nelson won Best Country Album for A Beautiful Time, but wasn’t in attendance to accept the award.
Best Duo/Group Performance went to Sam Smith and Kim Petras for “Unholy,” making the latter the first transgender woman to win in the category.
“This song has been such an incredible … journey for me,” Petras said, thanking Smith for their support.
The two performed the song later in the evening with appearances by RuPaul‘s Drag Race winners Gottmik and Violet Chachki, plus an introduction from fellow “controversial” pop star Madonna.
Kendrick Lamar took home Best Rap Album for his album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers and jazz singer Samara Joy won Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile.
During the pre-show event actor Viola Davis earned EGOT status after winning the Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Record. She received the award for narrating her autobiography Finding Me. She now has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
Davis is one of 18 people who have ever obtained EGOT status, joining the ranks of Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.
Davis called the accomplishment “such a journey.” She won her first Tony Award in 2001 for King Headley II and a second in 2010 for Fences. She won a Primetime Emmy in 2015 for How to Get Away with Murder and an Oscar in 2016 for the film production of Fences.
“Oh my God,” she said during her acceptance speech. “I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, her everything.”
Rapper Kendrick Lamar, who earned the second-highest number of nominations at eight, also picked up his first award of the night during the preshow, Best Rap Performance for “The Heart Part 5.”
Stevie Wonder performed a medley of songs by Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, who were named the Recording Academy’s MusicCares people of the year. The Motown hits included “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Tears of a Clown” and even Wonder’s own “Higher Ground,” which was recorded with Gordy’s Motown Records in 1973.
Country star Chris Stapleton joined Wonder’s performance on guitar.
The Recording Academy presented rapper and producer Dr. Dre with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award for his philanthropic work. He noted that the award came on the 50th anniversary of hip hop, which was marked with a medley performance by several legendary hip hop artists, including LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, Wu-Tang Clan, Ice-T, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, Nelly and Questlove.
“Where would a lot of people be without hip hop, be honest?” Dr. Dre asked while accepting his award.
Other performances for the night included Mary J. Blige singing “Good Morning Gorgeous;” Steve Lacy with “Bad Habit” and Luke Combs with his song “Going, Going Gone.”
DJ Khaled, Rick Ross and Jay-Z closed out the night with “God Did.”
