Taylor Swift gave the world all the drama it needed for the night when she called out Kanye West in her Album of the Year acceptance speech Monday, in retaliation to the rapper’s claim in a song that he made Swift famous.
The singer warned her young female audience people will try to “undercut” them and their work, but to stay strong and focused on the loved ones who helped you achieve success.
On Monday night, LL Cool J hosted the 58th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The show brought viewers tons of surprising wins, snubs and, of course, drama.
One of the biggest surprises of the night was the all-around snub of Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s soundtrack hit “See You Again” from the film “Fast and Furious 7.” The tribute to Paul Walker scored three Grammy nominations but missed out on Song of the Year, Best Pop Duo/Group and Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” won Song of the Year – another surprise win.
But Stephanie Latko, a freshman graphic design major, said she was happy to see Sheeran finally pick up a win.
“I have loved that song forever and he is such a talented musician,” she said. “He really deserved to win.”
When Sheeran’s win was announced, cameras panned to Taylor Swift’s reaction rather than focusing on Sheeran.
Billboard’sJody Rosen and Carl Wilson both considered Sheeran’s song to be a weaker nominee, as they predicted Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” to win the Song of the Year award.
Swift did win Album of the Year for 1989. Rosen gave the upper hand to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly,whileWilson predicted The Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color would win over Swift.
Isabelle Bertino, a freshman biological studies major and lifetime Swift fan, said she rejoiced when Swift’s album took home the biggest award of the night.
“I’m excited that Taylor Swift won Album of the Year. Her new style with 1989 has totally changed the way I look at her, but I love it all the same,” Bertino said.
The Alabama Shakes scooped up three awards for Best Alternative Music Album for Sound & Color and both Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for “Don’t Wanna Fight.”
As she collected the award, Brittany Howard, lead singer of the Alabama Shakes, said, “Thanks so much, this is beautiful and I promise we’re going to keep going.” The band also performed “Don’t Wanna Fight” later on during the show.
The Weeknd entered the night with seven nominations and received two Grammys, both of which were awarded during the non-televised portion of the show.
One was awarded for his song “Earned It” from the soundtrack to “Fifty Shades of Grey” – the only award the film would take home, despite being up for five awards.
Drake went into the Grammys with five nominations, but the Toronto native failed to win any of the awards he was nominated for.
Kendrick Lamar was nominated for a whopping 11 awards and took home five, failing to score the top prize of Album of the Year.
His Grammys included a shared award with Taylor Swift for their music video for “Bad Blood” as well as Best Rap Song “Alright” and Best Rap Album To Pimp a Butterfly.
This is a large improvement from last year, when he received none of the awards he was nominated for.
One of the biggest flubs of the night was the highly anticipated performance from Adele.
People flocked to Twitter to complain about the poor sound quality of her performance. Her audio engineers messed her piano and couldn’t fix it in time, so she proceeded to sing almost her whole performance out of key.
Afterwards, Adele tweeted, “The piano mics fell on to the piano strings; that’s what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune. Sh*t happens.”
The show also includes several tributes to legendary artists.
John Legend, Demi Lovato and Luke Bryan paid tribute to Lionel Richie by performing some his hits from his solo career and his work with The Commodores.
Lady Gaga stole the show with her tribute to David Bowie, who died of cancer in January. She performed a mashup of some of his most famous songs. Twitter blew up within seconds of her performance, with viewers expressing love for the tribute to the rock icon.
Reese Witherspoon tweeted “@ladygaga that #Bowie tribute gave me chills #GRAMMYS.”
Dave Grohl and The Hollywood Vampires, who played their first televised performance, paid tribute to the late rock star from Motorhead Lemmy Kilmister.
The band’s frontman died last year at the age of 70 after losing his battle with cancer. They performed a rendition of a famous song “Ace of Spades” as well as debuting their original “As Bad As I Am.”
Perhaps the most heart-warming tribute of the night was when Jackson Browne and the remaining members of The Eagles played “Take It Easy” as a tribute to their late friend and musician, Glen Frey.
The Eagles were then awarded a Grammy for “Hotel California” that they didn’t accept back in 1977.
Terry Cook, a freshman German and international trade major, was happy to see The Eagles take home an award for possibly their most well known song.
“This is an event that should’ve happened over 30 years ago when the legendary song came out,” he said. “They’ve deserved it for a long time and I’m just happy to see them finally receive it.”
The Grammys was filled with surprises and drama. But, despite all that happened, expect to see Swift’s clap back at Kanye as the biggest headline of the night.
Max Kalnitz is an arts staff writer and can be reached at arts@ubspectrum.com.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
