A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
History was made at the Grammy Awards last night.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Beyonce added four more trophies to her collection, bringing her to a record-breaking 32. She won the extra four for her album "Renaissance" but did not win the most prestigious award, album of the year.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Mandalit del Barco is here to explain what happened. Let's start, Mandalit, with Beyonce. What happened?
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: With "Renaissance," Beyonce is now the Recording Academy's GOAT - the greatest of all time.
(SOUNDBITE OF 64TH GRAMMY AWARDS)
BEYONCE: I'd like to thank the queer community for your love...
(APPLAUSE)
BEYONCE: ...And for inventing the genre. God bless you. Thank you so much to the Grammys. Thank you.
DEL BARCO: But, you know, the night was bittersweet for Beyonce. She didn't win any of the big awards - record, album or song of the year. And Beyonce fans will tell you that the Grammys have perpetually snubbed her even as she's racked up these smaller awards.
MARTÍNEZ: So who did get those awards?
DEL BARCO: Well, Adele's "Easy On Me" won for best pop solo performance. And album of the year went to Harry Styles for "Harry's House."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AS IT WAS")
HARRY STYLES: (Singing) Nothing to say when everything gets in the way. Seems you cannot be replaced. And I'm the one who will stay, oh.
DEL BARCO: And record of the year went to Lizzo for "About Damn Time." She dedicated her Grammy to Prince, and she gave a shoutout to Beyonce.
MARTÍNEZ: It's almost like Harry Styles lives in my car, as often as I've heard that song. So what were the biggest surprises?
DEL BARCO: Well, song of the year, which most people had expected to go to Adele or Beyonce or even Taylor Swift - instead, it went to Bonnie Raitt, and that was for a song she wrote inspired by the late singer John Prine. She looked totally flabbergasted, standing with her mouth open for the longest time before she accepted her songwriter award. Best new artist went to 23-year-old jazz vocalist Samara Joy. And J. Ivy, who I profiled for NPR - he won the best spoken word poetry album Grammy, the first ever. Actress Viola Davis - she won for the audiobook of her memoir. And so she's now an EGOT, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, the live performances at the Grammys are usually stuff that everyone talks about the next day. So any standouts this year?
DEL BARCO: Yes, there were. The Grammys are celebrating 50 years of hip-hop this year, a global phenomenon that started when DJ Kool Herc was breaking beats on Central Avenue in the Bronx. LL Cool J introduced producer Andre Young, known as Dr. Dre. He inaugurated the Grammys' new Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, and he accepted by honoring pioneers of hip-hop.
(SOUNDBITE OF 64TH GRAMMY AWARDS)
DR DRE: It started with a song called "The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel."
(CHEERING)
DR DRE: Yeah.
GRANDMASTER FLASH: (Singing) Ha-ha-ha-ha. It's like a - hey - come on. Somebody scream.
(APPLAUSE)
DEL BARCO: Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge. Grandmaster Flash himself took the stage with Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Busta Rhymes, all these OG hip-hop heads and newer ones. For those of us who grew up in the earlier days of New York hip-hop, it was such a nostalgic treat seeing them rocking the mic with emcees scratching the turntables, with b-boys dancing, the tracksuits, the suitcase-sized boomboxes. You know, back in the day, the Grammys didn't respect hip-hop. So this felt like a real moment, you know, till the break of day.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, only took 40 years. That's NPR culture correspondent...
DEL BARCO: Fifty.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Mandalit del Barco. Yeah, 50. Mandalit del Barco, thanks.
DEL BARCO: Sure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SOULS OF MISCHIEF SONG, "93 'TIL INFINITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
