The 66th Annual Grammy Awards, recognising outstanding talent in the music industry and honouring the best creative achievements in songwriting, recording, and composing, was held on February 4th, 2024 for the period of 2022 to 2023. Presented by the Recording Academy of the United States and popularly (and fondly) called the Grammys, they are one of the Big Three networks' major music awards held annually.
History of the Grammys
The Grammys originated from the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s, as a way to honour many of the music industry’s people who would not get a Walk of Fame star on Hollywood Boulevard despite their achievements. In a bid to come up with something similar to the Oscars or the Emmys for the industry, the Grammys were created.
The name for the awards, which was heavily debated, was finally decided by a mail-in contest with approximately 300 participants. The name that came to be–the Grammys–was decided so in order to honour Emile Berliner's invention, the gramophone, and thus, the Grammys were first awarded in 1958.
The awards began to be aired live only from the 13th annual edition of the Grammys in 1971.
The 66th Grammy Awards
The 66th annual awards were held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, USA, and were hosted by famous comedian and writer Trevor Noah. With nominations being announced on November 10th, 2023, SZA had the most nominations with a whopping nine nominations. Hazel became the youngest nominee in Grammy Awards history, having been featured in her mother, Victoria Monét’s song Hollywood.
With a total of 94 categories, many major categories were awarded to women in the industry. Phoebe Bridgers won the most awards with four Grammys. While Miley Cirus won ‘Record of the Year’ (and ‘Best Pop Solo Performance’) with Flowers, Taylor Swift’s album Midnights won the award for ‘Album of the Year’ and ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’. ‘Song of the Year’ was won by Billie Eilish for What Was I Made For? and Victoria Monét was honoured with ‘Best New Artist.’