Considered to be one of the most supreme and prestigious events in the music industry worldwide, The Grammy Awards or “Grammys” are awards given to honor exceptionally successful and high achieving music artists in their accomplishments throughout the year. These awards are presented by the Recording Academy of the United States and take place in the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. With categories ranging from “Album of the Year” to “Best Metal Performance”, the Grammys honor up-and-coming throughout the 94 categories seen in the recent 2024 award show. In fact, this year’s Grammys were quite a win for women across all genres of music. With artists including Miley Cyrus and SZA winning numerous awards throughout the night, Tracy Chapman’s outstanding performance alongside country singer Luke Combs, and Karol G and Taylor Swift making history through their wins, it’s safe to say that the 2024 Grammy Awards were filled with significant achievements for female artists.
Dating back to May 4th, 1959, the first ever Grammy Awards were presented by NARAS in Los Angeles, which featured 28 different awards. Since then, the Grammys have grown to become a global sensation for millions of people all over the world. Whether by simply watching the show from home, or by striving to become one of the nominees, the Grammys’ audience has contributed to making the show one of the most well-known music events in history. Significant progress has been made over the years, especially for women, something that has been exemplified in the Grammy Awards that took place on February 5th, 2024.
With the whole world waiting to see if pop artist Taylor Swift would break the world record for most wins for the “Album of the Year” category, America’s anticipation was high that winter night. Winning two awards for both “Album of the Year” and “Best Pop Vocal”, Swift blew the world away by making history for being the first artist to have won four Grammys for her albums. In doing so, the young artist marked a milestone which surpassed the achievements of Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. Swift felt so passionate about the win that she even announced her new album being released on April 19th, “The Tortured Poets Department”. In addition to this, Karol G also made history as the first woman to win a Grammy in the “Música Urbana” category which was introduced three years ago. She delivered a heartfelt speech in which she expressed her gratitude to her fans, promising to “give you my best always.”
The success doesn’t even end there, as numerous other female artists excelled throughout the night as well. Firstly, upcoming artist SZA won two awards for her hard work on her most recent album “SOS”, as well as blowing fans away with her outstanding performance of her song “Kill Bill,” which won the Grammy for “Best R&B Song”. In addition, modern pop artist Billie Eilish won the award for “Song of the Year” (as expected) with her beautifully written song for the 2023 Barbie Movie, “What Was I Made For?”. Another artist who prominently marked the audience and stole the show with both a jaw-dropping performance and two Grammy awards was Miley Cyrus, winning her first ever Grammy for “Best Pop Solo Performance” and “Record of the Year” for her hit song “Flowers”. Cyrus expressed not only her joy of winning a Grammy through her speech, but also her immense excitement to be receiving it from none other than Mariah Carey. Additionally, her performance was truly one to remember, as she really proved how much she deserves the “Best Solo Performance” award through her confidence and engagement on stage. Other female artists including Victoria Monet and Boygenius won numerous awards throughout the night, and artists like Olivia Rodrigo blew the crowd away with their exceptional performances and voices.
Continuing with this year’s performances, one of the main successes of the night had to be Tracy Chapman taking the stage with a beautiful country duet of her 1988 song “Fast Car” alongside Luke Combs. Not only did the song receive a standing ovation, it even had the ability to bring the crowd to tears as Luke Combs’s expressed passion for Tracy Chapman and stood in complete awe whilst singing next to her.
In conclusion, the 2024 Grammy Awards were a huge success, giving numerous well-deserved awards to different artists throughout the event. Though many male artists had impactful performances and wins as well, it’s been made clear that women truly stole the show that night. Whether by making history or winning their very first award, many women walked away with a lot to be proud of, leaving fans worldwide filled with anticipation for what’s to come next in the 2025 Grammy Awards.
Bibliography
“Awards Nominations & Winners.” GRAMMY.com, https://www.grammy.com/awards. Accessed 23 February 2024.
Mendez, Moises. “Grammy Awards 2024: Best and Worst Moments | TIME.” Time, 4 February 2024, https://time.com/6660507/grammys-2024-recap/. Accessed 23 February 2024.
Unterberger, Andrew. “2024 Grammys: Great Award Show But Rap Questions Linger.” Billboard, 5 February 2024, https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2024-grammy-recap-analysis-women-hip-hop-1235598827/amp/. Accessed 23 February 2024.
Zoladz, Lindsay. “Best and Worst Moments From the 2024 Grammys.” The New York Times, 7 February 2024,
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/05/arts/music/grammys-2024-best-worst-moments.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb. Accessed 23 February 2024.