Every Single Thing Happening at the 2025 Grammys

Doechii just became only the third woman to win Best Rap Album, for her astounding mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. Adding to the perfect moment: Cardi B, the last woman to receive the honor, presented it to her. And Doechii’s mom got to stand by her daughter’s side for her speech.

“She’s so Disney Channel” —Zoë Haylock
“Screenshot of her next to Hugh Grant going stage to stage in Paddington 2 ASAP” —Devon Ivie
“Sabrina giving French mime” —Jason P. Frank
“Sabrina back to Broadway when” —Dee Lockett

This being the fifth time he’s hosted, Trevor Noah is an old hand Grammys host at this point. Still, this year’s ceremony — arriving after weeks of historic wildfires devastating the show’s host city of L.A. — necessitated he take a different tack. Rather than jumping straight into jokes as usual, Noah began the show with a sentimental tribute to L.A.’s music and the city’s resilience. But with that out of the way, Noah was able to get to business as usual.

Standout jokes included a joke about Beyoncé’s genre-spanning talents (“André 3000 better watch out, next year she’s coming for that flute throne”) and one about the Beatles nomination song being completed with A.I. (“Who knows? Through the power of A.I., we could even get a new Rihanna album.”) He even lightly referenced the political climate, joking about Trump’s new tariffs and hostility towards immigration (“I’m going to enjoy tonight, because this might be the last time I get to host anything in this country.”) It was awkward at times because of the unamused looks of the people around him, but the whole thing was expedient and utilitarian, which is the best a Grammys host can hope to be.

Roan showed up in archival Jean Paul Gaultier, from his spring 2003 couture collection, adorned with Degas dancers.

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

The 23-year-old Twitch megastar says he has permission to stream all night from on the ground, which means we’ve already watched him do the following:

–Lose the ability to speak in front of his biggest fan’s dad
–Yell at Playboi Carti (indirectly) to drop his album
–Beef with veteran hip-hop journalist Elliott Wilson (but also call a truce)
–Ignore Don Lemon (fair)
–Accuse The Shade Room of being the feds (fair)
–Lose his mind in front of the newly-freed Vybz Kartel

Thousands of protesters shut down the 101 freeway ahead of the Grammys Sunday afternoon. According to the LA Times, they were marching against the Trump administration’s draconian anti-immigration policies. Protesters gathered in DTLA in the morning, and marched from noon to 4 p.m. PST. Anyone heading for the Crypto Dot Com Arena from the Valley had to find an alternate route.

One of the great Grammy gaffes of the ‘70s and early ‘80s was neglecting to shine a light on epochal strides in Caribbean music until the introduction of the Best Reggae Album award in 1985, four years after legendary Bob Marley died. In 2001, Marley — a political dynamo and international ambassador for reggae, dub, and ska music — finally collected a Lifetime Achievement Award. But his last shot at winning for a song was “Turn Your Lights Down Low” with Lauryn Hill, which lost to a B.B. King and Dr. John duet at the same ceremony. Tonight’s win for the soundtrack to last year’s widely panned Bob Marley: One Love is a fun silver lining. If we could get the establishment to stop squishing so many genres into the one award, when rock and folk and country artists have flurries of splinter categories to submit to, maybe we’d be cooking.

Mid-interview with legendary hitmaker Babyface, an Associated Press reporter appeared to completely lose all interest in talking to him after spotting Chappell Roan in the background. “Chappell! Chappell!” she cut him off to flag her down. (The hosts later apologized.) Can Chappell ever escape a red carpet without causing a stir?

For Best Rock Album and Best Rock Performance, respectively.

Well, with the four-time nominee’s performance not deemed main-show-worthy, I’d go on strike too. The singer-songwriter performed her TikTok-viral hit “Made for Me”during the Premiere Ceremony and, as many pointed out, fumbled a few notes. When she won Best R&B Performance for that same song moments later, her voice appeared to go in and out. Sadly, that also meant no more publicly shaming Atlantic Records, with their execs likely in the room.

For the first time ever, a woman has won Best Metal Performance at the Grammys. Opera singer Marina Viotti shared in the win for “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca ira!),” the song she performed with Gojira at the summer Olympics. (It’s also the first win for French titans Gojira.) The trophy has been one of the most testosterone-fueled in Academy history — a woman hadn’t even been nominated until 2021 — but this year, three women were nominated.

Who needs the CMAs anyway? Beyoncé is officially a country Grammy winner, earning Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus. It’s now the fifth genre she’s won in, along with R&B, rap, pop, and dance/electronic. This is Bey’s only country-field recognition for Cowboy Carter so far, after losses in Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Song. But she’s still in contention for Best Country Album, to be presented during the main show tonight.

The Grammys Premiere Ceremony yielded the first spin of the Recording Academy improbability matrix: A cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1971 Record and Song of the Year winner “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by awards-show gospel-segment closers Cox and Adams; Beninese French icon Angélique Kidjo; TV and now musical theater’s Wayne Brady; blues vet Taj Mahal; and, for some reason, Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying.

It’s hard to stuff all 94 categories into the main show, which is why each Grammys Sunday begins with the pre-telecast, a three-hour midday ceremony where most of the year’s winners are announced. The 2025 edition is being hosted by Song of the Year nominee Justin Tranter (“Good Luck, Babe!”). You can watch the event before the event below; we’ll be updating the winners list over here.