Every year countless musicians await the time of the year when musicians comes together to recognize those who have made a large impact in music during the year. Every artist’s dream is to receive a Grammy Award and even to be nominated is  considered an honor. Some people don’t like award shows, but it is the one enormous time to acknowledge talented people and their contributions to the fine arts. The Grammys help secure the continuation of music in America.

Hosted by James Gordan, this year’s Grammy Ceremony opened with Adele’s hit song “Hello.” Last year everyone talked about the technological issues that happened with Adele.  This year, however, Adele blew it out of the water and nailed the song completely, making a great opening for the 59th Grammy Awards. Host James Gordan made fun of himself for being nervous for his first time hosting the Grammys. He pretended to flub up his entrance by falling down the stairs. Quite the grand entrance. Jennifer Lopez, being the first presenter, made an inspirational speech speaking out about how music binds everyone together and that everyone’s voices should never be silenced in the face of injustice. She then presented the  Best New Artist.

Below is a list of the winners and a recap of this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony.

Best New Artist (bold=winner)
Kelsea Ballerini
The Chainsmokers
Chance The Rapper
Maren Morris
Anderson .Paak

Directly after the first award, “The Weekend” and “Daft Punk” performed “I Feel it Coming” which was wonderfully performed. After their performance, Nick Jonas presented the next award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Closer” The Chainsmokers Featuring Halsey
“7 Years” Lukas Graham
“Work” Rihanna Featuring Drake
“Cheap Thrills” Sia Featuring Sean Paul
“Stressed Out” Twenty One Pilots

As “Twenty One Pilots” accepted their award, they decided to accept it without any pants on, saying that when Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun were younger they both vowed that if they ever won a Grammy they would accept it without pants… and that’s what they did. James Gordan directly after made a jab at “Twenty One Pilots” and then announced the next performance without any pants on as well. The “Chainsmokers” presented Best Rock Song.

Best Rock Song
“Blackstar” David Bowie, songwriter (David Bowie)
“Burn the Witch” Radiohead, songwriters (Radiohead)
“Hardwired” James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, songwriters (Metallica)
“Heathens” Tyler Joseph, songwriter (Twenty One Pilots)
“My Name Is Human” Rich Meyer, Ryan Meyer & Johnny Stevens, songwriters (Highly Suspect)

The Best Country Solo Performance
“Love Can Go To Hell” Brandy Clark
“Vice” Miranda Lambert
“My Church” Maren Morris
“Church Bells” Carrie Underwood
“Blue Ain’t Your Color” Keith Urban

Best Urban Contemporary Album
Lemonade Beyoncé
Ology Gallant
We Are King KING
Malibu Anderson .Paak
Anti Rihanna

During a tribute to the recently deceased George Micheal, Adele, singing Michael’s song “Fastlove,” again suffered technical difficulties. However, she stopped and asked to begin all over. She told the audience that she owed it to Michael to sing his song right.

Best Rap Album
Coloring Book Chance The Rapper
And the Anonymous Nobody De La Soul
Major Key DJ Khaled
Views Drake
Blank Face LP ScHoolboy Q
The Life of Pablo Kanye West

Song Of The Year
“Formation” Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Beyoncé Knowles & Michael L. Williams II, songwriters (Beyoncé)
“Hello” Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Adele)
“I Took A Pill In Ibiza” Mike Posner, songwriter (Mike Posner)
“Love Yourself” Justin Bieber, Benjamin Levin & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Justin Bieber)
“7 Years” Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard & Morten Ristorp, songwriters (Lukas Graham)

The one performance that caused a buzz throughout social media, besides Beyoncé’s performance about motherly compassion, was from the group, “A Tribe Called Quest.” Their message was a rebuke of  President Trump. in their song, they called him “agent orange.” They then broke through a foam wall symbolizing the border wall Trump plans to build. The song also contained commentary about Trump’s unconstitutional Travel Ban. Pushing it even further,in the song, the group continually listed off all the groups of people  Trump’s Administration has discredited. When the song ended Bust a Rhyme  shouted “resist” over and over again to the audience.

When the Grammy Awards were coming to a close, Neil Portman, President of the Academy, announced to the audience that as singular group of people, everyone must continue to support music and the spread of it across the country. He said that music is the one commonality that will never divide people and it doesn’t matter about race, religion, or sexuality, or any other difference, for that matter, for someone to like music. He called for everyone to #supportmusic.

The last two awards of the night were record of the year and album of the year.

Record Of The Year
“Hello” Adele
“Formation” Beyoncé
“7 Years” Lukas Graham
“Work” Rihanna Featuring Drake
“Stressed Out” Twenty One Pilots

Album Of The Year
25 Adele
Lemonade Beyoncé
Purpose Justin Bieber
Views Drake
A Sailor’s Guide To Earth Sturgill Simpson

The 2017 Grammy Awards were a star-studded and music-packed event. Not all awards were presented during the show, but took place at an earlier time.  To see the full list of winners, click here.