Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for “1989” at the 58th Grammys Awards. It was a historic win: Swift is the first woman to win the award twice for her own album (others won multiple as featured artists), and she pulled it off at the young age of 26. She also holds the record as the youngest Album of the Year champ: she won for “Fearless” in 2009 when she was 20-years-old. (Click here for the complete list of winners.)
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But it wasn’t a sweep for Swift. She had seven total nominations, but only won two other prizes: Best Pop Album and Best Music Video (“Bad Blood“) during the pre-ceremony webcast.
Kendrick Lamar entered the Grammys with a leading 11 nominations, and true to form he left with more wins than any other artist. He won Best Rap Album (“To Pimp a Butterfly“) during the telecast and four more during the pre-ceremony, giving him five total. But like most hip-hop artists, his slew of victories were relegated to genre categories.
As expected, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won Record of the Year for “Uptown Funk,” which also took Pop Duo/Group during the pre-show. A version of the song even took Best Remixed Recording.
Ed Sheeran won Song of the Year for “Thinking Out Loud.” That was the same category where Sheeran earned his first ever nomination in 2012 for “The A Team.” In the pre-ceremony webcast, the British singer-songwriter also won Pop Solo Performance for the song. These were his first career victories.
Even though our racetrack odds were forecasting a battle between James Bay and Sam Hunt for Best New Artist, it was Meghan Trainor who took that prize after her Record and Song of the Year nominations for “All About That Bass” last year. The Grammys have long shown a bias towards solo women in that category, but Trainor’s win snapped a four-year winning streak for male newcomers.
Grammy Awards 2016: Complete list of winners (and nominees)
Alabama Shakes won Best Rock Performance for “Don’t Wanna Fight,” bringing their total for the night to three wins. They also took Rock Song for “Don’t Wanna Fight” as well as Alternative Album for “Sound and Color.” Their only loss was Album of the Year.
Chris Stapleton took Best Country Album for “Traveller,” as expected. Before the telecast he also won Best Country Solo Performance for the title song.
And in a rare showcase for musical theater, the cast of “Hamilton” performed the opening number from the Broadway smash hit before it inevitably won the award for Best Musical Theater Album.
Photo credits: Taylor Swift by REX; Kendrick Lamar by NBC
