Women thoroughly dominated the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, with a history-making album of the year win by Taylor Swift and victories by Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, SZA, Lainey Wilson, the Colombian pop star Karol G and the band boygenius.
The wins capped a year when women were extraordinarily successful in pop music, and also signified a change for the Grammys, which have frequently been criticized — as recently as five years ago — for overlooking female artists on the show.
In addition to the wins, the show featured powerful performances by SZA, Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and even Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman — two godmothers of modern songwriting who have made only rare public appearances in recent years.
In taking album of the year for “Midnights,” Swift became the first artist to win the Grammys’ top prize four times, beating a trio of male legends — Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon — who had three.
While accepting the award Taylor Swift described the moment as the best moment of her life.
“I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love, for me the reward is the work.” She said.
Eilish, along with her brother, Finneas, also won song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” a dreamy but haunting meditation from Greta Gerwig’s film “Barbie.” The song also took best song written for visual media, and the “Barbie” soundtrack took best compilation soundtrack for visual media.
The R&B singer and songwriter Victoria Monét won three prizes, including best new artist. Boygenius, an indie-rock supergroup that sold out venues like Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl last year, won a total of three awards, and one of its members, Phoebe Bridgers, took a fourth — more than any other artist at this year’s ceremony — as part of a collaboration with SZA.
Mitchell, 80, performed at the Grammys for the first time, playing her 1968 song “Both Sides Now” nine years after an aneurysm that at first left her unable to speak. Seated in a plush chair, clasping a cane, she was surrounded by supporters including Brandi Carlile, who has lately been Mitchell’s biggest evangelist. After the performance, stars like Beyoncé and Swift clapped wide-eyed.
In another major moment, Chapman made a very rare public appearance, performing her 1988 favorite “Fast Car” in a tender duet with Luke Combs, whose note-for-note cover of Chapman’s song became a surprise cross-generational hit last year. Dressed in jeans and a plain button-down shirt, Chapman seemed to have watery eyes as she strummed her acoustic guitar and sang.
Taylor Swift, as always, used the opportunity of accepting the award for best pop vocal album to announce a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” saying it would come out April 19. After which her Instagram page briefly crashed.