Live Blog: 2018 Grammy Awards
This is NPR Music's live blog of the 2018 Grammy Awards. The telecast of the awards show is scheduled to run from 7:30 until 11:00 p.m. ET. We'll be here the whole time, updating this post with every award or performance.
11:08 p.m. Bruno Mars upsets, well, pretty much everybody, winning the night's final award, Album of the Year, in a category that would've been a history-making win for either the favored Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z or Childish Gambino. Instead, the drought continues for hip-hop, with only Lauryn Hill and OutKast previously walking away with the coveted award. An admittedly tipsy Mars gave props to Lamar, Jay and Gambino (Lorde was also nominated), before giving an acceptance speech that included personal recollections to his early showbiz start as a 15-year-old kid opening in a show called "The Magic of Polynesia" in Hawaii.
By the numbers, it's hard to be disappointed for Lamar, who walked away with a total of five awards, or Jay Z, who's won nearly two dozen Grammys over his career. But in a year in which the Academy seemed dead-set on correcting its lackluster record of recognition regarding hip-hop, this feels a lot like more of the same. That said, hip-hop and R&B, together, make up Nielsen's ranking as the most-consumed genre. And Mars is squarely in the tradition of the R&B legends and major influences he paid respects to in his speech, including Babyface, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Teddy Riley. Even in choosing to play it safe, the Academy still reflected the pulse of pop to a small degree. But, as tradition has it, the show's final notes were familiar, and tone deaf. --Rodney Carmichael
It's a bad decision to follow the In Memoriam segment with a song about suicide. Let's get that out of the way. Nonetheless, rapper Logic and Best New Artist winner Alessia Cara make the most of it, pouring their hearts into a genuinely authentic moment: a song that speaks deeply to young people who hold fast to their right to express themselves, but who also doubt themselves, sometimes up to the point
