Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry worldwide and thus the show is frequently called "music's biggest night". The trophy depicts a gilded gramophone, and the original idea was to call them the "Gramophone Awards".
The Grammys are the first of the Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and are considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards with the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. Since 2023, the ceremony was held on the first Sunday of February and one week before the Super Bowl. The 67th Annual Grammy Awards, featuring a total of 94 categories, were presented on February 2, 2025.
After over fifty years being broadcast on CBS, it was announced on October 30, 2024, that the Grammys would move to ABC, Disney+ and Hulu as part of a ten-year broadcast deal between the Recording Academy and the Walt Disney Company. The 2027 broadcast will mark the first time the Grammys are streamed simultaneously on multiple Disney-owned platforms, including Hulu and Disney+, alongside ABC's traditional television airing.
History
The Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. As recording executives on the Walk of Fame committee compiled a list of significant recording industry people who might qualify for a Walk of Fame star, they realized that many leading people in their business would not earn a star on Hollywood Boulevard. They determined to rectify this by creating awards given by their industry similar to the Oscars and the Emmys. After deciding to go forward with such awards, a question remained what to call them. One working title was the "Eddie", to honor Thomas Edison, the inventor of the phonograph. Eventually, the name was chosen after a mail-in contest whereby approximately 300 contestants submitted the name "Grammy", with the earliest postmark from contest winner Jay Danna of New Orleans, Louisiana, as an abbreviated reference to Emile Berliner's invention, the gramophone. Grammys were first awarded for achievements in 1958.The first award ceremony was held simultaneously in two locations on May 4, 1959, the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, and the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City, New York, with 28 Grammys awarded. The number of awards given grew, reaching over 100, and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised. Still, the ceremony was not aired live until the 13th Annual Grammy Awards in 1971.
Latin Grammy Awards
The concept of a separate Grammy Awards for Latin music recorded in Spanish or Portuguese began in 1989, as it was deemed too large to fit on the regular Grammys ceremony. The Recording Academy then established the Latin Recording Academy in 1997, and the separate Latin Grammy Awards were first held in 2000. The Latin Grammys honor works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been released either in Ibero-America, the Iberian Peninsula, or the United States.COVID-19 impact (2020–2022)
The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards were postponed from its original January 31, 2021, date to March 14, 2021, due to the music industry impact of COVID-19 pandemic.The 64th Annual Grammy Awards were also postponed from its original January 31, 2022, date to April 3, 2022, due to health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 Delta cron hybrid variant. The ceremony was also moved from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas due to the former having scheduling conflicts with sports games and concerts nearly every night through mid-April.
Gramophone trophy
The gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990, the original Grammy design was reworked, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, making the trophy bigger and grander. Billings developed Grammium, a zinc alloy that they trademarked. Trophies engraved with each recipient's name are not available until after the award announcements, so "stunt" trophies are re-used each year for the ceremony broadcast.By February 2009, some 7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded.
Ceremonies and venues
Since 2000, the Grammy Awards have been held annually at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with a few exceptions. Before 1971, Grammy Award ceremonies were held in different locations on the same day. Originally New York City and Los Angeles were the host cities. Chicago joined as a host city in 1962, and Nashville became a fourth location in 1965.The 1971 ceremony at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles was the first to take place in one location as it was the first live telecast of the event. In 1972, the ceremony was held at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum in New York City. In 1973, it took place at Nashville's Tennessee Theatre. From 1974 to 2003, the Grammys were held in various venues in Los Angeles and New York City, including Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, Crypto.com Arena and Hollywood Palladium; and New York's Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.
In 2000, the Crypto.com Arena became the permanent home of the award ceremonies. The Grammy Museum was built across the street from the Crypto.com Arena in LA Live to preserve the history of the Grammy Awards. Embedded on the sidewalks on the museum streets are bronze disks, similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to honor each year's top winners, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. Since 2000, the Grammy Awards have taken place outside of Los Angeles only three times. New York City's Madison Square Garden hosted the awards in 2003 and in 2018, while the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas hosted in 2022.
The annual awards ceremony at the Crypto.com Arena requires the local sports teams such as the Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks to play an extended length of road games.
Categories
The "General Field" are four awards which are not restricted by music genre.- The Album of the Year award is presented to the performer, featured artists, songwriter, and/or production team of a full album if other than the performer.
- The Record of the Year award is presented to the performer or production team of a single song if other than the performer.
- The Song of the Year award is presented to the songwriter of a single song.
- The Best New Artist award is presented to a promising breakthrough performer who in the eligibility year releases the first recording that establishes their public identity.
As of 2024, an additional two awards were added to the "General Field".
- The Producer of the Year, Non-Classical award is presented to a producer for a body of work released during the eligibility period. It was first presented in 1974 and was not previously part of any specific field.
- The Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical award is presented to an individual who works primarily as a songwriter for a body of work released during the eligibility period. It was first presented in 2023 and was not previously part of any specific field.
Because of the large number of award categories, and a desire to feature several performances by various artists, only awards with the most popular interest – typically about 10 to 12, including the four general field categories and one or two categories in the most popular music genres – are presented directly at the televised award ceremony. Most other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast "Premiere Ceremony" in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast.
2012 category restructuring
On April 6, 2011, the Recording Academy announced a significant overhaul of many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The number of categories was cut from 109 to 78. The most substantial change was eliminating the distinction between male and female soloists and between collaborations and duo/groups in various genre fields. Additionally, several instrumental soloist categories were discontinued; recordings in these categories now fall under general categories for best solo performances.In the rock field, the hard rock and metal album categories were combined. The Best Rock Instrumental Performance category was also eliminated.
In R&B, the distinction between best contemporary R&B album and other R&B albums has been eliminated, consolidated into one Best R&B Album category.
In rap, the categories for best rap soloist and best rap duo or group have been merged into the new Best Rap Performance category.
The roots category had the most eliminations. Up through 2011, there were separate categories for regional American music forms, such as Hawaiian, Native American, and Zydeco/Cajun music. A consistently low number of entries in these categories led the Recording Academy to combine these music variations into a new Best Regional Roots Music Album, including polka, which had lost its category in 2009.
In same-genre fields, the traditional and contemporary blues categories and the traditional and contemporary folk categories each were consolidated into one per genre due to the number of entries and the challenges in distinguishing between contemporary and traditional blues and folk songs. In the world music field, the traditional and contemporary categories also were merged.
In the classical field, several categories, including its main category Best Classical Album, were trimmed down from eleven to seven distinct categories plus two classically focused production prizes. Classical recordings since then became eligible for the main Album of the Year category.
A few minor name changes were also made to better reflect the nature of the separate categories. The Recording Academy determined that the word "gospel" in the gospel genre field tends to connote images and sounds of traditional soul gospel to the exclusion of Contemporary Christian Music. Therefore, the field and some categories were renamed as Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music.