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The White Rose, The Red Carpet And Not Your Ordinary Awards Show: Unforgettable Moments From The 60th Annual Grammy Awards

The music industry is wide awake

Rihanna, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy were in attendance. Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar were also under the same roof. Bruno Mars, Sir Elton John, Sam Smith were there, too. It’s the biggest night in music back for another run and breaking Grammy tradition, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards were broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York City this time around with funny man James Corden hosting a second year in a row.

Performers, presenters and winners alike not only made the three-and-a-half hour-long show a visual treat, but more importantly sparked a dialogue that’s been long overdue. Blurring the line between entertainment and politics, artistry and advocacy, the musical acts, much like the actors who protested at the Golden Globes earlier this year, decided to use the awards show as an avenue to make statements about various issues close to their heart: the fight for equality, the fight for acceptance and the fight against racism among others.

Here, we’re rounding up the unforgettable moments from the 60th annual Grammy Awards. Scroll through!

The pre-Grammys gave us this wonderful meme.

via @ziwe on Twitter

The darling old woman star-struck by Jay-Z and Beyoncé is basically all of us and brings us back to that iconic Tiffany Pollard moment:

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The music industry stood in solidarity with sexual harassment victims and lent their support to the #TimesUp movement:

An initiative by Voices in Entertainment, the white rose at the Grammys calls for hope, peace, sympathy and resistance. A letter sent out by the group prior to Grammy Night read: “As we are inspired by the #timesup campaign, we are encouraging the artists that we work with and our colleagues attending the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in New York City to wear a white rose to the ceremony on Sunday, January 28th.”

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Rising artist and sweetheart Khalid ticked one item off his bucket list.

High school student from El Paso, Texas, Khalid Robinson spent his free time producing his own music and posting his material on SoundCloud and hoped to one day attend the Grammys:

via @thegreatkhalid on Twitter

Khalid has since signed with labels Right Hand Music Group and RCA Records, had a single that peaked at #16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and gone on tour in the United States. Each venue in the 21 cities were sold out. This year, Khalid did more than fulfill his dream of attending the Grammys and bagged several nominations at the awards show including Best New Artist, Best Urban Contemporary Album (for “American Teen”), Best R&B Song (for “Location”) and Song of the Year and Best Music Video for his collaborat Logic’s “1-800-273-8255”).

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Carrie Fisher became a Grammy winner.

The Recording Academy kicked off Grammy Day by tweeting: “Congrats Best Spoken Word Album—‘The Princess Diarist’ #CarrieFisher #GRAMMYs.” The posthumous Grammy honors Fisher’s audio reading of her 2016 memoir. Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, then took to Instagram to express her gratitude to the Recording Academy along with a sweet throwback.

via @praisethelourd on Instagram

Alessia Cara snagged the award for Best New Artist.

Were Khalid and SZA robbed? The very opinionated folks on the internet think so (also considering Cara’s debut single “Here” was released in 2015), but the Recording Academy has spoken! The silver lining here is that Cara’s win paved the way for another discussion as the only woman to win a major award at the show: What is up with #GrammysSoMale?

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Bruno Mars was one of the night’s biggest winners.

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Battling it out for Album of the Year were Childish Gambino, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde and Bruno Mars, whose 24K Magic album bagged the coveted award. Its track list includes bops like “Versace on the Floor,” “Finesse” and the hit debut track with the same title, “24K Magic,” which also won Record of the Year. “That’s What I Like,” meanwhile, won Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song.

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