The 63rd annual Grammy Awards combined splendour, star power and pandemic-era versatility Sunday night to celebrate the music that emerged in a deeply challenging year, highlighting the Black Lives Matter protests and — after years of pointed criticism for past slights — the role of women in pop music.
With touring artists grounded and fans stuck at home, and the music industry pulling in billions of dollars from streaming yet criticised by artists over pay, the music world has been upended for the past year.

But the producers of the show promised a night of respect and togetherness, with a novel outdoor setting in downtown Los Angeles in which performing musicians faced each other while performing — and then gathered, masked and socially distant, to  politely applaud each other’s acceptance speeches.

Women won all the night’s major awards. Megan Thee Stallion, the sparkplug Houston rapper who described her young ambition as to become “the rap Beyoncé,” took best new artist, and her song Savage — which featured Beyoncé as a guest — won for best rap song.
--1---, who swept the awards, last year, took record of the year for Everything I Wanted.  –2--won album of the year for Folklore, --2--made entirely in quarantine. It was –2--third time winning that coveted prize. –2--lost each of the five other awards –2--was nominated for this year.

Beyoncé, the pop deity whose every move is hyper-analyzed online, won four awards, bringing her lifetime total to 28 Grammys — more than any other woman, and equalling the total for super-producer Quincy Jones.

Accepting the award for best R&B performance for her song Black Parade, “which was released just as protests was breaking out last summer, Beyoncé said: “As an artist I believe it’s my job, and all of our jobs, to reflect the times, and it have been such a difficult time.

But this year the show itself was buffeted by the pandemic. Originally planned for January, it was delayed by six weeks because of rising corona virus numbers in—3---. And the event, normally a mega-production inside the Staples Centre, had to adjust for the safety.
In an extended “in memoriam” segment, Lionel Richie paid tribute to Kenny Rogers; Mars and Anderson. Paak feted Little Richard; Brandi Carlile sang John Prine’s I Remember Everything, and Brittany Howard and Coldplay’s Chris Martin honoured Gerry Marsden of the Mersey beat group Gerry and the Pacemakers.