65th Annual Grammy Awards

2023 award ceremony for music

5 min read

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year – October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 – as determined by the members of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The nominations were announced on November 15, 2022. South African comedian Trevor Noah, who hosted the 63rd and 64th ceremonies, returned again.

Beyoncé received the most nominations (nine) and tied Maverick City Music for wins (four), followed by Kendrick Lamar with eight nominations and three wins, and Adele and Brandi Carlile with seven nominations each. With a career total of 88 nominations, Beyoncé tied with her husband Jay-Z as the most nominated artists in Grammy history. Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti (2022) became the first Spanish-language album to be nominated for Album of the Year.

With her win in the Best Dance/Electronic Album category, Beyoncé passed Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti for the record of most Grammy awards in the ceremony's history, with 32. Harry Styles won Album of the Year for Harry's House, becoming the first male British solo artist to win since George Michael in 1989. Lizzo won Record of the Year for "About Damn Time", becoming the first black woman to win the award since Whitney Houston in 1994. Bonnie Raitt won Song of the Year for "Just Like That", becoming the first female solo songwriter to win since Amy Winehouse in 2008. Samara Joy won Best New Artist, becoming the first jazz artist to win the award since Esperanza Spalding in 2011. Sam Smith and Kim Petras won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Unholy", making Petras the first transgender artist to win the award.

With her win in the Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording category, Viola Davis became the 18th person to win the EGOT in her entertainment career.

Background

For the 2023 ceremony, the academy announced several changes for different categories and eligibility rules:

Category changes

Five categories – Best Alternative Music Performance, Best Americana Performance, Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical – were added.
A Special Merit Award, Best Song for Social Change, was added. The award will be determined by a Blue Ribbon Committee and is destined to reward songs that "contain lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peacebuilding and empathy".
For the categories of Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Compendium, composers and librettists became eligible for the award.
Best New Age Album was renamed Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album.
For Best Musical Theater Album, composers and lyricists of more than 50% of the score of a new recording became eligible for the award.
Best Spoken Word Album was renamed Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording. Spoken word poetry is no longer eligible for this award and is now recognized with the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category.

Album eligibility

In order to be eligible for consideration, albums must contain greater than 75% playing time of newly recorded music; the previous eligibility rule was 50%. This rule does not apply to the categories of Best Compilation Soundtrack, Best Historical Album, Best Immersive Audio Album, Best Recording Package, Best Special Package, and Best Album Notes.

Craft committees

For three categories of the classical music field (Producer of the Year, Classical, Best Engineered Album, Classical and Best Contemporary Classical Composition) the nominations will be determined by specialized craft committees.

Performers

Premiere ceremony

The performers for the ceremony were announced on January 29, 2023.

Main ceremony

The first wave of performers for the ceremony were announced on January 25, 2023, with Harry Styles confirmed a few days later. Performers for the In Memoriam segment were announced on February 1, 2023. The 50 Years of Hip Hop performance was announced on February 3.

Presenters

Winners and nominees

The following are the winners and nominees of the 65th annual Grammy Awards. Winners appear first and highlighted in bold.

General field

Record of the Year

"About Damn Time" – Lizzo
- Ricky Reed and Blake Slatkin, producers; Patrick Kehrier, Bill Malina and Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Emerson Mancini, mastering engineer
"Don't Shut Me Down" – ABBA
- Benny Andersson, producer; Benny Andersson and Bernard Löhr, engineers/mixers; Björn Engelmann, mastering engineer
"Easy on Me" – Adele
- Greg Kurstin, producer; Julian Burg, Tom Elmhirst and Greg Kurstin, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer
"Break My Soul" – Beyoncé
- Beyoncé, Terius "The-Dream" Gesteelde-Diamant, Jens Christian Isaksen and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, producers; Brandon Harding, Chris McLaughlin and Stuart White, engineers/mixers; Colin Leonard, mastering engineer
"Good Morning Gorgeous" – Mary J. Blige
- D'Mile and H.E.R., producers; Bryce Bordone, Şerban Ghenea and Pat Kelly, engineers/mixers
"You and Me on the Rock" – Brandi Carlile featuring Lucius
- Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, producers; Brandon Bell, Tom Elmhirst and Michael Harris, engineers/mixers; Pete Lyman, mastering engineer
"Woman" – Doja Cat
- Crate Classics, Linden Jay, Aynzli Jones and Yeti Beats, producers; Jesse Ray Ernster and Rian Lewis, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
"Bad Habit" – Steve Lacy
- Steve Lacy, producer; Neal Pogue and Karl Wingate, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
"The Heart Part 5" – Kendrick Lamar
- Beach Noise, producer; Beach Noise, Rob Bisel, Ray Charles Brown Jr., James Hunt, Johnny Kosich, Matt Schaeffer and Johnathan Turner, engineers/mixers; Emerson Mancini, mastering engineer
"As It Was" – Harry Styles
- Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon, producers; Jeremy Hatcher and Spike Stent, engineers/mixers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer