Year: 2022

At the 64th Grammy Awards, no other country artist was as decorated as Chris Stapleton. Before the main event even began, Stapleton had already claimed two awards during the Grammys premiere event telecast. His song “You Should Probably Leave” won the Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance, and his song “Cold,” won for Best Country Song (a songwriting award.) As the Grammy evening began to unfold, Stapleton soon took home his third prize of the night when his album, Starting Over, won the coveted award for Best Country Album.

Three for three for Stapleton, who is undoubtedly one of the best in Nashville and has now also won Best Country Album three times. So it was a fitting moment when soon after winning his final award, Stapleton took to the stage to perform “Cold” and it was most definitely breathtaking.

Backed by his band The Honchos, a hypnotic piano made way for smoky drums as Stapleton took to the mic, guitar in hand. His gravelly vocals were sublime as he sang the seething lyrics, “Oh, why you got to be so cold? Why you got to go and cut me like a knife.” A full string section joined the arrangement, making this an especially cinematic rendition of the tune. And of course, Stapleton’s lead guitar left a lingering mark in between his gorgeously delivered vocals.

You know how Jackass is the finest piece of art produced since the creation of the United States on July 4, 1776, and Johnny Knoxville has built an entertainment empire based on his willingness to have things launched at him and causing him terrible amounts of pain? Well, on Sunday night, all that hard work and dedication to getting kicked below the belt paid off with Knoxville getting a match at WrestleMania 38.

Knoxville wrestled Sami Zayn in an Anything Goes match, which was somehow sillier (and better) than anyone could have imagined. It involved, to the shock of no one, Johnny Knoxville getting hit with stuff, which looked like it hurt a lot.

Still, Knoxville was able to win thanks to a few things. For one, he used a lot of weapons and things of that nature.

But because the Jackass crew has a habit of popping up when someone else is doing something, Knoxville had some reinforcements. First up with Chris Pontius, who went full Party Boy and, well, you’ve seen Jackass you know what happens when he starts doing Party Boy stuff.

And then, there was Wee Man, who his under the ring, threw some pretty convincing strikes, and then picked up Zayn and gave us WrestleMania’s most iconic body slam since Hulk Hogan picked up Andre the Giant.

Knoxville won via pinfall (with the assistance of a giant mousetrap). The match went 14:25 but could have gone for another three hours and still been terrific.

It may sound hard to believe, but Nas has never performed solo at the Grammys, despite being something of a fixture in its Best Rap Album category. Of course, he only recently won that award for the Hit-Boy joint album King’s Disease, so maybe the Grammys overlooking the rap elder statesman could also be considered a tradition — until now. Thanks to the Grammys’ ongoing initiative to actually honor hip-hop, Nas has now broken both streaks. He made up for the last 20 years in his 2022 Grammy performance, playing a medley of his hits including “I Can,” “One Mic,” “Made You Look,” and new song “Rare,” further cementing Nas’ status as the Grammys’ new golden child — even if he is closer to 50 now.

In the past few years, Nas and Hit-Boy have proven to be a winning team. In 2021, they won the Best Rap Album Grammy for their first collaborative project, King’s Disease — Nas’ first-ever win in the category in his 30-year career. Their follow-up, King’s Disease II, is also nominated for Best Rap Album this year. Finally, in December of 2021, the duo collaborated once again to make Magic — no pun intended — their third joint album to date. They have both stated that they plan to release a third installment of the King’s Disease series, as well. Given how things have been going on that front, don’t be surprised if that one gets nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy too.

Watch Nas’ 2022 Grammys performance of “I Can,” “One Mic,” “Made You Look,” and “Rare” above.

Brandi Carlile has been a Grammys darling for a minute now, and rightly deserved. The queer country singer first came onto the Recording Academy’s radar in a big way back in 2019, when her album, By The Way, I Forgive You, was nominated for Record Of The Year, and one of its best singles, “The Joke” was up for both Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year. Though she didn’t win in those major categories, picking up three Americana wins instead, since then she’s been a steady fixture in the nominations for the Big Four categories.

Tonight, she performed her three-times nominated track “Right On Time,” off her latest album, In These Silent Days. That song is up for Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year, and strangely Best Pop Solo Performance, though it is decidedly not pop… Carlile is also up for Song Of The Year for “A Beautiful Noise,” a song she co-write with Alicia Keys that urged people to vote in the 2020 election.

During tonight’s set, Carlile was introduced by Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell, and sat at a baby grand decked out in her bejewelled blazer (rhinestone cowgirl?) to deliver her gorgeous ballad, before abandoning the piano to go lead her band on an electric guitar. To go from that soulful moment at the piano to ripping it on an electric guitar just proves that Carlile contains multitudes. Watch above.

Each year, there’s a new round of artists who make an impact, big or small, on the music industry. In that group, a select few are chosen to be recognized in the Best New Artist category at the Grammys every year. Winners in this category over the last few years have come from an array of genres. In 2017, Chance The Rapper took the award while pop singer Alessia Cara did so the following year. The award was given to Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and last year, Megan Thee Stallion was graced with the Best New Artist award.

This year, that honor has been given to Olivia Rodrigo. Fresh off her awesome performance of “Drivers License,” she was selected over the other Best New Artist nominees which were Arooj Aftab, Jimmie Allen, Baby Keem, Finneas, Glass Animals, Japanese Breakfast, The Kid Laroi, Arlo Parks, and Saweetie.

Over the past twelve months, many of the artists in this year’s Best New Artist category had highlight moments that certainly helped to boost their careers. Arlo Parks’ Collapsed In Sunbeams, which is also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, won the Mercury Prize, which is awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. Olivia Rodrigo scored her first No. 1 album with Sour after tearing up the singles chart with “Drivers License.” The Kid Laroi also delivered a chart-topping album and single with F*ck Love and “Stay” with Justin Bieber. Lastly, Japanese Breakfast won the 2021 Uproxx Critics Poll thanks to their third album Jubilee, which is also nominated in this year’s Best Alternative Music Album category.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Billie Eilish has been doing a lot of performing lately: Aside from her ongoing tour, she’s also fresh off delivering a rendition of “No Time To Die” at the Oscars. Tonight, she found herself on a familiar stage, as she and Finneas delivered a performance of “Happier Than Ever” at this year’s Grammy Awards.

Eilish decided to use her performance to honor recently deceased Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins by wearing a shirt with a large photo of him on the front. She sang the song on a set designed to look like an upside-down living room but with water on the floor (or maybe it’s the ceiling?). Before the song’s gigantic climax, Eilish left the room to join Finneas on top/bottom of the house and close out the song with a bang, complete with torrential rainfall. She ended the performance by prominently displaying her shirt, making sure everybody saw Hawkins’ face.

Aside from Eilish, also performing during this year’s show are Lady Gaga, Silk Sonic, Carrie Underwood, J Balvin, John Legend, Maria Becerra, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Brothers Osbourne, Nas, HER, Jon Batiste, Chris Stapleton, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., and Rachel Zegler.

Eilish is one of this year’s most-nominated artists, as she’s up for seven awards: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Music Video (all for “Happier Than Ever), Album Of The Year, Best Pop Vocal Album (all for Happier Than Ever), and Best Music Film (for Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles.)

Watch Eilish perform above and find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

30 minutes into the 2022 Grammy Awards, nothing so show-stopping as Will Smith’s slap has afflicted the show as yet — but Silk Sonic nearly became the talk of the show for all the wrong reasons as they accepted their award for Song Of The Year for “Leave The Door Open.” For a quick moment during their acceptance speech — which was mostly handled by producer/songwriter Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, who dedicated the award to his recently deceased mother — the microphone cut off as Anderson .Paak turned his back on the cameras.

As it turns out, he had a decent enough reason for swearing on live TV: The fly on his 1970’s-inspired bellbottom pants was down, almost giving the world a glimpse of what .Paak is packing. Fortunately, he was able to keep everything aside from the curse words contained, keeping the Grammys from accumulating the number of FCC complaints that the Oscars got.

Anderson and his musical partner Bruno Mars got to celebrate winning Song Of The Year just minutes after performing their casino-themed cut “777” — appropriate, as the Grammys were held in Vegas this year. Incidentally, they performed the Song Of The Year for the first time at last year’s awards after mounting a campaign to lobby the show for the opportunity to play. They’re still nominated for Record Of The Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song.

As great as all the Grammys performances are on their own, there’s nothing fans love more than a crossover moment. And, fresh off her own performance of “Drivers License” at the Grammys, Olivia Rodrigo just happened to ready and willing to help BTS kick off a very James Bond-themed performance of their hit single “Butter” at the event. After one member of the world famous boy band, Jungkook, descended into the event from the ceiling, secret agent style, the camera cut to shots of many different members scattered throughout the audience, ready to jump up on stage whenever they get the word.

Yet another member, V (Kim Tae-hyung), was seated next to Olivia in the audience, and lured her into a femme fatale type of role in the group’s 007-style pre-song skit. Whispering in her ear and pulling a card from behind her ear, Olivia played along with a very shocked face, and then the card magically shot up to the member on stage, who plugged it into a super spy machine to kick off the beginning of “Butter.” The moment when V was whispering in her ear was definitely reminiscent of that classic moment in Lost In Translation when Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett Johansson’s ear. Check out a clip of the moment above and fan reactions below.

Variety thinks the moment might’ve been flirting:

Lil Nas X’s hit song “Industry Baby” has clearly become an industry favorite; he and guest rapper Jack Harlow graced the stage at the Grammys to once again perform their No. 1 hit as part of a stirring medley of tracks including “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and “Dead Right Now.” They previously shook up the world with their colorful rendition of “Industry Baby” at the 2021 VMAs. Nas changed costumes numerous times as news clips of pearl-clutching newscasters played behind him.

Nas and Jack’s juggernaut collaboration is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance, while Nas himself has also accumulated an impressive collection of nominations for his debut album Montero. Not only is Montero nominated for Album Of The Year, but the project’s lead single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” is also nominated for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Music Video.

That last nomination must certainly rankle Nas’ detractors, who immediately decried the video for its controversial concept. In the video, Nas descends to a plane resembling classic depictions of hell and gives a demonic ruler a lap dance before committing regicide and ascending the throne himself. However, those criticisms couldn’t stop “Call Me By Your Name” from becoming Nas’ second No. 1 record, receiving a Platinum RIAA certification just one month after its release, or receiving three Grammy nominations. Meanwhile, its follow-up, “Industry Baby,” achieved similar success, reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100 two months after its release and receiving the Best Melodic Rap Performance nomination.

Watch Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s 2022 Grammys performance of TK above.

BTS have become a regular presence at the Grammy Awards in recent years and that’s not changing this year, as the group got on stage and performed “Butter” during tonight’s ceremony.

Their performance came across like a theatrical scene from a spy movie, with the group members dressed like secret agents and doing spy things like lowering into a room on a rope and contorting around security lasers. They even got Olivia Rodrigo involved as a character in their silent play.

BTS is part of a stacked 2022 Grammys performance line-up that also includes Lady Gaga, Silk Sonic, Carrie Underwood, J Balvin, John Legend, Maria Becerra, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X with Jack Harlow, Brandi Carlile, Brothers Osbourne, Nas, HER, Jon Batiste, Chris Stapleton, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., and Rachel Zegler.

The group has a single Grammy nomination this year, as “Butter” is up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. This is their second straight year earning a nod in the category, as “Dynamite” was nominated in 2021. That was the group’s first Grammy nomination ever, which, even though they didn’t come away with the trophy, was still a major win in itself. It’s also their third consecutive year performing, as they delivered “Dynamite” on last year’s broadcast and joined Lil Nas X on stage in 2020.

Watch BTS perform “Butter” above and find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.