Los Angeles (AP) – Taylor Swift’s official switch from country to pop with her multi-hit, best-selling “1989” album brought the singer her second Grammy Award win for album of the year.
Swift was shocked when she won the night’s top prize, beating out Kendrick Lamar, Chris Stapleton, Alabama Shakes and the Weeknd. Swift used her speech to encourage young women who feel defeated at times or discouraged by others.
“There will be people along the way that will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. You just focus on the work and don’t let those people sidetrack you,” she said.
Taylor Swift poses in the press room with the awards for album of the year for “1989”, pop vocal album for “1989” and best music video for “Bad Blood” at the 58th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Monday, Feb. 15, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Her speech could be directed partly to Kanye West, who recently said in a new song that he made Swift famous after he stole her microphone at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Beyonce also seemed to make a statement when she presented the final award for the night, record of the year.
“Art is the unapologetic celebration of culture through self-expression. It can impact people in a variety of ways for different reasons at different times. Some will react. Some will respond. And some will be moved,” she said, seeming to speak to those who were critical of her Super Bowl performance of the anthem, “Formation.”
Nile Rodgers (left) and Lady Gaga perform a tribute to David Bowie at the 58th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Swift, who won the album of the year Grammy for “Fearless” in 2009, walked away Monday with three awards, including best pop vocal album and music video for “Bad Blood,” at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Alabama Shakes also won three awards, though Lamar was the night’s big winner with five.
He won best rap album for “To Pimp a Butterfly” as well as rap performance, rap song, rap/sung performance and music video. Along with his wins, Lamar also had a show-stopping moment when he took the stage.
He started as he appeared beaten, in handcuffs, with chains around his hands and a bruise on his eyes. He went on to fuse rap, jazz, reggae and African sounds for a commanding performance as he rapped “The Blacker the Berry” and the Grammy-nominated “Alright” passionately. He ended with a map of Africa, and the city of Compton imprinted in it.
Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars won two awards for “Uptown Funk,” including record of the year. Ronson gave a shout-out to Prince, James Brown and George Clinton for being leaders in funk.
Mars introduced Adele, who sang “All I Ask,” which they wrote together for her new album “25.” She was accompanied with a piano behind her, but the audio sounded off and appeared to throw off her performance.
“The piano mics fell onto the piano strings, that’s what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune,” Adele tweeted. “(Expletive) happens.”
Justin Bieber won his first Grammy on Monday night for best dance recording for “Where Are U Now” with Skrillex and Diplo.
The Grammys also marked first-time wins for Alabama Shakes, the Weeknd, Stapleton, Pitbull and Ed Sheeran, who won song of the year for “Thinking out Loud.”
The Grammys featured a number of performances, including touching tributes: Lady Gaga was in David Bowie-inspired makeup and gear as she ran through 10 of the icon’s hits, including “Space Oddity,” ‘’Changes,” ‘’Fame,” ‘’Let’s Dance” and “Heroes.”
B.B. King was remembered with a rousing performance by Stapleton, Gary Clark. Jr and Bonnie Raitt — all on guitar and vocals — with “The Thrill Is Gone.”
The Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup of Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper and Joe Perry, performed in their first televised performance and honored Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister. Stevie Wonder, joined with Grammy-winning a capella group Pentatonix, sang “That’s the Way of the World” in honor of Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, while members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne sang “Take It Easy” for Glenn Frey.
Other winners on the night included D’Angelo, Kirk Franklin, Jason Isbell, Tony Bennett, the cast of Broadway’s smash “Hamilton” and Jeff Bhasker.
