'Black' day: the triumph of diss on Drake and the failure of Taylor Swift

Beyoncé is on a roll despite a sex scandal, Kendrick Lamar with five statuettes for his accusation against Drake, and The Beatles are back on stage thanks to artificial intelligence. In Los Angeles, barely recovered from the fires, the 67th Grammy Awards took place. And although the action at the Crypto.com arena turned out to be quite boring (except for a backstage incident with Kanye West), the results were remarkable in many ways. Read more in Izvestia.

It's not hot anymore

Although the Grammy Awards were not postponed, unlike the Oscar nominees announcement, the theme of the natural disaster in California set the tone for the whole event: starting with the nominees' dedication song and ending with the appearance of the city's firefighters on stage - they were entrusted to present the main statuette for the album of the year. Probably for the same reason we didn't hear any sparkling humor. Nor were there any provocative antics on stage (Shakira's criticism of the oppression of migrants was not to be counted as such - how could the Hollywood establishment be without spiels to Donald Trump).

The only one who could cause a real scandal is Kanye West. The day before, he unsubscribed from all the stars except Taylor Swift on social media, and such demonstrative attention from the rapper to one of the main nominees alerted the public. Everyone remembers the episode when Kanye ran on stage at the Grammys, snatched the statuette from the hands of the winning Taylor and said that Beyoncé should have been awarded.
Alas, we'll never know what Ye was up to this time. The artist showed up on the red carpet together with his wife Bianca, who appeared in her traditional look - almost without clothes, but either he was escorted out by security (allegedly he had no invitation), or he left before the show started. Maybe he felt that now he will not have to "restore justice" and Beyoncé will beat Swift without his help?

No execution, no pardon

Actually, no one doubted that Beyoncé' s country record Cowboy Carter would not be disrespected. But the fact that Jay-Z's wife will take the main award - for album of the year, and Taylor Swift, on the contrary, will leave with nothing to eat (although she was nominated in six categories), was really a surprise. Against the background of such a situation, the organizers' decision to ask Taylor to present the award to Beyoncé in the category "country album" looks like a cruel mockery. To fully appreciate the beauty of the idea, it should be remembered that Swift started out as a country singer and took her first Grammys in this style.

Beyoncé won a total of three statuettes. Not a record (especially considering that she has 29 more Grammophones at home), but - still weighty. Especially when you consider that last year the artist's reputation suffered a major blow. The P Diddy sex scandal hit not only the rapper himself, but also his friends, most notably Jay-Z and Beyoncé. On top of that, near the end of 2024, a rape accusation was made against Jay-Z himself. How fair it is and whether the star couple was involved in the dirty deeds of a colleague, the American justice system has yet to figure out, but the music industry today has convincingly shown that it does not believe in their guilt.

Five awards for one song

However, Beyoncé is not the only triumphant winner of the Grammys 2025. Kendrick Lamar took home even more prizes. And all of them - for the only track Not Like Us. It was recognized as Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance and Best Music Video. The composition actually became a hit, swirled and topped the charts. So it seems fair enough. The piquancy is that, in fact, it is a diss on Drake, full of the harshest accusations, including pedophilia.

Is it safe to say that the Grammy voters are in solidarity with what Not Like Us voiced? Question. But it's definitely safe to call the whole thing an illustration of the fickleness of fortune. Not so long ago, both Drake and Kanye were among the industry's top favorites, and they were showered with gramophones. And today they award disses about the former and keep the latter out.

By the way, another one of the duped ones is Billy Eilish. To go on stage and sing a song she was given, the award - no, despite the number of nominations. But every year "Grammy" has new favorites. This time it was Sabrina Carpenter. Indeed, her Espresso sounded last year "out of every iron". And it was impossible not to celebrate it. This is it, the best pop performance, the academicians decided. And Short'n Sweet's debut longplay is the best pop vocal album. And the remix of the year was coffee-flavored.

Rolling Stones vs. Beatles

Other notable events include wins for The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. What year is it now? 1965-й? Well, here it is! Last year's Rollins ' Hackney Diamonds won Best Rock Album, and Now and Then by The Beatles won Best Rock Performance. Basically, it's clear that both awards are not for music per se, but for triumphing over time. The difference is that the first victory was won by the artists themselves, who miraculously remain creative and physically active in their ninth decade, while the second triumph should be thanked, rather, to new technologies. Only thanks to artificial intelligence it was possible to clear the recording of a song made during John Lennon's lifetime, but spoiled by a technical defect. Though if Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr didn't want to finalize it already nowadays, it wouldn't have worked. Anyway, the years go by, and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are still delighting us - and competing with each other. Even at the Grammys.

One last thing. Of course, there are no Russian musicians among the Grammy winners. However, among the nominees was our compatriot - conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, who has long been working in Scotland. Together with soprano Joyce DiDonato and his Il Pomo d'Oro ensemble, he was recognized for his recording of Wagner's The Songs of Matilda Wesendonck. This is not the first nomination for the tandem of DiDonato and Emelianychev, but time after time they are unlucky. On what principle the voters make their choice, only they know. But I am glad that no matter how hard they try to get rid of the "Russian trace" in the USA, they still can't do without our musicians.