‘Beyonce pioneers, Harry Styles imitates’: Why the Grammys got album of the year so wrong again

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. So, though host Trevor Noah spared no airtime in keeping viewers informed as to Queen Bey’s progress towards becoming recipient of the most number of Grammys ever – 32, beating the record previously held by Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti – all eyes were on the final award of the night, the 65th Grammys’ very own Rocky Balboa moment. Harry Styles stepping up to receive the night’s biggest award for Album of the Year was a baffling and strangely deflating finale for a night so ramped up for cele-Bey-tion. The effect – besides making the main event feel like watching Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, in that the main players don’t actually need the prizes and the people that really deserve them aren’t even invited – is to give many minority artists a tokenistic niche nod while denying them the spotlight, platform and high-profile validation of the ceremony proper. open image in gallery Harry Styles posing at the Grammys During the actual Grammys, Black artists delivered the most powerful, impactful and plain fun performances of the night, from Stevie Wonder and Smokie Robinson’s Motown medley to the all-star tribute to 50 years of hip-hop featuring Missy Elliott, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Run-DMC and fellow rap icons galore.