NBC // Getty Images 1959: The first Grammys television special Frank Sinatra was the most nominated artist of the night with six nominations in total, but he ended up going home with only one award for Best Album Cover for his rendition of “Only the Lonely.” Running simultaneously, the black-tie events honored stars like Ella Fitzgerald, David Seville and the Chipmunks, and Domenico Modugno. On May 4, 1959, the first Grammy Awards were held in hotel ballrooms in Los Angeles and New York City. Gottlieb // Wikimedia Commons 1959: The inaugural Grammy Awards You may also like: 30 stars who hit their stride late in life Keep reading on to find out when the first live telecast took place and which songstress wore a dress that literally broke the internet.
Memorable occurrences include jaw-dropping fashions, indelible performances, heartbreaking tributes, bizarre interruptions, and more truly remarkable memories. Stacker rounded up unforgettable moments at the Grammys by the year, using sources like the official Grammy Awards website, news sources, and pop culture sites. Over the years there have been some pretty major upsets and some winners who seem to have come from left field. While the process is a good one, it is, like any other, flawed. Winners are determined by a panel of music experts and Recording Academy members who vote on entries for each award submitted by recording studios. These gold-plated gramophones aren’t just given out for new music in a variety of genres, either, they’re also awarded for innovations in music, philanthropy, and education. That first year, the Grammys only had 28 categories, but by 2019, 84 categories were presented.
As a result, the Recording Academy created what was then called the Gramophone Awards to honor the best composers, musicians, songwriters, and producers. The creation of the Grammy Awards was inspired by the Hollywood Walk of Fame project, which brought about a renewed interest in the music and recording industry. Whereas the Academy Awards began in 1929 and the Emmys commenced in 1949, the first Grammys weren’t held until 1959. For now, anyway, we can focus on these 20 nearly solid reasons to live through the next 12 months.Kevin Winter // Getty Images Memorable moments from every year in Grammy historyĪrguably the most prestigious music awards, the Grammy Awards are relatively new when it comes to awards ceremonies. Nor do we feel completely confident in speculating that Taylor Swift will definitely start releasing her re-recordings of her Big Machine catalog product this year, although it’ll sure make 2021 more interesting if she does.
ARIANA GRANDE RIHANNA GREATEST HITS (SALUTES) FULL
(Cardi’s may be a safer bet just because she reportedly didn’t push “WAP,” her smash collab with Megan Thee Stallion, for the Grammys because she wanted to push that single and a forthcoming album in the same year… which maybe makes a full record likely by this September’s next Grammy deadline.)Ĭould we get another Beyonce album? If we’re going to, of course, you’re not going to read about it here first. This doesn’t even include some perennial any-minute-now releases like would-be albums from Cardi B and Frank Ocean, for whom you can find three-year-old articles with headlines reading “all we know about” a new album that still hasn’t arrived. The point we’re leading up to here is that a lot of the anticipated albums of 2021 do not have official release dates.Īll of that notwithstanding, there’s a potential bounty of great music in store in the coming months, including these 20 prospective releases we feel are as close to certainties as a nebulous release slate allows.
The “surprise drop” that Beyonce pioneered in 2013 in a flurry of non-disclosure agreements is fast becoming the norm, especially since the absence of live concerts has dramatically shifted the focus to recorded music. We all enter 2021 facing many challenges, and in the scheme of things this one is pretty minor: Advance notice of album release dates is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.