Pictured (L-R): Maren Morris and John Mayer perform onstage during the 63rd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
While its number of performances were few, country music shined on the Grammy stage last night (March 14) at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards.
Miranda Lambert took home the only televised country award, Best Country Album, for her seventh studio album Wildcard. This is Lambert’s second win for Best Country Album, receiving the Award for her No. 1 album Platinum in 2014. She has also previously won Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “The House That Built Me.”
Miranda Lambert. Photo: Getty Images for The Recording Academy
In the pre-telecast, Dan + Shay were awarded Best Country Duo/Group Performance for their collaboration with Justin Bieber, “10,000 Hours.” The duo made history with this win, becoming first artist to win three times consecutively since the category’s inception. Dan + Shay won the category for the first time in 2019 with 6x Platinum smash “Tequila,” and again in 2020 with 5x Platinum hit “Speechless.”
THANK Y’ALL SO MUCH FOR THIS
@RecordingAcad @justinbieber pic.twitter.com/b5ltKCr2nr
— Dan + Shay (@DanAndShay) March 15, 2021
Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Lori McKenna won Best Country Song for their co-written “Crowded Table,” recorded by The Highwomen. Vince Gill was awarded his 22nd Grammy Award for his performance of “When My Amy Prays,” in the category of Best Country Solo Performance.
The awards were presented outside the Los Angeles Staples Center, with only a handful of masked, socially distanced nominees watching each presentation in an open-air tent. The majority of the performances took place inside. The indoor venue featured five stages in the round. Artists performed for each other before another set of artists replaced them after the performances wrapped.
Host Trevor Noah traveled from the outdoor presenting stage to the indoor performance stage.
The ceremony also featured music venue owners and employees from around the nation who have struggled immensely during the pandemic. Nashville’s Station Inn owner J.T. Gray presented Best Country Album to Lambert, via video. Venue employees from the Troubadour in Los Angeles and the Apollo in New York were a past of the broadcast, as well.
The In Memoriam tribute featured many artists and musical icons that we lost this past year, pulling out a few artists to feature more prominently. Lionel Richie gave tribute to Kenny Rogers by singing their iconic song, “Lady.”
Carlile did a superb job honoring John Prine. She sang “I Remember Everything,” the song that Prine posthumously won Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for.
When it came time for the country round of performances, Mickey Guyton gave a stellar performance of her moving “Black Like Me.” With this performance, Guyton became the first Black female country artist to perform at the Grammys.
Once Guyton was through, she turned to a beaming Lambert to introduce her next performance. Lambert performed her No. 1 smash hit “Bluebird,” from her now Grammy awarded album Wildcard, under a chandelier of flowers.
Lambert then introduced the next country performer, Maren Morris, as “my Texas gal pal I’ve known since the honky tonk days.” Morris was joined by Joh Mayer playing guitar and singing harmonies on her pop crossover hit, “The Bones.”
There were a few historic moments throughout the telecast. Beyoncé set a new record for most wins by a female artist. Now with 28 Grammys, she surpasses Alison Krauss’ 27 wins. Beyoncé now ties for second most awarded artist at the Grammys with record producer Quincy Jones. Orchestral and operatic conductor Georg Solti holds the record with 31 awards.
Taylor Swift became the first female artist to win Album Of The Year three times for her win with Folklore. This feat ties her with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder as the only artist to win in that category three times.
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