LGBTQ inclusive winners included:
- Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Rain On Me” — Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande
- Best Rock Song: “Stay High” — Brittany Howard
- Best Dance/Electronic Album: “Bubba” — Kaytranada
- Best Dance Recording: “10%” — Kaytranada
- Best R&B Song: “Better Than I Imagined” — Robert Glasper feat. H.E.R. & Meshell Ndegeocello
- Best Country Song: “Crowded Table” — The Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, and Lori Mckenna)
- Best Music Film: Linda Ronstadt: The Song of My Voice — Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
- Best Spoken Word Album: Rachel Maddow — Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
- Best Musical Theater Album: Jagged Little Pill
The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday night in Los Angeles, with Trevor Noah hosting the toned-down affair on CBS from a rooftop at the show’s long-term home at the Staples Center. And this year, the nominees and winners lists were filled with both familiar and new names from the LGBTQ community.
The Grammys present the majority of its awards well before the primetime broadcast begins, and early on in the afternoon, a number of LGBTQ winners took home trophies. One of the first winners of the day came for documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who won Best Music Film for their CNN acquired doc Linda Ronstadt: The Song of My Voice. Rob and Jeffrey were most recently GLAAD Media Award winners in 2019 for their documentary State of Pride. Rob and Jeffrey are two-time Oscar winners for The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt. They also directed the iconic 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, based on the book by GLAAD co-founder Vito Russo.
Bi musician Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande made history as a duo for their pop summer anthem, winning Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Rain On Me.” Marking Gaga’s 12th Grammy win, “Rain on Me” became the first all-female song to win in this Grammy category, which was established in 2012 after the Grammys combined Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Pop Instrumental Performance into a single category.
Former Alabama Shakes lead vocalist Brittany Howard won Best Rock Song for “Stay High,” an award that goes to the songwriter.
Music icon and out bisexual singer and rapper Meshell Ndegeocello won Best R&B Song for “Better Than I Imagined” by Robert Glasper featuring H.E.R. & Meshell Ndegeocello — the award is also a songwriter’s award, which Meshell penned along with Robert Glasper and Gabriella Wilson.
Over in the country music categories, Brandi Carlile was a winner for Best Country Song for “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen, a songwriter’s award that she shared with Natalie Hemby and Lori Mckenna.
Queer Haitian-Canadian DJ Kaytranada won Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Dance Recording, for his album, “Bubba,” and his track “10%” (feat. Kali Uchis). Kaytranada was also nominated for Best New Artist this year.
Megan Thee Stallion, who has spoken about her feelings of same-sex attraction and is beloved by many in the LGBTQ community, but who has not yet publicly said she is part of the LGBTQ community, won the prestigious Best New Artist award early on in the primetime broadcast. The category was the queerest it had been in many years with Phoebe Bridgers, Kaytranada and Chika also nominated.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow won a Grammy for Best Spoken World Album for Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth.
And LGBTQ-inclusive Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill, based on the music of Alanis Morissette, won Best Musical Theater Album. The original Broadway cast contains several members of the LGBTQ community including Lauren Patten and Ezra Menas.
The In Memoriam section of this year’s broadcast honored queer musicians SOPHIE and Ari Gold and included performances from Brandi Carlile and Brittany Howard.
In other major non-LGBTQ moments from the night, H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe” won Song of the Year. Billie Eilish won Record of the Year for “Everything I Wanted.” Taylor Swift won Album of the Year for “Folklore,” making history with her record third win in the category. And Beyoncé became the most-awarded woman in Grammys history when she took home her 28th trophy with a win for her 2020 single “Black Parade” — her fourth win of the night — surpassing country singer Alison Krauss’ previous record. She also won earlier awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Savage,” her collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, and Best Music Video for “Brown Skin Girl.”