Grammy 2025: Music always comes back when we need it most

They say three times is a charm, but Beyoncé is the one who says three or four times is a charm.

Beyoncé accepts the Album of the Year award for Cowboy Carter at the 67th Grammy Awards - Photo: Reuters

Beyoncé, after four nominations Grammy for album of the year, finally getting the award she should have received long ago.

It was in a Renaissance song that Beyoncé expressed her indifference about being constantly ignored by the Academy: "Album of the year, I ain't gonna win, I don't care about them, take that punch, I come back and mess up the pen."

It's been so many years...

There's no arguing with Renaissance. There's no arguing with it—even arguing that it deserves to be classified as country music, since the sounds so different from traditional white country music only make it more unique and historic.

The Renaissance is massive in both duration and content, opening up rich, liberal, and constantly changing soundscapes like a sonic epic, both honoring the treasures of American musical heritage and opening up visions and futuristic visions for contemporary music.

Although it's too long for a popular music album, 80 minutes, not a single moment in Renaissance is superfluous, we are completely drawn into its beat.

During her speech, Beyoncé said one line: "It's been so many years...".

"It's been so many years" must be the "topic" for award ceremony Grammy this year.

Because just as people ask: When will Beyoncé get the big award? And people often ask: When will Kendrick Lamar get the honor he deserves?

Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper who has almost exclusively favored classical and academic music, has never won a major Grammy award. The Grammys' neglect of Kendrick Lamar is representative of the Grammys' general neglect of rap music, even in its most prosperous era.

Although a bit late, after all, this year Kendrick Lamar also received glory when he won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the same time with Not Like Us.

The difference is that everyone is happy for Beyoncé, but with Lamar, there is probably one person who is not so happy. That is Drake, the target of this rap attack. Drake and what Drake represents: the fakeness in music, the fakeness of commercial rap, the fakeness in image...

Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga perform The Mamas & The Papas' song California Dreaming in memory of all those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires - Photo: AFP

Brilliant musical memories

And as always, the awards show is only part of what makes the Grammys worth looking forward to. For the average fan, it might even be the performances that they look forward to the most.

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' most memorable moment may not have been when they were together. receive the award for best pop group performance with their hit Die with a smile, which was when they took to the stage to cover The Mamas and The Papas' 1960s song California Dreamin', dedicated to the victims of the historic Los Angeles wildfires.

The dreamy melody and sad lyrics about a California of dreams once symbolized the counterculture of twenty-somethings looking for love, set in a contemporary context, showing that music always comes back when we need it most.

Another touching performance saw Herbie Hancock on piano, Stevie Wonder on harmonica, and younger artists take turns singing a medley of songs by Quincy Jones, one of the greatest producers of the 20th century, who passed away in 2024.

Hancock's classical guitar playing, Cynthia Erivo's flawless vocals, Janelle Monáe's imitations of Michael Jackson (with whom Quincy Jones collaborated on some of his most brilliant albums of the 1970s and 1980s)... all evoke bright musical memories.

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