Bruno Mars pulled off a clean sweep of album, record and song of the year categories at the 2018 Grammy awards on Sunday night, upsetting odds-favorites Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z to take home the evening’s three most prestigious awards.
The 24K Magic singer won all six awards he was nominated for, while Lamar went home with five and Jay-Z, who had the most nominations of any performer with eight, was left empty-handed.
The night reached a towering emotional summit when Kesha, joined by Cyndi Lauper, Camila Cabello, Andra Day, Julia Michaels and members of the Resistance Revival Chorus, performed her ballad Praying.
The performance was the culmination of a years-long comeback for the singer, who accused the producer Dr Luke of sustained emotional abuse and rape and was involved in a protracted defamation suit with him. Kesha was introduced to the stage by Janelle Monáe, who gave a rousing call for the music industry to do its part in ending sexual abuse: “Just as we have the power to shape culture, we also have the power to undue the culture that does not do us well.”
Lamar, the second most nominated artist of the night, kicked off the ceremony with a medley of songs from his album Damn. Lamar, who has nabbed a nomination in at least one category for six consecutive Grammys, was joined by Dave Chappelle and Bono, who features on Lamar’s song XXX.
“The only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America,” said Chappelle, who returned to present Lamar with the award for best rap album, in a preamble to the rapper’s performance. “Is this OK? On CBS?”
The ceremony was not without its gimmicks, too, most notably a recorded segment that featured the host James Corden auditioning various celebrities to narrate the audio version of Michael Wolff’s bombshell book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. John Legend, DJ Khaled, Cardi B and Cher all made cameos, but none were more surprising than that of Hillary Clinton, who read a line from the bestselling exposé aloud, much to the chagrin of the UN ambassador, Nikki Haley.
Many of those attending walked the red carpet with white roses to honor the victims of sexual abuse, a piggyback off the Time’s Up pin badges celebrities wore to the Golden Globe awards this month. A group called Voices in Entertainment, led by Meg Harkins of Roc Nation and Karen Rait of Interscope Records, spearheaded the initiative.
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