The biggest winner in terms of pure numbers turned out to be Kendrick Lamar, taking home five awards, all for his hit single “Not Like Us.” On top of winning best rap song and performance as well as best music video, Lamar took home two of the “Big Four” awards, winning song of the year and record of the year. This marks the second time a rap song has won record of the year, joining “This is America” by Childish Gambino. Lamar’s landmark night gives him even more momentum that he will look to carry into Sunday, Feb. 9 where he is set to headline the Super Bowl Halftime show.

While Lamar took home two of the biggest awards of the night, the absolute biggest award went to one of the biggest stars, Beyoncé. The singer took home the album of the year award for her country album “Cowboy Carter” after previously being nominated and losing four times in the  category. Beyoncé’s win, along with two others for best country album and best country duo/group performance, extended her record for most wins by a single artist, running her career total up to 35. Beyoncé also became the first black woman to win album of the year since Lauryn Hill won the award in 1999 for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

The final award in the big four, best new artist, was arguably the most competitive and each nominee was given a chance to introduce themselves to the public with a performance. One of the highlights was rapper Doechii’s medley of her two hits “Catfish” and “Denial is a River.” While Doechii did not win the best new artist award, she was honored with the best rap album award for her debut album “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” joining Cardi B and Lauryn Hill as the only women to ever win the award. The best new artist honor ended up going to Chappell Roan, whose meteoric summer rise made her a popular prediction. Unsurprisingly, based on her reputation, Roan gave a speech calling out record labels for not paying artists livable wages and offering healthcare, yet another example of the up and coming star using her platform to spread awareness about causes near and dear to heart.

Roan was not the only one to use her speech as a call to action, as Lady Gaga used her time on stage after winning a grammy to call out the mistreatment of trans citizens by many high-ranking officials in the US government over the last few weeks. Gaga was accepting the grammy after winning in the best pop duo/group performance category for her track “Die with a Smile,” a collaboration with Bruno Mars. The win marked Gaga’s third in the category, a record for the category.

Artists who won multiple grammys included Sabrina Carpenter with two wins and Charli xcx with three. Both women performed medleys of hits from their 2024 albums with Carpenter performing “Espresso” and “Please, Please Please” and Charli performing “Von Dutch” and “Guess.”

While there are plenty of winners on grammys night, there are just as many snubs and two of the biggest acts to go home empty handed were Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Both women have  plenty of experience winning grammys and seemed primed to add to their collection, but neither ended up receiving an award at any point during the ceremony.

Arguably the night’s biggest surprise came when The Weeknd delivered a performance of two tracks off his recently released album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” The singer’s performance marked the first time he had attended the grammys since he swore to boycott the event four years ago, marking him and the Recording Academy making amends.

Near the end of the telecast, viewers were treated to a wonderful tribute to the late, great Quincy Jones, narrated by Will Smith. The tribute featured performances from Stevie Wonder, Cynthia Erivo, Herbie Hancock and Lainey Wilson with the finale being a thrilling Michael Jackson cover by the one and only Janelle Monáe.

Overall, the 2025 Grammys served as a perfect conclusion to one of the most monumental years in recent music history. New stars were born and old stars were honored, and we were all just grateful to watch.