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

They say three strikes and you're out, but Beyoncé has to try four times.

Beyoncé receives 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, she finally received the award she should have received a long time ago.

In one of Renaissance's songs, Beyoncé once defiantly expressed her indifference to being overlooked by the Academy: "Album of the Year, I'm not going to win, I don't care about them, take the punch, I'll turn around and smash my pen."

It's been many, many years...

Renaissance is unbeatable. There's no arguing with that album—even arguing whether it deserves to be classified as country music, given its sound so different from traditional white country music, only makes it more unique and historically significant.

The Renaissance was massive in both length and content, opening up abundant, expansive, and constantly changing sonic landscapes like an epic poem, both celebrating the treasure trove of American musical heritage and opening up visions and futuristic visions for contemporary music.

Although it's a bit long for a mainstream album, at 80 minutes, not a single moment in Renaissance is wasted; we are completely drawn into its rhythm.

In her speech, Beyoncé said, "It's been so many years...".

"For many, many years" is probably the "topic" for awards ceremony This year's Grammy Awards.

Because, just as people ask: When will Beyoncé receive her most important award? And people often ask: When will Kendrick Lamar finally receive the recognition he deserves?

Lamar, a rapper who won the Pulitzer Prize, an award almost exclusively given to classical and academic music, has never won a major Grammy award. This neglect of Kendrick Lamar represents the Grammys' general disregard for rap music, even during the genre's heyday.

Although a little late, Kendrick Lamar finally achieved some glory this year, winning both Record of the Year and Song of the Year with "Not Like Us."

The difference is that while everyone else is probably happy for Beyoncé, there's one person Lamar probably not so happy about. That's Drake, the target of this rap attack. Drake and what Drake represents: hypocrisy in music, hypocrisy in commercial rap, hypocrisy in image...

Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga performed The Mamas & The Papas' song "California Dreaming" to commemorate all those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires - Photo: AFP

A radiant musical memory

And as always, the awards ceremony is only one part of what makes the Grammys worth looking forward to. For neutral fans, sometimes what they look forward to most are the performances throughout the show.

Perhaps the most memorable moment for Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars wasn't when they were together. receive award For the best group performance in pop history with their hit "Die with a Smile," 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 melodies and melancholic lyrics about a California of dreams, once symbolic of the counterculture wave of young people in their twenties searching for love, when placed in a contemporary context, further demonstrate that music always returns when we need it most.

Another moving performance was when Herbie Hancock on the piano, Stevie Wonder on the harmonica, and younger artists took turns singing a series of songs by Quincy Jones, one of the greatest producers of the 20th century, who passed away in 2024.

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

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