The 2025 Grammys took place on Sunday night (or early Monday morning, from South Africa’s perspective) in Los Angeles, US. As expected (and hoped for by this fan), Beyonce finally won the top prize for Album of the Year for her album Cowboy Carter – an award withheld till now despite her winning the most Grammys of any artist and being up for the prize three times previously.
What wasn’t expected was rapper Kendrick Lamar sweeping all five of the categories he was nominated in, including two of the “big four” awards – Record of the Year and Song of the Year. All five awards remarkably went to just one song: Not Like Us, the definitive clapback in his headline-making feud with fellow musician Drake last year. The whose-who of the industry chanted along to the song’s controversial lyrics, implying Drake is a paedophile as Lamar took the stage. We wonder if the Canadian rapper is again briefing his lawyers over the allegations.
The number of Black artists taking home trophies was poignant, given it was Black History Month in the US. It also spoke to a correction on the party of the Grammys, which has seen boycotts by artists like The Weeknd and even Jay Z over the lack of transparency in the voting process.
The Recording Academy’s CEO, Harvey Mason Jr, took to the stage during the night to address these issues, noting the academy has made big changes over the past few years. He then went on to welcome The Weeknd back to the stage.
Back in 2019, the body committed to overhauling its voting membership, which was skewed to older, white and male – and some who were no longer actively involved in the industry – a requirement to vote.
In the five years since, they have dramatically changed the make-up of voters, with two-thirds of current voters joining since then.
The voting body is now made up of 13000 insiders. Women now make up about 30% of total voters after 3000 were added (sheesh, the numbers must have been really bad before!) And people of colour now make up nearly 40% of voters, Mason noted.
It’s made for a far more diverse Grammys than in the past. As Alicia Keys put it when accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award: “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift.”
She was referencing newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump’s war on diversity and inclusion policies across the country – he even tried to blame a recent deadly plane crash on diversity hires – with no proof.
But if the Grammys are newly committed to diversity, one wishes they would apply that philosophy outside the tiny fishbowl of the very specific culture of California. The ceremony felt a little navel-gazing, and there isn’t much acknowledgement that this is a globally watched event. For example, homegrown superstar Tyla was completely snubbed by the Grammys this year, failing to land a single nomination despite an incredible year and taking home trophies at other Western awards like the 2024 MTV Europe Music Awards.
As we’ve told you previously, the Grammys’ newish “Best African Music Performance” category, which Tyla won previously, leaves a lot to be desired. It tends towards Nigerian-influenced Afrobeats, failing to acknowledge the full richness of music coming out of the continent.
In addition, there were repeated references to the recent LA fires. That crisis has largely been overtaken by the global crisis facing the world’s poorest as Trump pulls US aid and funding to the developing world.
And while South Africa’s own Trevor Noah hosted the awards for the fifth time in a row, his usual comedic interludes were regrettably cut in favour of repeated asks for donations for victims of the fires. It left him looking a little dead-eyed and uninspired as a host.
It made for a rather earnest ceremony that, while far more politically correct from the US perspective, could have done with a little more acknowledgement of the world outside the Los Angeles bubble.
Verashni is passionate about empowering citizens to hold those in power to account. She was previously editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian and HuffPost South Africa, and won the CNN African Journalism Award, among others.
