2026 Grammys Recap

This year’s Grammy Awards featured historic wins for Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar, performances from Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, and occasional chaos. And it was a night of speeches that reflected this moment in America. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour https://plus.npr.org/happy See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:20Stephen Thompson?

  We have just watched another Grammy Awards telecast, and it was full of lavish performances, occasional chaos, and historic wins for Bad Bunny and Kendrick Lamar. And it was a night of speeches that reflected this moment in America. I'm Stephen Thompson. It is 1:11 a.m., and we are recapping this year's Grammys on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

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• 2:06Stephen Thompson?

  Joining me is NPR Music Editor Hazel Sills. Welcome, Hazel.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  Hey.

• 2:10Stephen Thompson?

  Also joining us is freelance music and culture journalist Rihanna Cruz. Hey, Rihanna.

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Happy to be here. Hey, Stephen.

• 2:16Stephen Thompson?

  It is a pleasure to have you both on this late night. We have to start with Bad Bunny. His album, "De Bitterarmas Fotos," took home Album of the Year. It is the first ever Spanish-language album to do so. He also won for Best Global Music Performance and Best Musica Urbana Album, where he made a striking speech that directly addressed ICE.

• 2:40Speaker 04

  Before I say, thanks to God, I'm gonna say, ICE out.

• 2:48Stephen Thompson?

  He was met with resounding applause from the audience and went on to say this.

• 2:53Speaker 04

  We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.

• 3:01Stephen Thompson?

  Bad Bunny notably didn't perform. He is performing at the Super Bowl halftime show this Sunday. So he's having a big February, to say the least, after a very, very big year. What do y'all make of these wins for Bad Bunny?

• 3:14Speaker 03

  I mean, I called it the day the album came out last year. I said, this will be the next Album of the Year. And I'm happy to be proven right. I was really caught up emotionally, watching him, you know, break down in tears when the award was announced. And him accepting the award for Album of the Year and dedicating it to people that have had to immigrate and the Puerto Rican community. Like, it made me really emotional. And I think this is such an important moment in his career, for him to win for an album that is so singular and pointed in its messaging and its sound. I was really taken aback. There was a moment there where I didn't think he was gonna win. I was like, GNX is gonna win Album of the Year, you know?

• 3:59Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, I thought so, too.

• 4:00Speaker 03

  I'm happy it was Bad Bunny. My money was on him.

• 4:03Speaker 05

  You know, I wasn't as sure as you were that he was gonna take this. Because I think, I mean, unless you've sort of been living under a rock for the last few years, like, I mean, Bad Bunny- Bunny has become one of the greatest pop stars like in the world, like superstars. And I feel like his win is a really big deal for his career personally, like you said, Rihanna. But it's also a really big deal for the music industry because I feel like it is a testament to how much Latin music is just pop music.

• 4:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:39Speaker 05

  Like gone are the days of like, you know, Shakira having to record in English, Latin artists having to record in English, having to do these crossover moments. Like something that I've always really loved and respected about Bad Bunny is that he's never tried to crossover into the American market. He sings in Spanish, he sings about Puerto Rico so intimately and personally. So it feels like, oh, this is a moment where Latin music is not just this like segregated genre in the music industry at large. Like it is just simply American music, pop music.

• 5:14Stephen Thompson?

  I think it's also, this is a big moment for the Grammys. You know, one year ago, we kind of convened this podcast late at night to talk about the Grammys and how they had finally given album of the year to Beyonce and how the Grammys had this long history of lavishing Beyonce with awards, but mostly shutting her out in the general categories in ways that made her music feel like it was viewed by Grammy voters as somehow niche or less than, or that's this market over there. But when it came time for the general categories, it's like, no, here it's Harry Styles and, and or Beck or, you know,

• 5:52Speaker 05

  Don't remind me.

• 5:54Stephen Thompson?

  Or any number of people who have beaten Beyonce for album of the year. Latin music has kind of been somewhat in the same boat. It has these categories, it has a huge audience. Uh, Un Verano Sinti was nominated for album of the year. You know, Bad Bunny has been represented in this category before, but to suddenly have a Spanish language album, win album of the year at the Grammys, that is a major, major breakthrough.

• 6:18Speaker 03

  Totally. And I, I think in the context of the Grammys, I think of like when Ricky Martin performed La Copa de la Vida at The Grammys in 1999, right? And that was seen as like a watershed moment for Latin music. But when you watch the performance, there's this element of like fetishization towards Latin music and culture in that performance. And to look at that and look, you know, at Bad Bunny winning for a Spanish language record, like, that's really remarkable. And it makes me excited, quite frankly, for the direction the Academy is going with their album of the year picks between Cowboy Carter last year and Debiturad this year.

• 6:59Stephen Thompson?

  So as we mentioned, Bad Bunny is performing at the Super Bowl halftime show next weekend. The big Super Bowl halftime show performer of last year also had a big night at the Grammys this year. Kendrick Lamar surpasses Jay-Z to become the Grammy-winningest rapper of all time. Kendrick Lamar won five Grammys tonight, bringing his total to 27, including Record of the Year for Luther with SZA. What'd you all think of Kendrick Lamar's night?

• 7:28Speaker 05

  I mean, I'm thrilled for him. I have to say, I'm still a little surprised by how popular Luther is or has become. I just didn't-

• 7:38Speaker 03

  I agree, Hazel.

• 7:39Stephen Thompson?

  How are you surprised? That song is so great.

• 7:40Speaker 05

  I'm not saying it's not great. I'm just saying that of all the songs on that album, like, there's just something about Luther that it feels like one of the poppier songs on that album. And maybe, actually, now that I'm saying this, I'm like, maybe that's why.

• 7:54Stephen Thompson?

  That speaks to why. I thought it was interesting when Kendrick was accepting the Grammy and he thanked, you know, the estate of Luther Vandross. He had to clear that sample to do the song and basically was told, you can use the song, you can't swear in the song. And I think that's part of what makes that song so enormously radio-friendly. That like, that restriction ended up kind of increasing the enormous kind of commercial success and obviously now award success of that song.

• 8:25Speaker 03

  I was never a fan of Luther as a song, so, well-

• 8:30Stephen Thompson?

  I love it.

• 8:30Speaker 03

  It's the fact that I live in Los Angeles and I turn on the radio and I hear every other track from that album.

• 8:36Stephen Thompson?

  Sure.

• 8:37Speaker 03

  And then Luther comes on and I go, okay, this is the least inventive song of what we got cooking. You know, like I'm a big Squabble Up fan.

• 8:44Stephen Thompson?

  Sure. I mean, I love that song too.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  Right. Like him winning best rap album was solely for Squabble Up to me. Shout out Debbie Deb on that sample. But anyway, I, I-

• 8:55Stephen Thompson?

  The TV off won best rap song.

• 8:57Speaker 03

  Yeah. And when Lefty Gunplay went up to accept the award, I heard the strongest LA accent I've ever heard in my life. And I was very happy to hear that. I'm happy he picked up awards tonight, him meaning Kendrick Lamar. I think of when Drake was trying to diss him and said Kendrick just opened his mouth, somebody give him a Grammy right now. Very prophetic, a prophetic line.

• 9:20Speaker 05

  Also not that big of a burn.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  No, not at all.

• 9:22Speaker 05

  I'm like, what are you saying there?

• 9:24Speaker 03

  I put diss in quotes, you know, Drake intended it to be a diss, but it really was like history in the making.

• 9:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:30Stephen Thompson?

  Certainly not the meanest thing that was said between those two men.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  No, not at all.

• 9:34Stephen Thompson?

  Speaking of Luther Vandross and Kendrick Lamar, when Record of the Year was handed out, we should note that the award was handed out by Cher. So Cher was winning a lifetime achievement award, but they also wanted her to hand out the Record of the Year trophy. So she kind of gives her speech about her lifetime in music and then sort of wanders off stage and they have to kind of call her back onstage to give out Record of the Year. And when she opens the envelope, this happens.

• 10:01Speaker 05

  Oh, the Grammy goes to Luther Vandross.

• 10:05Speaker 03

  God bless Cher.

• 10:06Speaker 05

  She kind of mumbled it in a way where I was like, is that what she said? I was like, what are you saying? But yes, she definitely said that.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  She said it with such surprise that I felt like she was like, oh, Luther's alive?

• 10:16Stephen Thompson?

  I feel like he died a while ago.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  Right. Like she was actually caught off guard when she was saying it. It was very charming. I love Cher.

• 10:25Stephen Thompson?

  I think it spoke to the kind of general sense of chaos that permeated a lot of the night. It permeated some of the performances, which we'll get to in a moment. It permeated some of the speeches, which were often very passionate in a lot of different ways. Did you have a favorite chaotic moment on the night?

• 10:42Speaker 05

  I think my favorite chaotic moment-

• 10:46Speaker 05

  Of the night was when Alex Warren kind of slipped up during his.

• 10:51Stephen Thompson?

  I think his in your monitor kind of failed him.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:54Speaker 05

  Kind of failed him and I, I, this is coming from a very petty place because you know, Stephen, I edit your charts column every week. We are very well acquainted with the song Ordinary by Alex Warren. Former TikToker. Yes. Yeah, we've heard it. We've heard it once or twice. And I just, out of all the artists in that Best New Artist medley who performed, Alex Warren was the one that I was least looking forward to. And so, you know, and I think also when we have these artists who kind of start out their careers online or sort of become very famous through TikTok, the biggest question in my mind is like, well, how well can they perform in these settings? And so when he slipped up a bit, this is so mean of me, even as I'm saying.

• 11:39Stephen Thompson?

  That is so mean.

• 11:41Speaker 05

  I'm sorry. He picked it up, but I was just like, I don't know. I don't like that song. And how long is he going to be staying around? I don't know.

• 11:48Speaker 03

  I don't like that song for what it did to like weddings and Love is Blind. Like it really like. It changed the culture in a negative way.

• 11:57Speaker 05

  Cause Love is Blind is such a pure cultural phenomenon that it can't be tainted.

• 12:01Stephen Thompson?

  He sullied it.

• 12:03Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 12:04Speaker 03

  I do want to say my favorite chaotic moment was also in the Best New Artist medley, which personally was the highlight of the night for me. I gotta say, I think it was an incredible crop of nominees. Quite frankly, I was really wowed by most of them, even the people that I didn't really like, like Sombra. Like I was watching his performance and I was like, oh, okay. I get it.

• 12:23Stephen Thompson?

  There was great energy in that. I like that kid.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  When he came down in the like disco ball suit and everybody in the room was like, you know what? He's kind of wearing that. I was like, exactly. I understood. But my favorite chaotic moment was the transition from Addison Rae into Cat's Eye.

• 12:43Speaker 05

  Oh, God.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Where everybody in the room that I was in started screaming because everybody was so gagged.

• 12:55Stephen Thompson?

  I mean, those were two very dance forward performances.

• 12:59Speaker 03

  Totally. Lots of choreo and I love Cat's Eye. Do I think they're very good? No, but like, can they do no wrong? Absolutely.

• 13:06Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, their songs are very catchy.

• 13:09Speaker 03

  Right. And I was really enthralled by them and I loved their performance and I thought it was just quite remarkable to see artists like Addison Rae and Cat's Eye have the Grammy stage because it felt so surreal to watch that, you know, to watch Addison Rae perform Fame is a Gun. I was like, wow, like this feels like it can't be real.

• 13:35Speaker 03

  You know, and I think that like surreal chaos was my favorite moment of the night.

• 13:39Stephen Thompson?

  Well, I'm glad that you guys both kind of ended up picking something from the Best New Artist medley because I did want to mention the winner of Best New Artist. I mean, this was a crop of very, very successful kind of current charting artists. They really managed to pick, as you kind of indicated, Rihanna, a real cross section of strong talent.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:00Stephen Thompson?

  Leon Thomas was in there. I mean, Mola Young was in there. She ended up winning Best Pop Solo Performance for Messi later in the night. But the winner of Best New Artist, which I think we all saw coming, right?

• 14:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, totally.

• 14:12Stephen Thompson?

  Was Olivia Dean. And Olivia Dean performed Man I Need, which is one of the biggest hits in the world right now.

• 14:23Stephen Thompson?

  You're gonna see Olivia Dean at the Grammys a lot more. And one thing that I said to Hazel over Slack as she was performing was this song would have won a boatload of Grammys in 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006.

• 14:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:40Stephen Thompson?

  That song is Grammy's bait that could have come from any of the last 50 years.

• 14:47Speaker 03

  It's a kind of timeless hit. Like you don't really get those very often.

• 14:50Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah.

• 14:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm not even like the biggest Olivia fan.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 14:53Speaker 05

  But I know that she can perform and seeing her perform especially stacked up against all those other artists, like as soon as she came on the screen. I was like, it's just, it's her. Like, the energy that she's bringing aside from the kind of like retro soul sound, like, she's just kind of like a ray of sunshine. And you know what? Whatever I feel about her music, like, she's a great performer. And it's very well deserved.

• 15:19Stephen Thompson?

  She's magnetic.

• 15:19Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 15:20Stephen Thompson?

  She's magnetic.

• 15:21Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 15:21Stephen Thompson?

  And, again, not surprising that she took this category at all. Now, Rihanna, when I think of Rihanna Cruz.

• 15:28Speaker 03

  Oh, no. What's coming, Stephen?

• 15:31Stephen Thompson?

  The word cloud that forms

• 15:33Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 15:33Stephen Thompson?

  around my dear friend Rihanna Cruz.

• 15:35Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:35Stephen Thompson?

  Probably the biggest word that pops up is like, either it's Lady Gaga or Little Monster.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  Absolutely. I'm wearing a Lady Gaga shirt right now, Stephen.

• 15:45Stephen Thompson?

  You are one of my favorite Little Monsters.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  Thank you. That's an honor.

• 15:48Stephen Thompson?

  She had a big night. She won Best Pop Vocal Album for Mayhem. She won Best Dance Pop Recording for Abracadabra, which also won Best Remix Recording. And she performed a rock version of Abracadabra that felt like one of the big, brash, live highlights of the night.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, I really enjoyed that performance. No surprise there. She kind of always is morphing along with the music. It's a living creature that is constantly changing shape. And that's what I really enjoyed about this performance, is that Gaga is very clearly comfortable in the rock avenue. The performance was great. I was enthralled. I loved it. And it felt very pared back, you know, comparatively to other Gaga performances.

• 16:35Speaker 05

  I was gonna say, I didn't get paired.

• 16:37Stephen Thompson?

  I was gonna say, pared back.

• 16:39Speaker 03

  Performances.

• 16:39Stephen Thompson?

  This was not spare.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  No, I think when she came in, in the Egg, you know, you remember the Egg Gaga performance?

• 16:45Speaker 05

  Ugh.

• 16:46Speaker 03

  Things like that. It was pared back comparatively speaking.

• 16:49Speaker 05

  True. I actually think Lady Gaga's performance was my favorite performance of the night. Her performance was the one that I was looking forward to the most because I actually do think Lady Gaga has been too pared back. Like, most of the times I've seen her, especially at the Grammys, like, don't even get me started on that Die With a Smile version that she did with Bruno last year. Like, and you know, she's been working on her Film career and she's been doing her work with the late Tony Bennett. And I really missed like the Gaga, you know, that I grew up with. The like glam goth, like dancy Gaga. And I feel like we really got her in this performance and I loved Mayhem. I honestly could have done with more Mayhem. I wanted like a medley. I wanted like

• 17:33Stephen Thompson?

  Sure.

• 17:34Speaker 05

  Full old school. And but I, I think that what she gave us was just so dramatic and rock opera-y and I, I loved.

• 17:44Stephen Thompson?

  Well, and it was part of a larger theme I felt on the night when it comes to the performances is I felt like there were big like rock is back vibes. That kind of came up quite a few times over the course of the night. The entire telecast opened with, speaking of Bruno Mars, Bruno Mars and Rosé from Blackpink. They had that song Apate, which was like a massive, massive hit. It was nominated for song and record of the year, but they like turned it into a stroblit rock spectacle. Right? Even like Justin Bieber playing Yukon. It's like him in his boxers, you know, shirtless with like an electric guitar. And he's like, got like a loop pedal, but then he like loops one riff and like usually you kind of layer those riffs.

• 18:26Stephen Thompson?

  But okay, throughout the night, there was a lot of rock energy. You know, we'll talk about the in memoriam in a moment, but like the in memoriam segment, the tribute to Ozzy Osbourne kind of presided over by Post Malone that had like that, kind of that big guitar smashing energy. It felt like there were more rock moments in these performances than there were rock records nominated for major Grammys.

• 18:51Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's like, part of me is like, oh, you know, were there really rock moments? Or was it just like the aesthetics of rock? Right? Because it's, you know, the Grammys has a really weird relationship to rock music. I feel like every year I look at the rock categories, the alternative music categories. And they're so out of step with

• 19:09Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah.

• 19:10Speaker 05

  The great rock music, especially like indie rock music that's out these days. And, you know, the rock categories haven't been televised, you know, during the official broadcast in, you know, years, which really speaks to You know, rock's status in in popular music these days. But yeah, there was something really fascinating to me about, you know, all those moments that you mentioned, Stephen, of, you know, people sort of taking on these like rock star archetypes. I think Bieber was the most fascinating to me where, you know, swag was an album that obviously sort of took Justin Bieber's sound and gave it this kind of folky indie rock sound. He worked with all these great producers like Dijon.

• 19:51Speaker 05

  But then he just chose to go solo, like get up on stage and just sort of do this weird kind of bedroom reenactment.

• 19:59Stephen Thompson?

  Who needs all these brilliant collaborators like McGee when you can just have the same guy?

• 20:04Speaker 05

  Well, you can pretend to be McGee. Right.

• 20:06Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 20:08Speaker 05

  But yeah, it's like, you know, what is it about this year that we have all of these artists who are kind of play acting being rock stars in a way? I don't know.

• 20:18Stephen Thompson?

  So in Song of the Year, it ended up being a little bit of a surprise. Billie Eilish ended up winning for Wildflower. She co-wrote that. And then when it came time to give her speech, she ended up touching on immigration. No one is illegal on stolen land. And it was such an interesting mix, right, of like the surprise of that song winning. That song is a very tender, very quiet, very kind of contemplative song. But then the speech ended up giving that moment this kind of explosive feel.

• 20:53Speaker 05

  Yeah, explosive feel. And I also think, you know, Billie is an artist who has won so many times.

• 21:00Stephen Thompson?

  So many times.

• 21:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:01Stephen Thompson?

  She's 24.

• 21:02Speaker 05

  Grammy darling, Academy Award darling at this point, like an awards darling. And, you know, I felt in that moment when she got up there and she made that speech, artists, do we want them to make political statements when they give speeches? Like, how much do we expect of artists? But I think, you know, for her, I just felt this moment of like, okay, she's been here so many times. Like, what new thing is she gonna say about getting an award? And I saw her, you know, use her platform to express these political opinions. I feel like that is, you know, a privilege that can come with being this person who is so lauded by the Academy and, you know, is so used to coming up on stage so many times to accept these awards.

• 21:45Speaker 05

  So that was, that was interesting to me that she took that moment to say those things.

• 21:49Speaker 03

  And I also think Wildflower is objectively a good song. You know, I'm not mad that it won. I don't really, you know, enjoy Billie Eilish. I wouldn't consider myself a fan, but like, that is a song that I, I think is really well crafted. And in terms of songwriting is kind of infallible. So I'm not super surprised that it won. I think it went to one of the best songs in that category. And I, I don't know. I feel like maybe the Grammys also like engineers category. So Billie Eilish could win. You know, there's a conspiracy afoot somewhere.

• 22:21Stephen Thompson?

  They started the song of the year category decades before Billie Eilish was born.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  Why is Wildflower in this category, even though it was on Hit Me Hard and Soft, which was in last year's cycle? Riddle me that, Grammys. I demand answers.

• 22:36Stephen Thompson?

  That, what you got there is a good question.

• 22:38Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 22:39Stephen Thompson?

  I wanted to run through a few kind of milestone moments, not necessarily the headlining, record of the year, album of the year moments, but they are fairly significant in their own right. Y'all can shout your reactions if you want, but I just wanted to tick them off. Steven Spielberg was one of like umpteen people who ended up winning a Grammy for a John Williams documentary. You know, he was one of the producers on. Steven Spielberg now has an EGOT. So we've got an EGOT to check off.

• 23:06Speaker 05

  Thrilled for him.

• 23:06Speaker 03

  Let's go, Big Steve.

• 23:08Stephen Thompson?

  Finally, that kid catches a break.

• 23:09Speaker 05

  He really needed it. He really needed recognition.

• 23:12Stephen Thompson?

  He did. We now have the youngest individually named Grammy winner. Future and Aura V. Aura V is eight years old and she beats out a grizzled industry veteran by the name of Blue Ivy.

• 23:27Speaker 05

  Cold.

• 23:27Stephen Thompson?

  So there was an eight-year-old Grammy winner.

• 23:29Speaker 03

  Awesome.

• 23:30Stephen Thompson?

  Also, they were involved, this was during the day, in one of the most charming speeches you'll ever see. Look it up. The Tiny Desk, the NPR Tiny Desk, made a showing at the Grammys.

• 23:42Stephen Thompson?

  Paco Amoroso, one for Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album, and a big chunk of that album, Popota, is their Tiny Desk Performance. So that's a little milestone for our colleagues.

• 23:53Speaker 05

  Crazy.

• 23:54Stephen Thompson?

  For the first time, they gave out an award for Best Contemporary Country Album. They kind of split country into contemporary and traditional. The award for Best Contemporary Country Album was won by Beautifully Broken by the artist Jelly Roll, who gave a very impassioned speech. Right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. One other thing I wanted to touch on briefly was the in memoriam segment, where they had, unfortunately, as always, a lot of ground to cover. You had Reba McEntire, Brandi Clark, and Lucas Nelson kind of kicking it off with kind of a survey of a lot of the people who had died. Then you had these tributes to, first it was Ozzy Osbourne, which we kind of already mentioned.

• 24:35Stephen Thompson?

  Then you had a really lavish D'Angelo tribute that Ms. Lauryn Hill kind of presided over with a bunch of guests. That segued complete with Ms. Lauryn Hill into Roberta Flack. As it went along, it felt like it got more chaotic, but there were so many kind of legends on stage at the same time. It was, you couldn't turn up your nose at all that spectacle.

• 24:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, John Legend and Shaka Khan especially. Which came at like the kind of tail end of that enormous performance.

• 25:04Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, but they're like, here's Shaka Khan, and you're like, what?

• 25:06Speaker 05

  Wait, yeah. I was thrilled that Lauryn Hill made it. I was being really snarky. I was being really snarky, and I was like, that's a lot of performance to hinge on Lauryn. But you know what? I take it all back. She showed up and was incredible.

• 25:20Speaker 03

  I thought it was really great how she brought out Wyclef Jean to end with Killing Me Softly.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  Like, it was a moment that I didn't necessarily foresee, but as soon as it happened, I was like, oh, of course. This is the end point, right? This is where we're ending up.

• 25:39Stephen Thompson?

  Yeah, and I mean, those were just some of the kind of standout performances over the course of the night. But we haven't even mentioned Sabrina Carpenter, who just has really come to put on these enormously high-production High concept stage shows. She's so theatrical and so funny. She did Man Child with like an airplane. And then Bruno Mars.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  He performed twice.

• 26:03Stephen Thompson?

  He performed twice.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  Nobody else gets to perform twice.

• 26:04Speaker 05

  He can do whatever he wants. He'll probably be hosting next year. Like, he can do whatever he wants.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  I'm here for it.

• 26:10Stephen Thompson?

  You can't host and win eight Grammys.

• 26:12Speaker 05

  Okay, but if anyone could do it.

• 26:13Stephen Thompson?

  Because that's what's gonna happen.

• 26:15Speaker 05

  Don't you think it would be Bruno Mars?

• 26:17Speaker 03

  That's real.

• 26:17Speaker 05

  If anyone at Tonight could have done it. Actually, Sabrina wouldn't be a bad host and performer, actually.

• 26:22Stephen Thompson?

  I would love that. And of course, we're talking about who's gonna host next year because Trevor Noah has said this is his last year hosting. He manages to stay kind of under the radar as the host, but I think his work keeping this show on rails is really underrated.

• 26:37Speaker 03

  I thought this was his best hosting job in years, quite frankly. I think like in past years, I feel like he has a tendency to let jokes go on a little bit too long. I think he has a tendency for things to fall flat. You know, he's kind of like a groaner. When you watch it and you're like, oh, okay. You know, this year, I think he was really on track. He was funny. He was keeping up the banter. And I think because it was his last year, there was an air of ease that came over the telecast. You know, like, he didn't really care. I'm sure he cared, but you know, there was this air of like, whatever, this is my last year. I'm gonna say whatever I want. I'm gonna do whatever I want. And it felt very easygoing.

• 27:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, musicians are, I don't know, compared to like the Academy Awards or the Globes, musicians are very self-serious. And I feel like Trevor Noah, like Stephen, to your point about like controlling the ceremony, I think like also just making it funny and making it fun is also kind of hard. And I, I don't know, Trevor's bit with Bad Bunny the whole night about trying to get him to sing, which he legally could not perform because of the Super Bowl duties next weekend, was really funny, really funny to me.

• 27:42Stephen Thompson?

  I agree. I thought he did a very nice job and I have appreciated his efforts. Hosting awards shows is really hard.

• 27:51Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 27:51Stephen Thompson?

  And I think he has done a very nice job. Well, we could not possibly get to everything that happened over the course of this umpteen hour telecast, but we want to know what you. Think about this year's Grammys, find us on Facebook at facebook.com/PCHH. One last thing before we go, we are pulling back the curtain and letting Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters sit in virtually on a live episode taping. They'll get to see how the show is made and experience this episode before everyone else. We're going to be talking about something Oscars related, one of our favorite topics. This is going to happen over Zoom on Friday, February 13th at 3:00 PM Eastern, noon Pacific.

• 28:35Stephen Thompson?

  If you are not a Plus supporter yet, go to plus.npr.org/happy. Again, that's plus.npr.org/happy. If you're already a Plus supporter, thank you so much. Scroll back in your feed to January 22nd to learn how to register for the taping. That brings us to the end of our show. Rihanna Cruz, Hazel Sills, thank you so much for staying late and being here.

• 28:59Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 29:00Speaker 03

  Thanks for having us, Stephen.

• 29:01Stephen Thompson?

  Such a pleasure to have you both. This episode was produced by Carly Rubin and Mike Katzif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all tomorrow.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.