Canadians fared pretty well at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, taking home a respectable 5 trophies, despite earning more than 20 nominations total. Drake was up for 5 different awards, an all-time personal best at the Grammys, but The Boy came up short, losing to Kendrick Lamar in every category. That has to sting.
The Weeknd took home a pair of Grammys, earning top honours for Best R&B Performance (“Earned It”) and Best Urban Contemporary Album (Beauty Behind The Madness). Legendary singer songwriter Joni Mitchell received the 9th Grammy of her career, for Best Album Notes (Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced). Yung Bugatti Biebervelli (that is, Justin Bieber) won his first-ever Grammy, shared with Skrillex and Diplo for Best Dance Recording (“Where Are Ü Now”).
The weirdest Canadian Grammy story of the night comes courtesy of Jon Haust (London, ON) and Peter Moore (Hamilton, ON), who won for Best Historical Album (The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11). Basement Tapes is an unreleased recording of Bob Dylan and The Band they found in an abandoned storage locker, nearly 50 years after it was recorded. They restored the recording and released it last year, and probably didn’t expect to earn a Grammy award for it. But here we are.
Why wasn’t there any love for Drake at the Grammys this year? Sure, Kendrick had the best album of the year, but maybe this had something to do with it:
Despite receiving the Key to the City of Toronto on Friday, it’s been a rough couple of days for Drake. Not only did he lose to Reggie Miller in the most-hyped ping-pong battle of all time, he was snubbed by Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant during the super awkward All Star Game introductions. Now, you can a full-on Grammy snub to that list. It’s not often Drake takes an L, but last night, he took 5 of them.
Had “Hotline Bling” been eligible after all, he might have earned his second Grammy. But chin up, Drizzy. There’s always next year.
Views is coming.
For a full list of last night's Grammy winners, click here.
To watch the performances from last night's Grammy Awards, including a medley by The Weeknd and a weird nu-metal version of “Where Are Ü Now” by Justin Bieber and Jack Ü, click here.
