The 61st Annual Grammy Awards aired Sunday night. Although controversy presented itself over celebrity performances such as Ariana Grande, the awards showed women dominance in performers and presenters, after Alicia Keys became the first woman to host the Grammy Awards in 14 years. This was surprising after last year's backlash when social media users utilized the hashtag #GrammysSoMale to call out the awards lack of gender diversity. The only woman to win a major award was Alessia Cara, while other male artists such as Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran won the rest. In response, Neil Portnow, president of the Grammys, claimed women should “step up” if they wanted to be recognized at the ceremony.
Clearly, women fired back this year after multiple women victories. Some major victories were Kacey Musgraves who won album of the year for Golden Hour and Cardi B who won best rap album for Invasion of Privacy, making her the first woman to win this award as a solo artist.
A noticeable victory was Dua Lipa’s who won best new artist. In her acceptance speech, Lipa said, "I just wanted to say how honored I am to be nominated alongside so many incredible female artists this year because I guess this year we really stepped up!" This called out Portnow’s controversial comment from 2018.
Out of the 17 performances in the three-plus hours, only four male acts were telecasted. After performances from artist such as Camila Cabello, Janelle Monae, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Jennifer Lopez, and Lady Gaga, female power was proudly exhibited in this year's ceremony.
