Year: 2022

Doja Cat has been through it since she broke out in the music industry, with strange rumors and bad faith accusations following her even as she rose to the top. The release of her album, Planet Her, cemented her weirdo status, but also moved Doja even more into the mainstream. In fact, sometimes it feels like the mainstream moves with her. Nothing illustrates that better than one of the album’s early singles, a collaboration between SZA and Doja called “Kiss Me More” that has stuck around for months.

Tonight, the Grammys honored the song further with a victory in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category, but Doja was so sure she wasn’t in the running that she opted to go to the bathroom right before the honor was announced. SZA made her way up to the stage rather slowly due to her crutches, with Lady Gaga thankfully helping her out with the long gauze train of her dress, and Solana had to kill time for a few moments while Doja made her way out of the bathroom and up onstage. “I’ve never p*ssed so quickly,” Doja blurted, before praising her collaborator, giving SZA a chance to speak, and then tearfully returning to the mic to let the Recording Academy know just how much the award really meant to her.

Lately, Doja has been threatening to retire from the industry all together… hopefully this changes her mind. For good. Check out the whole drama above.

HER, the multitalented R&B revivalist, has become a fixture at the Grammys over the past few years. In 2019, she played her song “Hard Place,” and then in 2020, she performed “Sometimes.” While she took 2021 off from performing, she still made an appearance to pick up her golden gramophone for “I Can’t Breathe.”

This year she returned to perform once again (as well as possibly also taking home more hardware), and with so much Grammys experience under her belt, just one song wouldn’t be enough. Her performance turned out to be a medley featuring “Damage,” “We Made It” and a cover of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” (a song she’s been playing on tour since last year). She was joined onstage by a who’s-who of heavy hitters that included Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Travis Barker, and Kravitz himself. Her elegant, stripped-down set saw her change wardrobe, take to her drum set, and of course, play a wailing solo on her guitar with Lenny accompanying her and Travis tripping out on drums.

This year, HER tied with Doja Cat and Justin Bieber for second-most Grammy nominations with eight apiece after Jon Batiste with 11. The 24-year-old singer is nominated for Album Of The Year for her debut album Back Of My Mind, Song Of The Year for her song “Fight For You” from the Judas And The Black Messiah soundtrack, Best R&B Performance for her Back Of My Mind single “Damage,” Best R&B Song for “Damage,” Best R&B Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for “Hold Us Together” (Hope Mix) with Tauren Wells, and Best Song Written For Visual Media for “Fight For You.”

Last year, the formerly mysterious Bay Area singer secured Song Of The Year for her protest anthem “I Can’t Breathe,” as well as Best R&B Song alongside Robert Glasper for her appearance on “Better Than I Imagine” with Meshell Ndegeocello. The wins prompted her to proclaim her intention to eventually be an EGOT winner (winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award). With her win at last year’s Oscars for “Fight For You,” she’s halfway there, and at just 24 years old, she’s still got plenty of time — and the talent — to grab the rest.

Watch HER’s 2022 Grammys performance above.

A little over a year after he ended his hiatus with the release of 2020’s Changes, Justin Bieber made a quick return with his sixth album Justice. As expected, the project gave him another chart-topping album to his name but it also gave him a slew of Grammy nominations at this year’s award show. They include selections in the Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album categories. Songs on the album were also selected in the Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance categories.

Aside from the possibility of winning an award tonight, Bieber also took to stage for a chill performance. Joined by Giveon and Daniel Caesar, the trio performed “Peaches” live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Bieber kicked off the performance with quite the slowed-down rendition before speeding things up just in time for Giveon and Caesar’s verses.

The song itself is one that was nominated for Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best Music Video. “Peaches,” which set the record for the most songwriters on a Grammy-nominated song, lost in the latter two categories leaving the first two as the only opportunities for Justin to win and to help give Giveon and Caesar their first Grammy awards.

You can watch the trio’s performance in the videos above.

Tyler The Creator is now a two-time Grammy Award winner for Best Rap Album after picking up his second award prior to this year’s ceremony for his 2021 album, Call Me If You Get Lost (and this time it was an actual… y’know… rap album). While he wasn’t at the ceremony to accept the award in person — due to the fact that he’s currently on the way to Portland, Oregon for his next Call Me If You Get Lost Tour stop — he did check in with fans to celebrate via Instagram Live. He also took the opportunity to once again troll his old rival DJ Khaled, flexing on him once again with both the Grammy win and the sold-out status of his current arena tour.

“First off, I’m hyped,” Tyler said. “Thank you to [Call Me If You Get Lost producer] DJ Drama. You are f*cking so important to rap music… Thank you to all of my friends for being my cheerleaders. Thank you to my whole team, the whole squad… and [thank you to DJ Khaled]. I know you’re seething and angry and [saying], ‘Ugh, no one listens to that album!’ These arena tours that are selling out say different, and if you put that much energy into something, maybe everyone will be proud of you too.”

Of course, the issue between the two stems from the shared release week of their albums in 2019. A rant that DJ Khaled gave on Snapchat defending his album from Twitter trolls was interpreted as a slanted attack on Tyler’s album Igor, prompting Tyler’s ongoing petty. With this win, it looks like he’s now up 4-0 on his rival, even if their rivalry is pretty one-sided. Lil Nas X may be the current reigning rap troll, but Tyler set the standard, and clearly, he hasn’t lost his touch.

This year’s Grammys are a big one for Jon Batiste. The New Orleans star was nominated in eleven categories including Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best R&B Album, and more. His total of eleven nominations for the 2022 Grammys makes for the second-most ever in the award show’s history and, in large part, Batiste’s recognition at the Grammys comes as a result of his eighth album We Are. He described the project as “a representation of genreless music that’s just about the story” and “a culmination of my life to this point.”

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Now we get to see a piece of We Are live on display through his performance of “Freedom” from the album. His performance of the song was quite the vibrant effort as the stage was flanked in bright colors and Batiste himself was also full of life during his set as he danced and pranced from every corner of the stage. Out of his eleven nominations, Batiste has won in four categories so far. He won in the Best Americana Roots Song Performance and Best American Roots Song categories for “Cry.” He was also honored with wins for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media and Best Music Video.

After the nominations for the Grammys were revealed, Batiste shared a very excited reaction to his eleven nominations. “WOW!! Thank you God!! I love EVERYBODY!” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m so grateful to my collaborators and to my ancestors [crying emojis] 11!”

You can watch Jon Batiste’s Grammy performance in the video above.

Sunday night was a coronation for the South Carolina Gamecocks, as the best team in women’s hoops led wire-to-wire in a thoroughly dominant performance against the UConn Huskies to win their second national championship.

The Gamecocks jumped on the Huskies from the opening tip, taking a 13-2 lead in the blink of an eye and quickly asserting their dominance on both ends of the floor. Coming into the game the question on everyone’s mind was how UConn would deal with South Carolina’s size, namely AP Player of the Year Aliyah Boston, and early on it was apparent the Huskies didn’t have an answer.

South Carolina dominated on the glass, particularly on the offensive end where they got 20 boards alone, creating one second chance opportunity after another. Boston led the way with her board work, hauling in 14 to go with nine points, three assists, and a pair of blocks.

With so much focus on Boston from the Huskies defensively, it opened up opportunities on the perimeter and Destanni Henderson stepped up to have a monster performance, leading all scorers with 26 points on 9-of-20 shooting, including a 3-of-6 night from three, as she attacked the UConn defense and punished them for overhelping on Boston in the pick-and-roll game.

On the other end of the floor, South Carolina simply overwhelmed the Huskies with their length and activity, forcing 15 turnovers and holding UConn to just 41.5 percent shooting from the field (and 25 percent from three). That activity, coupled with their dominance on the boards, allowed them to hold UConn to one shot on most every possession (UConn had five offensive boards all game) and also get out and push the tempo to apply further pressure.

Paige Bueckers was hounded throughout by Henderson and the aggressive South Carolina defense, finishing with a team high 14 points, but needed 13 shots to get there as the Huskies star just could not establish a rhythm. Caroline Ducharme gave them a boost off the bench with nine points as their second leading scorer, and the Huskies would make a third quarter run to make things competitive and cut the deficit to six points.

But the Gamecocks quickly regained control in the fourth quarter and opened up a double-digit lead again on their way to a 64-49 win, as Dawn Staley hoisted her second national championship trophy.

It was a sensational performance from South Carolina, who had some struggles early in the tournament establishing their offensive rhythm but found it as the games wore on and saved one of their best performances for last, leaving no doubt who was the best team in the title game. The 2022 team joins the 2017 team in hoisting the championship trophy, and also earns the distinction of being the first team to beat the UConn women in a title game (the Huskies entered the night 11-0 in championship games).

Aside from the chaos that the “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video caused, another big moment for Lil Nas X as he prepared for his Montero debut album came with the release of “Industry Baby.” He released the song with Jack Harlow and the song became his third chart-topping song after “Old Town Road” and “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Lil Nas’ collaboration with Harlow also came with a great music video that showed off some of Lil Nas’ dance moves during multiple scenes at the fictional Montero County Jail.

However, some people hoped to see Harlow show off some of his own moves in that video. After hearing from a good amount of disappointed fans, Harlow took to Twitter to clear the air. “Nas wrote the whole treatment for this video and I followed his lead every step of the way,” he wrote. ” If he had asked me to be in that shower scene I woulda been in that shower scene. I just let the mastermind cook. Honored to be apart of it.” Lil Nas himself jokingly chimed in and tweeted, “To the lgbtq+ community i sincerely apologize. i have failed you. i am embarrassed. i am ashamed. and i will learn from my mistakes.”

Well, it seems like Lil Nas did learn from his “mistakes” as he made sure to include Harlow in some portions of his dance routine during their 2022 Grammy performance of “Industry Baby.” Harlow leaned and swayed with Lil Nas and his backup dancers as he started performing his guest verse, and by the time he was done, Harlow got into the full swing of the routine before walking off the stage.

You can watch Lil Nas and Harlow’s performance of “Industry Baby” above and move up to 3:26 to see Harlow’s entrance.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cardi B has deactivated her Twitter account again after some fans got a little too rambunctious in her mentions over skipping the Grammys. According to Rolling Stone, Cardi addressed the abuse before deleting her account. “I’m deleting my Twitter but on god I hate this f*ckin dumbass fan base,” she wrote. “You got the slow dumbasses dragging my kids all cause y’all [thought] I was going to the grammys and I didnt the f*ck ? When the f*ck I hinted I was going ? just f*vkin stupid I can’t I needs to protect myself.”

Rolling Stone listed some of the replies that made Cardi take her latest break. “I bet yo son wouldnt like for you to be on your ass while teasing us fans and not ever dropping music,” one read. When Cardi responded (and maybe overreacted) “I hope your moms die,” another person taunted, “do you kiss your @utistic child with that mouth?”

Cardi most recently disabled her account in the spring of 2021, which some speculated was for her to have time to finish her upcoming sophomore album. While that album still has yet to materialize, she has since had a second child, and her health and family should absolutely take priority over her work. Before that, she deleted the account when fans harassed her husband Offset in 2020. Cardi has spoken about the dark side of social media in the past, so it’s possible she could return but it certainly makes sense why she would want to take a break from it once in a while.

The night is young, and Lady Gaga has already won multiple awards at the Grammys tonight. Though the star has recently been recognized for her work with elderly entertainers, she’s actually been partnering with Tony Bennett on jazz standard albums for the last seven years. Cheek To Cheek, the duo’s first album, came out back in 2014, and back then it picked up the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Last year, the jazz-singing duo announced they’d be doing another joint album, Love For Sale, along with some TV special performances.

And though last year at the Grammys, Gaga was all about her Chromatica era, this year, she’s shifted gears to promoting her jazzier collaboration. Love For Sale won once more for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and picked up a victory for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. To celebrate those two wins, and the lasting artistic partnership these two legends have established, Gaga and took to the stage tonight in Vegas to give fans a peek into the jazzy universe their album created. First she performed “Love For Sale” with some wacky jazzy dance moves, and then moved directly into the jazz standard “Do I Love You?” Tony sadly wasn’t able to be present, as he retired from performing last year, but he introduced Gaga with a cute video and blew her a kiss to kick off the medley. Check it out up top.

John Legend is a veteran at the Grammy awards. He’s taken home 12 awards and he’s been nominated on 33 occasions throughout his career. This year, Legend wasn’t nominated in any categories, but it hasn’t been too long since he was nominated at the show. In 2020 and 2021, he won in the Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best R&B Album categories respectively, and in 2019, he was nominated in the Best Musical Theater Album category. While Legend won’t leave with a trophy this year, he did make an appearance at this year’s Grammys, and with it came a Ukrainian tribute performance of his new song “Free.”

The track is one that Legend just released today, and it sees him pleading for freedom and an unrestricted life backed by the soft presence of the piano, stirring strings, and a powerful choir. His performance was introduced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the current president of Ukraine, who gave a speech about the country’s ongoing war with Russia. Legend was also accompanied by Ukrainian singer Mika Newtown and Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk for the performance.

Prior to his appearance at the Grammys, Legend became the latest artist to sell their music catalog. According to Bloomberg, Legend sold his copyrights and rights to royalties of his catalog to KKR & Co. and BMG, with each company getting a 50-percent stake. It was not revealed how much Legend made from the deal.

You can watch the Legend’s performance of “Free” and listen to Zelenskyy’s speech in the videos above.