Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment, and its family of artists, labels and distributed partners were widely recognized at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, with Samara Joy named Best New Artist and Kendrick Lamar winning three Grammys including Best Rap Album for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
Kendrick Lamar (pgLang/TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) additionally won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “The Heart Part 5” and Samara Joy (Verve) also won Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile. Sam Smith (Capitol) and Kim Petras (Republic) won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Unholy.” Petras made history as the first female transgender artist to win the category.
Universal Music Publishing Group songwriters won the Best Rock Song, Best Rap Song, Best R&B Song categories, among others, and Tobias Jesso Jr. won the first-ever Grammy for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical.
Dr. Dre (Interscope/Aftermath) was awarded The Recording Academy Global Impact Award, which going forward will be named after the pioneering artist, producer, founder, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment.
Drake (Republic) won Best Melodic Rap Performance for his role in Future’s “WAIT FOR U,” featuring Tems. Robert Glasper (Concord) won Best R&B Album for Black Radio III and Muni Long (Def Jam Recordings) won Best R&B Performance for “HRS & HRS.”
Madison Cunningham (Verve Forecast) won Best Folk Album for Revealer. Brandi Carlile’s “Broken Horses” won Best Rock Song and “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” by Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde (BMLG) won Best Country Duo/Group Performance. “Bayethe” by Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode (Universal Music South Africa) won Best Global Music Performance
In the Gospel category, “Kingdom” by Maverick City Music and Kirk Franklin, won Best Gospel Performance/Song and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for “Fear is Not My Future.”
