OPE! Mixtape #54: I was at the Grammys

An on-the-scene report from Sunday's ceremony

Welcome to OPE!, the newsletter by writer and music journalist Brady Gerber. This is where I share the top music news of the week, my favorite (and new-to-me) songs and links, and various musings on life. All typos are intentional.

Well, hello there. How are you?

I was at the Grammys on Sunday!

This was my first time attending the Grammys as a member of the Recording Academy, and I had a good time. I even ran into a few friends and colleagues in between the premiere ceremony, where most of the Grammy awards are handed out, and the telecast, the main event. During the premiere ceremony, we sat next to two strangers who, five minutes after we sat down, won the Grammy for Best Recording Package for Charli XCX’s Brat. Shockingly, I was not seated next to Taylor Swift. Still, we had lovely seats where we could see everything happen in real time. This was also weirdly one of the better-sounding arena shows I’ve been to.

For paying subscribers, this week’s Big Three includes a deeper analysis of some of the takeaways I felt from being in the room on Sunday.

In the meantime, here are some gut reactions, in no particular order:

• Tame Impala won their first Grammy!

• Kanye continues to be every middle school’s edgy kid (you can Google what he “did” this year).

• Tough beat for Drake.

• Hanz Zimmer won a Grammy for his Dune: Part Two score. Score one for the worm farts.

• The Beatles won a Grammy for their bland AI song and that sucks. (I wrote about this whole debacle somewhat recently.)

• I didn’t know about Benson Boone’s whole bit about the backflips, so … was not expecting that …

• I’ve been underwhelmed by “Not Like Us” since it came out—I still fall along the lines of “Kendrick won the Kendrick vs. Drake beef battle by making a Drake album, so we all lose”—but somehow watching Kendrick win all those Grammys made me love the song more. The loudest cheers within the arena came from Kendrick’s wins.

• As far as the corny tribute section does, Chris Martin did a good enough job.

• I don’t think Taylor Swift was happy to get shut out from any of the major Grammys, the first time this has happened to her in a while. But she’s probably relieved that she didn’t win Album of the Year this year to then deal with insane Beyoncé fans turning her into (even more of) a villain.

• Meanwhile, Kacey Musgraves looked pissed that she didn’t win best Country album. What a loser.

• I had to Google to remember what Kacey Musgraves’s album was called.

• Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga are doing well for themselves in their Vegas eras.

• I’m going to steal Lady Gaga’s haircut.

• The Weeknd burying the hatchet with the Grammys was fine … and convenient, since he had a new album to promote that wasn’t really doing well. (I still haven’t heard it.) (Update this morning: I listened to it, and it’s eh.)

• I’m glad the André 3000 flute album didn’t win. What a snooze.

• Not that most people under 40 care about Americana music, but Sierra Ferrell’s sweep of the major Americana Grammys cements her as the official next big thing. She’s not bad.

• Now that Billie Eilish has broken her streak of winning too many Grammys, most of which I still feel she didn’t earn, I now feel more inclined to like her. “Birds of a Feather,” not bad.

• Charli XCX is your friend who will tell you she’s about to do something edgy and then does something not edgy.

• Julia Fox is your friend who will tell you she’s about to do something edgy and then does something edgy and you go, “Jesus Christ what is wrong with you.”

• I loved the “I Love L.A.” opening cover and the general tone of most of the tributes to Los Angeles. This is a hard tone to maintain over hours of showtime, so credit where it’s due. The firefighters coming out to hand out Album of the Year felt genuinely special. The longer I live in LA, the more I appreciate how the Randy Newman classic is the unofficial song of the city because of its spiteful origins.

• Trevor Noah: By the way, we also care about DC and Philly.

• Jacob Collier fucking sucks.

• Can Gracie Abrams and Ethel Cain duke it out to finally settle who is the more boring goth.

• It was fun being there, but even I thought the ceremony was too long.

So long, 2025 Grammys. See you next year.

But enough about all that. Here are the top music news, and my favorite links and songs of the week …

Loving this behind-the-scenes look at the Grammys? Become a paying subscriber to dive deeper into the following biggest music stories of the week and gain access to my curated links and mixtapes, for the cost of just one cup of coffee per month. You can also make a one-time donation to my coffee fund.