In 2018, Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the Recording Academy—the music industry organization responsible for the Grammy Awards—was asked by reporters after the ceremony why just 17 of the evening’s 86 awards had gone to women. Portnow’s response?
“It has to begin with women,” he said, before suggesting that female artists needed to “step up.” (Thankfully, just a few months later, it was announced that Portnow would step down, in part due to those comments.)
In the years since, the Grammys have made progress in fits and starts: In 2021, women swept the top four awards, while in 2024, every single televised award was presented to a female artist. Since 2019, the voting body has also been reformed to include younger and more diverse voters, which goes some way to explaining why the awards have come to more accurately reflect the cultural moment over the past few years. Still, Sunday night struck me as one of the most fun Grammy ceremonies I’d ever watched—and I quickly realized that could be chalked up to the fact that, even if they didn’t take home all the prizes they might have deserved, the past year in music was dominated by women. What finally shone through at this year’s Grammys was the sense that the artists being honored weren’t those who played by all the rules, or adhered to an industry mold to achieve success: Instead, the night’s true winners were whose visions were the most uncompromising.
Take Doechii, who took home the best-rap-album prize for the surrealist “swamp princess” genius of her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, becoming only the third female artist in history to win the accolade, after Lauryn Hill and Cardi B. “I know there is some Black girl out there watching me right now, and I want to tell you: You can do it. Anything is possible,” she said in her acceptance speech. “Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, that you’re not smart enough, that you're too dramatic, you’re too loud. You are exactly who you need to be… and I am a testimony.” As if to confirm that, she blew half of the night’s other performers out of the water with an electrifying rendition of “Denial Is a River,” in which she rapped while doing the splits, threw shapes with an army of dancers in matching Thom Browne uniforms, and even invited Issa Rae onstage.
There was also Chappell Roan, who capped her head-spinning ascent to fame over the past 12 months with a powerhouse performance of “Pink Pony Club,” laced with her signature kitsch—and in the process, appeared to bring just about every human being in the arena to their feet. Then, after winning the best-new-artist award, Roan refused to bow to the inevitable pressure she must have felt over the last year to dilute or silence her strong views on subjects from trans rights to the war in Gaza. Instead, she offered a full-throated rebuke of the predatory nature of signing musicians, and the tenuous position so many emerging artists are left in, creatively and financially (also, often without health insurance).
Naturally, given the turmoil of the first few weeks of Trump’s presidency, there were other strands of political conversation woven through the night. And it was nearly always the women who stepped up to share them, whether Lady Gaga honoring the trans community in her acceptance speech, Shakira making an impassioned plea on behalf of immigrants to the US as mass deportations unfold across the country, or Alicia Keys declaring that “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift.”
Then, there were the moments that were political without trying to be, like Beyoncé taking home both album of the year (her first time winning the prize, despite being the most-awarded artist in Grammys history) and country album of the year for the sprawling, playful Cowboy Carter, which sought to reclaim and celebrate the contributions of Black women to country music. Yet while acknowledging these history-making wins—she was also the first Black artist ever to win the best country album award—Beyoncé kept her focus on the music. “I think sometimes genre is a code word to keep us in our place as artists, and I just want to encourage people to do what they’re passionate about, and to stay persistent,” she said.
After all, what these moments pointed to wasn’t necessarily a tokenistic, begrudging attempt by the Grammys to make up for their past sins. Instead, it feels like an authentic reflection of the fact that right now, it’s women who are achieving the most exciting balance of creatively challenging music and commercial success. (This seemed especially clear when the mostly snoozy male nominees for best new artist took the stage—Shaboozey, whose chart-topping juggernaut “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” was nominated for three awards, being the notable exception, not least thanks to his killer Western-inspired suit.) Who could ever have guessed that Charli XCX’s messiest, most vulnerable album yet would see her ride to the greatest success of her career, 15 years in, or that Chappell Roan’s unabashedly campy approach to pop could take her all the way to the top of the charts? Or that Doechii’s thrilling and genuinely innovative spin on hip-hop traditions could see her beat out storied industry greats for rap’s biggest prize?
It was hard not to be reminded of Portnow’s comments—which, in just a few sentences, seemed to dismiss entirely the decades of women fighting to “earn” their place in recording studios and as band members. Perhaps the most delicious two-fingers-up to all of that was the final performance of the night: Charli XCX’s thrilling, uproarious celebration of the spirit of Brat, complete with Champagne flutes tossed to the tarmac, knickers flying in the air, and ass-shaking on the main stage in baby blue hotpants.
The most exciting popular artists today, women or otherwise, don’t need to ask permission from industry gatekeepers to find success—they’re doing it on their own terms. And finally, it feels like the Grammys are catching up.
See every look from the 2025 Grammys red carpet here:
