The fifth time was the attraction for Beyoncé on the Grammy Awards.
On Sunday, following 4 earlier losses for album of the 12 months, the singer’s newest LP, “Cowboy Carter,” a country-tinged treatise on style’s difficult relationship with race, took dwelling the trade’s prime trophy. Beyoncé, 43, grew to become simply the fourth Black lady to ever win album of the 12 months and the primary in additional than 1 / 4 of a century, following Lauryn Hill in 1999, Whitney Houston in 1994 and Natalie Cole in 1992.
“It’s been many, a few years,” Beyoncé stated with a giggle in her acceptance speech, dedicating the win to the Black nation singer Linda Martell, who seems on “Cowboy Carter” to debate the complexity of style.
“Cowboy Carter” topped a crowded area that additionally included albums by André 3000, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Jacob Collier, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift, who holds the file for album of the 12 months wins, with 4.
The win, considered one of three on the night time, introduced Beyoncé’s profession Grammy whole to 35, probably the most by any artist, though she had beforehand gained simply as soon as within the massive 4 classes of album, track and file of the 12 months, and finest new artist: “Single Women (Put a Ring on It)” took dwelling track of the 12 months in 2010.
For years, Beyoncé’s lack of a serious victory on the Grammys has dominated dialog across the present, standing in for its fraught relationship with awarding feminine musicians, particularly Black ones, in prime classes. Previous achievements just like the audacious visible album “Beyoncé,” the non-public opus “Lemonade” and the dance-music tribute “Renaissance” had been considered front-runners earlier than shedding to albums by Beck, Adele and Harry Types. (Swift’s second album, “Fearless,” additionally defeated Beyoncé’s “I Am … Sasha Fierce” in 2010.)
On the awards final 12 months, Beyoncé’s husband, the rapper Jay-Z, delivered a speech criticizing the present for its snubs of his spouse and others whereas accepting a lifetime achievement award. “Even by your individual metrics it doesn’t work,” he stated. “We wish you to get it proper — a minimum of get it near proper.”
Pictured onscreen within the viewers after Beyoncé’s breakthrough win, Jay-Z and Swift shared a toast.