57th Annual Grammy Awards
The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST (UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time.[2]
57th Annual Grammy Awards
February 8, 2015
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Sam Smith (4)
Beyoncé, Sam Smith, Pharrell Williams (6 each)
25.3 million viewers[1]
The Grammy nominations were open for recordings released between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014. Breaking from tradition of a prime-time concert approach, the Grammy nominees were announced during an all-day event on December 5, 2014, starting with initial announcements on the CBS This Morning telecast, followed by updates made through The Grammys' official Twitter account.[3]
Sam Smith won four awards, including Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year for "Stay with Me" and Best Pop Vocal Album for In the Lonely Hour. Beck's album Morning Phase was named Album of the Year. This prompted Kanye West, who later said he thought Beyoncé should have won, to jokingly leap onstage to interrupt Beck in a re-enactment of his 2009 MTV VMA scandal, but West left the stage without saying anything.[4] Both Pharrell Williams and Beyoncé took three honors; with her wins, Beyoncé became the second-most-honored female musician in Grammy history following Alison Krauss. Lifetime Achievement awards were given to the Bee Gees, George Harrison, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, and Flaco Jiménez.[5]
In all, 83 Grammy Awards were presented, one more than in 2014.[6]
The show aired simultaneously on Fox8 in Australia,[7] Sky TV in New Zealand,[8] and on Channel O in South Africa.[9]
Pre-telecast ceremony[edit]
Not all Grammys were presented during the live telecast. As in previous years, most awards were handed out during the so-called pre-telecast ceremony, held at the Nokia Theater next to the Staples Center, which takes place during the afternoon before the main show. From 2015 on, this ceremony has been known as the Premiere Ceremony.[10] Approximately 70 Grammys were presented at this ceremony, consisting of the "minor" categories.
As usual, had a number of small changes in the voting and awarding process:
The Best American Roots Performance is a new category in the American Roots genre field. It was presented to the creators of the best performance in this genre field, which includes traditional Northern American (or regional roots) musical styles such as cajun, zydeco, polka and others.
Another new category is the Best Roots Gospel Album in the Gospel genre field, for gospel albums in the aforementioned musical styles, including traditional southern Gospel music.
The Gospel genre field was redefined to make a clearer distinction between the traditional gospel music and the style known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). As mentioned above, the Best Roots Gospel Album category is new. The categories in the Gospel field will now be known as Best Gospel Performance/Song, Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, Best Gospel Album, Best Contemporary Christian Music Album and Best Roots Gospel Album.
For the first time, the use of samples and/or interpolations of other works in a new track was permitted in the various songwriters categories. Until now, samples were only allowed in the Best Rap Song category, but these are now also eligible in the Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, Best R&B Song, Best Country Song, Best Gospel Performance/Song, Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, Best American Roots Song and Best Song Written For Visual Media categories.