The 2025 Grammys Celebrated Black Artists the Right Way
Sunday night’s 67th annual Grammy Awards shined the spotlight on Black artists in all different categories. Black artists took home some of the biggest awards of the night, giving them their well-deserved props and recognition. The Grammys are the music industry’s most coveted night, recognizing and displaying music’s most notable artists. Last night, Black artists were a force to be reckoned with.
This year, Black artists were in the lead for categories like Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best R&B Album, and Best New Artist.
Beyoncé continued to make her mark on the music world and was in the lead with 11 nominations in categories like Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country Album.
She took home the award for Best Country Album and is the first Black woman to ever win a Grammy in that category. She also won Album of the Year for the first time.
Beyoncé | Kevin Winter, Getty Images
In her debut country album, Cowboy Carter, she highlighted Black country artists like Shaboozey and the rich Black history within the country music genre. Beyonce even welcomed Shaboozey to share the field with her during “Beyonce Bowl” in December 2024.
Shaboozey was nominated for six Grammys with his song “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” one of his biggest hits in 2024. He made history in November when his hit song tied the record for most weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The song took the number-one spot for 19 weeks.
Another Grammy Award category where Black artists were shining is Best R&B Performance. R&B’s sweet and sultry sounds comfort our souls. Artists like SZA, Muni Long, Chris Brown, and Coco Jones are a few artists who have made an impact on the music world in the past few months. Our favorite twin, Muni Long, was nominated for four Grammys and won in the Best R&B Performance category. She blew us all away with her live performance of “Made for Me” at the BET Awards in 2023.
Muni Long | Gilbert Flores
SZA released her deluxe album SOS Deluxe: LANA in December of 2024. Her album debuted with 38 songs and “Saturn” won a Grammy for Best R&B Song.
The release of Chris Brown’s 11:11 album came at the perfect time and made us all wish for more. The album debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart with popular songs like “Residuals,” which has been nominated for Best R&B Performance. Chris Brown had three well-deserved nominations this year and took home the Grammy for Best R&B Album with the 11:11 Deluxe Album.
Coco Jones has always been our girl and we were so excited to see her at the Grammys this year. With the release of popular songs like “ICU” and “Double Back,” we are getting introduced to her style and flow. “Here We Go (Uh Oh),” released in May, was nominated for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song.
The rap girlies have also been dominating the field. Two of our favorites, Doechii and GloRilla, lead the Best Rap Performance category and Latto was been nominated in the Best Melodic Rap Performance category for her hit song “Big Mama.”
Doechii | Frazer Harrison, Getty Images
Doechii took home a Grammy for Best Rap Album and delivered a heartfelt speech encouraging young black girls to never give up on their dreams.
Kendrick Lamar was a big winner last night. He took home another one of the biggest awards, Record of the Year, for his hit song, “They Not Like Us.” The song also won Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Music Video.
Kendrick Lamar | Monica Schipper, Getty Images
Of course, we can’t forget the Afrobeats genre. Artists like Tyla, Ayra Starr and Davido have been dominating the scene. Their songs have had us all singing and dancing along, inspiring some of our favorite TikTok trends. Burna Boy and Tems were nominated for Best African Music Performance and Tems took home the win.
As we tuned in to the Grammys on Sunday night, these were some of the Black artists we were definitely rooting for and the star-studded night turned out to be everything we hoped it would be.