Some Fun Facts from this Year’s Grammy Awards.
February 12, 2019 6:10AM CST
- President Jimmy Carter won his third Grammy in the Best Spoken Word Album, this time for his Faith – a Journey for All. The win ties him with Orson Welles and Maya Angelou for the most wins ever in this category.
- Dave Chappelle is the first comedian to win the Grammy’s two years running in the Best Comedy Album category since George Carlin in 2000-01.
- Sting is the first artist to win both the Best Reggae Album and Best Pop Album in their career at the Grammys. He won on Sunday with his and Shaggy’s 44/876 duet album for Best Reggae Album. He won for Best Pop Album 19 years ago for Brand New Day.
- Sunday’s Grammy winner for Best Rock Performance was awarded posthumously for the third straight year with Chris Cornell’s – When Bad Does Good. Leonard Cohen’s – You Want It Darker won last year and David Bowie’s – Rockstar won the year before. (Side note … Across his entire catalog solo and with Soundgarden, Cornell has sold 14.8 million albums, 8.8 million digital songs and 30 million records worldwide …. and he is missed everyday.)
- Beck’s Colors is his third win in the Best Alternative Music Album. This puts him in a tie with Radiohead and The White Stripes for the most wins in the category’s history.
- Cardi B winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album for her Invasion of Privacy makes her just the second woman to win in this category and the first to win solo. Lauryn Hill won the 1996 award as a member of the Fugees.
- By winning Best Music Film – Quincy Jones’s, Quincy set two records. This is his 28th Grammy, which is more than any other living person. AND this is the sixth consecutive decade in which he has won a Grammy in competition. Absolutely one of the greatest (and yes I met him once (see below) and he was one of the most humble and generous artists I have ever run across.)
- By winning the Grammy for Best New Artist, Dua Lipa is the first female artist from England to win this category since Adele 10 years ago. (Side note …. Dua Lipa’s first name means ‘love’ in Albanian, which was her grandmother’s suggestion. She is proud of it now but hated it growing up … she wanted a ‘normal’ name so she didn’t have to always explain that she was from Kosovo.” )
- Childish Gabino’s – This is America is the first hip-hop track ever to win for Record or Song of the Year. It also won for Best Music Video, making it just the third release in Grammy history to win Record/and or Song of the Year and Best Music Video.
- Before being know as H.E.R., Gabi Wilson signed a recording contract with RCA Records at age 14 after performing covers of Alicia Keys songs on various TV shows including the Today show and the View. On Sunday she won a Grammy for Best RnB Album of the Year.