Jon Batiste has already taken home four Grammy Awards, including his first ever, in what could be a big night for this year’s leading nominee.
During the show’s pre-telecast ceremony on Sunday, Batiste won for best American roots performance, best American roots song, best music video and tied with Carlos Rafael Rivera for best song written for visual media.
His song Freedom in the music video category beat out several other tough competitors, including Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X and Billie Eilish.
“I am so grateful for the gifts that God has given me and the ability to share that for the love of humankind,” Batiste said.
“We just wanted everyone to see it. Any depression, any bondage or any darkness that was over your life is completely removed by just the love and the joy of the video.”
Batiste — not present for his first three awards — also won for Soul alongside Rivera for his composing efforts on The Queen’s Gambit.
It’s the first tie since 2019 when Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future and James Blake tied with Anderson Paak to win best rap performance.
Batiste — who lost in four other categories — entered the Grammys as the leading nominee with 11 nominations. The losses halted the multi-talented performer from making history for most wins in one night.
Foo Fighters won three awards, but were not in attendance to pick up their trophies following the recent death of its drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The rock band did extend their record for most best rock album wins with five for Medicine at Midnight. The group’s song Making a Fire won best rock performance and Waiting on a War bested other nominees for best rock song.
Australian act Rufus Du Sol won the Grammy for best dance/electronic recording with their track Alive.
TJ Osborne, who came out as gay last year, fought back tears as he and his brother accepted a Grammy for their song Younger Me. He noted the song was inspired by his coming out.
“I never thought that I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexuality. And I certainly never thought I would be here on the stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life changing and potentially in a very negative way,” Osborne said.
“And here I am tonight, not only accepting this Grammy Award with my brother, which I love so much, but I’m here with a man that I love and he loves me back. … “I don’t know what I did be so lucky.”
Osborne performs with his brother John as the Brothers Osborne.
Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson won his sixth Grammy for best music film through Summer of Soul. His documentary also won an Oscar for best documentary feature last weekend.
Chick Corea and Vicente Fernandez each won posthumous Grammys. Joni Mitchell won best historical album for Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967).
Eilish could become the first artist ever to win record of the year three times in a row, and the only artist along with Paul Simon to take home the award three times.
She’s in position to join Adele as the only artists to ever win three major categories — record, song and album of the year — twice. She previously won for Bad Guy and Everything I Wanted.
Trevor Noah returns for a second time as Grammys host. The ceremony shifted from Los Angeles to Las Vegas because of rising COVID-19 cases and the Omicron variant in January, with organisers citing “too many risks” to hosting the performance-filled show at the time.
