The 10 Best Grammy Acceptance Speeches

The Canadian singer won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Performance for her groundbreaking feminist anthem, “I Am Woman.” He said: “I would like to thank God, because he makes everything possible.” People were outraged—it was easily the most controversial speech in Grammy history at the time, years before Ariana Grande got away with “God Is a Woman.” She is Helen Reddy. hear her roar.

The Irish lads won big the year The Joshua tree. Edge and Bono gave two of the funniest Grammys speeches ever. Bono fell out with rock critics The Village Voice. Edge thanked a long, strange list of heroes, including Jimi Hendrix, Walt Disney, Flannery O'Connor, James T. Kirk, Dr. Ruth, George Best, Gregory Peck, Batman and Robin, Pee-wee Herman, the YMCA, and “sumo wrestlers around the world.”

Sinatra won it Lifetime Achievement Legend Award, with a tribute from Bono. It was a fitting career tribute for the 78-year-old “Chairman of the Board”. A moment of respect, right? Not exactly. Unfortunately, the Grammys cut Sinatra off in the middle of his speech – so they could cut to a commercial. He didn't even have time to finish. No one interrupts Frank. One of the creepiest Grammy moments of all time.

The Wu-Tang Clan madman didn't win a Grammy that night, but that didn't stop ODB from giving the best speech of the night. Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs won Best Rap album instead of Wu. Later, while Shawn Colvin was accepting her Grammy for Song of the Year, ODB made a surprise jump to the podium. “Wu-Tang is for the kids!” write down. “We teach the kids, you know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best!”

Lauryn Hill was the night's big winner — the first woman to win five Grammys in one night. She won Best New Artist, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song and Best R&B album, while her classic solo debut, Lauryn Hill's Bad Education, became the first hip-hop album to win album of the year. How did you celebrate? Bringing a Bible to the microphone and reading a psalm to the confused crowd. “I waited patiently for the Lord,” it read. “He brought me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.” Maybe it was her way of hinting that she was about to take some serious leave from music.

The Purple made a surprise appearance at the end of the night to present album of the year. What a fine entrance: The Prince came out twirling his cane, greeting the crowd with a regal smile and a baby-I'm-a-star eye roll. “Albums – remember them?” he said. “Albums still matter. Albums, like books and Black lives, still matter.” Proof that Prince could always stop the show without having to sing a single note.

Swift became the The first woman to win album of the year twice, taking top honors 1989. (She later scored the hat trick in 2021, when she won her third album of the Year Grammy, for Folklore. (And if she wins this year, she'll be the all-time AOTY leader.) She had a message for her fellow female artists, urging them to make their own music despite all the opposition: “I want to say to the young women out there, you'll there will be people along the way who will try to undermine your success or take credit for your achievements or your reputation.”

The singer of “Havana”. featured U2, in a live performance from the Statue of Liberty. (They did “Get Out of Your Own Way” — remember that?) But Cabello had a few things of her own to say, with strong words about immigration and the anti-immigration hysteria of the current political climate. “We remember that this country was built by dreamers, for dreamers, chasing the American dream,” he said. “I'm a proud Cuban Mexican immigrant, born in East Havana, standing before you on the Grammy stage in New York.”

In her first trip to the Grammys, everyone's favorite Albanian disco queen won Best New Artist, after already winning the Grammy for Best Dance Recording for “Electricity.” But, oh, she had a sassy attitude. “So many incredible female artists this year,” Lipa said. “I guess we made a big step this year!” There was a shocked silence in the crowd, as her joke was the only time all night that anyone brought up Grammys president Neil Portnow's controversial comment from the previous year that women needed to “step up.” This was the same ceremony where Lipa and St. Vincent did their unforgettable duet on “One Kiss/Masseducation,” so yeah, Lipa had a good night.

Nobody gives a Grammy speech like Beyoncé, who, after all, had little time to perfect the craft: She's won more Grammys than any artist in history. That's 32, if you're keeping score, breaking the record set by classical conductor Sir Georg Solti. But Bey gave her most memorable speech earlier this year, the night she was nominated for nine Grammys and won four of them, officially becoming the all-time Grammy champion. She kept it short (103 words) and gave a touching shout-out to her late uncle Johnny, a gay disco fan, a fitting tribute given disco's LGBTQ roots Renaissance. “I want to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre,” Beyoncé said. “God bless you.”