Grammy winners slam immigration policies

For more on this and the big moments from last night's show, we're joined now by Brittany Spanos. She's a music journalist and the writer of BRIT POPon Substack. Brittany, welcome. Great to have you with us. Thank you. Let's start with that. What did you make of how political some of the red carpet pins were, as well as the speeches? Yeah, I mean, it was really incredible to see so much of the music community really rally behind this sentiment of getting ICE out. And so there was pins on the red carpet. A lot of people, even in the pre-ceremony, where most of the awards were announced, were giving speeches like this, Shaboozey, Kehlani very notably did. And during the big ceremony, of course, Bad Bunny, the first award that he was presented of the night during the main ceremony, he took the opportunity to speak out, and Billie Eilish as well. So it was really incredible to see.

And he had a huge spotlight on him, Bad Bunny, last night. He seemed to be overcome with emotion, in fact, when he won Album of the Year. This is the first Spanish-language album to win. We know this is so important to him. Let's just take a look at his reaction. [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

And we jump to the part where he stood up. But he sat there and took it all in for a good 20 seconds. What is the significance of this for him?

I mean, it's such a historic moment all over. I mean, this is coming a week before his Super Bowl halftime performance, which obviously, has been very exciting for many huge fans of Bad Bunny, but of course, mired in controversy from people who don't want to see a Spanish-language performance at the Super Bowl, even though he's from Puerto Rico, which is--

The United States. Yes. So, you know, and he-- it's just such a great moment because he's been the biggest artist in the world so many years now. Last year was just kind of him taking it to the next level. I mean, he's just an incredible artist. The entire room was emotional for him. I mean, it's really amazing to see Lady Gaga was sobbing during his speech.

Yeah, yeah, it's rare to get that level of emotion too.

Yeah. And as I predicted on Friday, Olivia Dean won for Best New Artist and also performed her hit "Man I Need." Let's play a little bit of that British lady's performance. (SINGING) Come be the man I need Tell me you got something to give I want it I kind of like it when you call me wonderful

In addition to having a great voice, she always just looks like she's having a good time up there. What do you make of her win?

Yeah, I mean, it was so exciting to see that. She had such an incredible boost over the last couple of months with "Man I Need." It took off on TikTok. I mean, the song has been out since last spring. It's been-- the album came out pretty early last year. And so it's amazing to see what sort of rise it had, especially after the nominations. You know, the artists that had an Album of the Year nomination from Best New Artist was Leon Thomas. So he was the runner for a while. But I'm happy that a couple of the best new artists also took home other awards. Lola Young won. Leon won in Best R&B. So it was really great and special to see Olivia get honored in Best New Artist. Well done to Olivia. What else stood out to you? I know we were talking about Cher's prompter mishap and getting things-- she was 79 years old. But what happened? It was very much similar to some of those, like, Oscars, sort of movie-- like the Best Film flubs, Warren Beatty and Al Pacino and things like that. But I think it was-- I feel like it was kind of a confusing setup, where she was sort of winning a Lifetime Achievement Award. So she was accepting that and then had to present Record of the Year. So she kind of walked off for a little bit. And then she came back. And then she thought the winner was going to be on the teleprompter. And it wasn't. So she had to open the envelope. And she read Luther first. And she said, "Luther." She meant to say Luther Vandross. And she said Luther Grandoss. And anyway, very she was very clearly very apologetic to the winners. And Kendrick Lamar really seemed to love it. He was really appreciative because the song is so much a dedication to Luther Vandross and samples him on it. We've all flubbed the prompter once or twice. You know? Brittany Spanos hey, it's a live event. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate you. Thank you for having me.