The Grammy Awards, the most important US music award, have been presented in a total of 91 categories since 1959. Over the years, some artists and bands have not only been able to enjoy the awards and nominations, their successes have also gone down in the history of the awards. These records were set:
The record for the most Grammy Awards won as an individual artist is currently held by Beyoncé (42) with a total of 32 awards. The previous record holder, whom Beyoncé beat at the 2023 awards ceremony, was the Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti (1912-1997), who had long held the record with 31 Grammy Award wins. Solti was known as a leader of orchestras throughout Europe before serving as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 22 years. Behind them is music producer, composer and jazz musician Quincy Jones (90) with 28 awards. When it comes to bands, U2 is at the top of the list with 22 awards.
Overall, Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z (54) can share a nice record. With 88 nominations each, no one was considered more often by the organizing Recording Academy in the categories.
The American singer Taylor Swift (34) also broke a nomination record before this year’s Grammy Awards. Thanks to the nomination of her hit “Anti-Hero” at the upcoming awards ceremony in the “Song of the Year” category, she achieved something historic: never before has anyone been nominated for this prestigious category seven times. She previously shared the record with Paul McCartney (81) and Lionel Richie (74).
It is not surprising that the “King of Pop” also set records at the awards: Michael Jackson (1958-2009) holds the record for the most awards by a single artist with eight Grammy wins from twelve nominations in 1984 Event. The band Santana also took home eight awards in one night. Together with Babyface (64), Jackson also shares the record for the most nominations for an artist in one evening.
Santana won a total of nine awards in 2000 with her album “Supernatural”. Technically, the Song of the Year award did not go to Santana, as the song on Santana’s record was by Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas. Nevertheless, the album is the most awarded of all at the Grammys. However, the work has to share the record: in 2005 and 2006, U2 also picked up nine prizes with “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”.
At the Grammy Awards, even the youngest became the greatest: the members of the country band The Peasall Sisters were eight, eleven and 14 years old when they were honored in 2002. Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter (12) is the youngest individual artist to be honored; she was nine years old at the 2021 ceremony. She worked with her mother on the song “Brown Skin Girl,” which won for Best Music Video. At the age of 18, Billie Eilish (22) was the youngest artist to win in the “Album of the Year” and “Record of the Year” categories. Pinetop Perkins (1913-2011) set a milestone with his award in the “Best Traditional Blues Album” category in 2011: at 97 years old, he is the oldest winner.
At the Grammys, people are particularly looking forward to the awarding of the four main prizes (“Big Four”). US singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (72) was the first artist to win awards in all four categories: “Record of the Year”, “Album of the Year”, “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist”. He even won these awards in one year. Adele (35) won the awards in 2009, 2012 and 2017, and Billie Eilish was happy about the four awards in 2020.
Not all artists have been able to win the music prize in the past. Mastering engineer Chris Gehringer (61), who works with well-known names such as Lady Gaga (37), was nominated 21 times but was never able to win in the end. Paul McCartney holds this single event record. He was nominated nine times in 1966, but went home without a prize.
The 66th Grammy Awards will take place on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles.
