With another year’s worth of Grammys awarded, it’s high time to check in on Grammy Award records and all the big names who have broken them over the course of the awards show’s six-decade history.
Taylor Swift skipped the 2019 Grammys — instead opting to attend the British Academy Film Awards with boyfriend Joe Alwyn — but she broke a Grammy record back in 2010 when she was still verging on the country side of pop music. Swift was barely out of her teens at the time, but the record holder for youngest Grammy winner was 12 years younger when she won.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z were also no-shows at the 2019 ceremony, but they returned in 2021 — and have always remained legends in the Recording Academy’s eyes. Jay-Z tied with Quincy Jones for most nominations (80), and Beyoncé broke a record in 2010 that Adele tied in 2012, as detailed in the gallery below. Queen Bey is also the most decorated female artist of all time.
Billie Eilish, for her part, swept the 2020 awards show with wins in the biggest categories of the night, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist. Plus, she was just 18 years old at the time.
“[Billie] was very grateful, obviously, and a lot of her friends were there,” her brother, Finneas O’Connell, told Vogue in February 2020. “She has more ‘go with the flow’ than I do, but we were both kind of embarrassed to win so much; you hope that it will be kind of equal, but after the third in a row … Well, we love all our fellow nominees.”
The producer noted that he was pulling for Lizzo or Lil Nas X. “If I’d bet on anyone, I would have lost money in us winning everything,” he said.
O’Connell continued: “I thought ‘Truth Hurts’ would win Record of the Year. And I thought ‘Old Town Road’ would win Song of the Year because it was. I was hopeful about Album of the Year, and that’s one that I’m really proud of because I love listening to that album front to back. That was the only one that I was like, ‘Maybe!’”
And though Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Kanye West and Stevie Wonder have all earned 20 or more Grammy Awards so far, not one of those artists are close to beating the record for the most lifetime Grammy wins. Scroll down to see that record holder and several more stars whose award shelves must be needing reinforcements.