The Grammy Awards are this Sunday night. Presented by the Recording Academy of America, the Grammys are widely regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry worldwide. The origin dates back to the 1950s and the beginning of the Hollywood Walk of Fame project. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce asked recording industry executives for help making a list of people in the music business who should be honored with Walk of Fame stars. As they worked on the list, they realized many talented people wouldn’t qualify to be recognized on the Walk of Fame. So they decided to create awards for their industry, similar to the Oscars and Emmys. One owrking title for the new awards was the ‘Eddie’ in honor of Thomas Jefferson, who invented the phonograph. The name was chosen after a mail-in contest where around 300 people all submitted the name ‘Grammy’.
The first ceremony was held simultaneously at 2 locations on May 4, 1959, the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California and the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City. 28 Grammys were awarded, with Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Ross Bagdasarian, and Henry Mancini each winning 2 awards. The 2nd Grammy Awards, held later that same year, was the first to be televised, but the ceremony wasn’t aired live until 1971.
The trophies are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. They’re made of a specially-developed zinc alloy, dubbed Grammium, which is trademarked by Billings. The trophies are engraved with the winners name and aren’t available until after the ceremony, so “stunt” trophies are used each year for the ceremony broadcast.
This year there are 94 award categories. Because of that, and the number of performances, only 10-12 awards are presented at the televised ceremony. The rest are presented in a pre-telecast “Premiere Ceremony” held earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast.
Beyonce holds the record for the most Grammy Awards won in a lifetime, with 32. U2 has won 22 Grammy Awards, the most won by a group. LeAnn Rimes was the youngest individual Grammy winner, she was 14 when she won her first 2 awards in 1997. On the flip side, the oldest Grammy winner is a blues pianist, Pinetop Perkins, who was 97 when he won Best Traditional Blues Album in 2011. Only 3 artists have won all 4 of the biggest awards: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Christopher Cross was the first to do it in 1981 and was the first to win them all in a single year. Adele and Billie Eilish have also won all 4 awards. Learn more here.