94th Oscars and 64th Grammys

During the 94th annual Academy Award ceremony in late February, The Oscars honored some of the best films released between March 1 and December 31, 2021. The ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre, in Hollywood, Los Angeles. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes, and was the first ceremony since 2011 to host multiple hosts. CODA, an coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed and written by Sian Heder won three of the nominated awards, including best picture. The movie Dune won a total of six awards. The Eyes of Tammy Faye, an American biographical Drama film, won two awards, and many other movies won an award, such as Cruella, Encanto, and West Side Story. 

Along with the awards given to movies, there were awards given to individuals. Troy Kotsur, an actor in the movie CODA, became the first deaf male to win an Oscar. Jane Campion, the director of The Power of the Dog, became the third woman to win the best director and the first woman to win an Oscar for directing and screenwriting. An honorable mention goes out to actress Ariana DeBose for her Oscar. She is the first Afro-Latina actress who is an openly queer actor to win an Oscar for her performance in West Side Story. Additionally, Billie Eilish received Best Original Song for her song No Time to Die, becoming the first person born in the 21st century to win an Oscar. 

Along with these individual awards also came drama, an incident occurred where actor Will Smith walked on stage and smacked comedian Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith’s wifes’ hair loss condition. This incident got a lot of media coverage and has been the topic of conversations, been the center of internet memes, and boosted the Oscars’ popularity and views. This event raised the ceremony’s views by 63% from the previous year.

The 64th annual Grammys was held on April 3rd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ceremony recognized the Best Composition Recordings and artists of the year and was hosted by previous host Trevor Noah. This ceremony was initially planned to be hosted at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, but they moved it to the MGM Grand due to health and safety concerns. This was the first year ever where they changed the ceremony’s location for one event. Starting the awards, John Batiste won a total of five awards and won album of the year for “we are.” Silk Sonic, the R&B duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, won record and song of the year for “Leave The Door Open.” Winning this year’s top new artist was Olivia Rodrigo. Just like the Oscars, the Grammys did have their drama too. Scheduled to perform was Kanye West, but West lost his invitation to perform after some unsettling behavior. Also, Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, who were scheduled to perform at the ceremony, died unexpectedly while on tour. Even with all of the exciting things happening with the Oscars, Grammy’s viewership rating has dropped 53% compared to last year’s show. This year’s “disappointing” Grammys brings uncertainty for next year’s ceremony.