The 10 Best Grammy Acceptance Speeches

The Canadian singer won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Performance for her groundbreaking feminist anthem, “I Am Woman.” She said, “I would like to thank God, because She makes everything possible.” People were outraged — this was easily the most controversial speech in Grammy history at that point, years before Ariana Grande could get away with “God Is a Woman.” She is Helen Reddy; hear her roar. 

The Irish lads won big in the year of The Joshua Tree. The Edge and Bono made two of the funniest Grammy speeches ever. Bono went off against the rock critics at The Village Voice. The Edge thanked a long, strange list of heroes, including Jimi Hendrix, Walt Disney, Flannery O’Connor, James T. Kirk, Dr. Ruth, George Best, Gregory Peck, Batman and Robin, Pee-wee Herman, the YMCA, and “sumo wrestlers throughout the world.”

Sinatra won the Legend Award for lifetime achievement, with a worshipful tribute from Bono. It was an appropriate career tribute for the 78-year-old “Chairman of the Board.” A moment of respect, right? Not quite. Unfortunately, the Grammys cut off Sinatra in the middle of his speech — so they could cut to a commercial. He never even got to finish. Nobody interrupts Frank. One of the all-time Grammy cringe moments.

The Wu-Tang Clan madman didn’t win a Grammy that night, but that didn’t stop ODB from making the night’s best speech. Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs won Best Rap Album instead of the Wu. Later, while Shawn Colvin was accepting her Grammy for Song of the Year, ODB made a surprise jump to the podium. “Wu-Tang is for the children!” he noted. “We teach the children, know what I mean? Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best!”

Lauryn Hill was the big winner of the night — the first woman ever to win five Grammys in one evening. She won Best New Artist, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Album, while her classic solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, became the first hip-hop album to win Album of the Year. How did she celebrate? By bringing a Bible up to the mic and reading a psalm to the confused crowd. “I waited patiently for the Lord,” she read. “He lifted me out from the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.” It might have been her way of hinting that she was about to take some serious time off from music.

The Purple One made a surprise appearance at the end of the night, to present Album of the Year. What an entrance: Prince strutted out twirling his cane, greeting the crowd with a royal smirk and a baby-I’m-a-star eye roll. “Albums — remember those?” he said. “Albums still matter. Albums, like books and Black lives, still matter.” Proof that Prince could always stop the show without needing to sing a single note.

Swift became the first woman to win Album of the Year twice, taking the top honors for 1989. (She later scored the hat trick in 2021, when she won her third Album of the Year Grammy, for Folklore. And if she wins this year, she’ll be the all-time AOTY leader.) She had a message for her fellow female artists, urging them to make their own music despite any opposition: “I want to say to the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”

The “Havana” singer introduced U2, in a live performance from the Statue of Liberty. (They did “Get Out of Your Own Way” — remember that one?) But Cabello had a few things of her own to say, with powerful words about immigration, and the current political climate’s anti-immigrant hysteria. “We remember this country was built by dreamers, for dreamers, chasing the American dream,” she said. “I’m a proud Cuban Mexican immigrant, born in eastern Havana, standing in front of you on the Grammy stage in New York City.” 

In her first trip to the Grammys, everybody’s favorite Albanian disco queen won Best New Artist, after she’d already won the Best Dance Recording Grammy for “Electricity.” But, oh, was she in a sassy mood. “So many incredible female artists this year,” Lipa said. “I guess this year we really stepped up!” There was a shocked hush in the crowd, since her joke was the only time all night anyone mentioned Grammy president Neil Portnow’s controversial comment from the year before that women needed to “step up.” That was the same ceremony where Lipa and St. Vincent did their memorable duet on “One Kiss/Masseducation,” so yeah, Lipa had quite a night.

Nobody gives a Grammy speech like Beyoncé, who, after all, has had some time to perfect the art: She has won more Grammys than any other artist in history. That’s 32, if you’re keeping score, breaking the record set by the classical conductor Sir Georg Solti. But Bey gave her most memorable speech earlier this year, the night she was nominated for nine Grammys and won four of them, officially becoming the all-time Grammy champ. She kept it brief (103 words) and gave a touching shout-out to her late Uncle Johnny, a gay disco fan, a fitting tribute given the LGBTQ disco roots of Renaissance. “I’d like to thank the queer community for your love, and for inventing the genre,” Beyoncé said. “God bless you.”