Bad Bunny Wins Album of the Year at 68th Grammy Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bad Bunny won album of the year at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night for "DeB TiRAR M S FOToS."

The Puerto Rican artist, who appeared visibly emotional, delivered most of his acceptance speech in Spanish. Earlier in the ceremony, he also took home the award for best m sica urbana album. Bad Bunny, who is scheduled to perform at next Sunday''s Super Bowl halftime show, began his earlier speech with "ICE out" and made a plea for love over hate.

Record of the year was awarded to "luther" by Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA. Lamar also won best rap album for "GNX," breaking Jay-Z''s record as the rapper with the most Grammy wins to date.

Olivia Dean was named best new artist.

Song of the year went to "Wildflower" by Billie Eilish and Finneas O''Connell. Eilish was among several artists who criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during acceptance speeches.

Jelly Roll won best contemporary country album for "Beautifully Broken," and Lady Gaga won best pop vocal album for "MAYHEM."

A total of 95 awards were presented in two ceremonies, beginning with the Premiere Ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Most trophies were awarded during the Premiere Ceremony, which streamed live on live.grammy.com and the Recording Academy''s YouTube channel.

The remaining winners were announced during the live primetime telecast, broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ Premium. Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony for a sixth and final year from Crypto.com Arena.

This year, the Recording Academy introduced two new categories: best traditional country album and best album cover. The previous best country album category was renamed best contemporary country album, and the best recording package and best boxed or special limited-edition package categories were merged into a single category, best recording package.

Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter performed during the primetime ceremony, along with Justin Bieber, Ros , Bruno Mars, Clipse, Pharrell Williams (recipient of the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award), Tyler, the Creator and others. All best new artist nominees-Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, Katseye, Addison Rae, Sombr, Lola Young and The Marias-performed during a special segment.

In a surprise moment, Cher received a lifetime achievement award before presenting the Grammy for record of the year. Cher initially began to leave the stage before being called back by Noah.

The show included tributes to Ozzy Osbourne, D''Angelo and Roberta Flack. The Osbourne tribute featured performances by Post Malone, Slash, Duff McKagan, Chad Smith and Andrew Watt. Lauryn Hill performed in honor of D''Angelo and Flack. Reba McEntire, Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson participated in a larger "In Memoriam" segment. Bruce Springsteen narrated a video tribute to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, while Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone were also remembered in video tributes.

Presenters included Carole King, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Doechii, Harry Styles, Jeff Goldblum, Karol G, Lainey Wilson, Marcello Hern ndez, Nikki Glaser, Q-Tip, Queen Latifah and Teyana Taylor.

The Premiere Ceremony opened with a performance by Grace Potter, Israel Houghton, Lila Ik , Maggie Rose and Trombone Shorty. Host Darren Criss welcomed the audience and presented the first awards of the night.

"I am deeply honored to serve as your host for this year''s Grammy Premiere Ceremony," Criss said. "This room means a lot to me. It represents the talents, craft, passion and dedication that happen behind the scenes. It''s the hours no one sees, the risks we take and the belief that music matters-whether it impacts millions or transforms a single life. Being here among those who write, play, produce and live music is incredibly meaningful."

Early winners included Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for best pop duo/group performance for "Defying Gravity," Doechii for best music video for "Anxiety," "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters for best song written for visual media and Lady Gaga for best dance pop recording for "Abracadabra."

Leon Thomas later won best R&B album for "MUTT." Kendrick Lamar and SZA took best melodic rap performance for "luther." Shaboozey and Jelly Roll won best country duo/group performance for "Amen," and Joni Mitchell won best historical album for "Joni Mitchell Archives - Volume 4: The Asylum Years - 1976-1980." Comedian Nate Bargatze received the Grammy for best comedy album.

The film "Sinners" won best compilation soundtrack for visual media and best score soundtrack for visual media.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg completed his EGOT status by winning his first Grammy Award for producing the "Music By John Williams" documentary, which won best music film.

Other Premiere Ceremony performances included Zara Larsson ("Midnight Sun"), Spiritbox ("Soft Spine"), Tasha Cobbs Leonard ("Church") and Criss and Helen J Shen with "Never Fly Away" from the Tony-winning Broadway musical "Maybe Happy Ending."

The Grammys were produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for the Recording Academy. Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor, Jesse Collins and Trevor Noah served as executive producers.

A full list of this year's Grammy winners are available at HotHits953.com.