Grammys 2024: Dua Lipa opens show and SZA sizzles

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Dua Lipa is up for song of the year for her Barbie song, Dance The Night
By Mark Savage
BBC Music Correspondent

Pop star Dua Lipa opened the 2024 Grammy Awards with an athletic medley of her songs Training Season, Houdini and Dance the Night – the latter of which is up for song of the year.

She was followed on stage in Los Angeles by Tracy Chapman, making a rare appearance to join Luke Combs for his cover of her song Fast Car.

And R&B star SZA – the show’s main nominee – staged a recreation of the Crazy 88 fight scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill to accompany her song of the same name.

SZA hoisted a man into the air during her medley of Snooze and Kill Bill

The singer had already won two awards in the Grammys pre-ceremony, and is still up for three of the night’s biggest prizes – album, record and song of the year.

For her performance, she was joined by a phalanx of sword-wielding female dancers who swiftly dispatched hordes of men in suits – a reference to her song’s comical tale of killing her ex.

Miley Cyrus was overjoyed to win her first Grammy

The first award of the night went Miley Cyrus, who picked up best pop vocal performance for her song Flowers.

It was the star’s first Grammy, a fact she noted in her acceptance speech, telling the story of a boy whose futile attempts to catch a butterfly ended when he stopped swinging around a net and stayed still.

“And right when he did is when the butterfly came and landed right on the tip of his nose. And this song, Flowers, is my butterfly,” she said.

Tracy Chapman’s hit Fast Car was rejuvenated last year when country star Luke Combs covered it

Billed as “music’s biggest night”, the Grammys are the industry’s most prestigious awards.

The line-up for Sunday’s show includes legends like Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and U2, alongside the biggest chart names.

Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Burna Boy and Travis Scott are also among the performers, with stars like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Doja Cat in the audience.

Even Meryl Streep turned up – supporting her son-in-law Mark Ronson, who was nominated for producing the Barbie soundtrack.

Only a handful of the 94 prizes are handed out in the live show, with the rest announced during a four-hour “premiere ceremony” in the afternoon.

That ceremony saw multiple wins for rapper Killer Mike and indie-rock trio Boygenius, whose debut album The Record combines 1970s California rock harmonies with lyrics about love and friendship.

Kylie Minogue won her second ever Grammy, best pop dance recording, for the viral smash Padam Padam; while Joni Mitchell picked up best folk album for a live album that captured her return to the stage in 2022 after a brain aneurysm.

And South African singer Tyla made history by picking up the first ever award for best African performance.

The 22-year-old, who came fourth in the BBC’s Sound of 2024, won for her viral smash Water, which inspired a TikTok dance craze last summer.

“I still have to remind myself that it’s my song,” she said. “Everywhere I go, it’s playing and people know it. I don’t even know [how to describe] the feeling.”

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