Beyoncé just made history becoming the most decorated musical artist in Grammys history.
With her fourth win of the day, and 32nd over her two decade plus career, the pop star became the biggest winner in the award show‘s 64-year history, breaking the 31-win record previously held by conductor Georg Solti since 1997. At the beginning of the day, she was tied with Quincy Jones in second place with 28 lifetime wins. The award that pushed her over the top on Sunday night was for best dance/electronic music album for Renaissance. Earlier that evening, she also won best R&B song for “Cuff It” off her latest album Renaissance, beating out Mary J. Blige, Muni Long, Jazmine Sullivan and PJ Morton for the prize. And during the afternoon pre-show, she won as well for best dance/electronic recording for “Break My Soul” and best traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa.”
Beyoncé was not in attendance to accept her first three awards of the nights, however, the show’s host Trevor Noah assured her fans after she won best R&B song that the musician was still on her way to the ceremony but had just gotten stuck in some serious Los Angeles traffic. Instead, The-Dream collected her best R&B song trophy on her behalf as one of the eight writers credited on the track, telling the audience, “Beyoncé thanks y’all.”
When putting this album together, the pop star told Harper’s Bazaar in August 2021 that she hoped her music would be a respite for the turbulent times we’re living through. “With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible,” she said. “There’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”
Beyoncé received her first Grammy in 2001 back when she was still a member of the R&B trio Destiny’s Child. While she has been celebrated numerous times by the Recording Academy over the years in various genres, she has won only one major award category, receiving song of the year in 2010 as the writer of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It).” The singer has lost album of the year three times and record of the year six times, and is the most nominated artist of all time with 88 nominations, tied only with her husband, Jay-Z.