Entertainment

Grammy Awards Honor Drake, 21 Savage, and Others in Controversial Ceremony

Reporter Cameron Boens

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The R&B singer Childish Gambino won a Grammy award that night for his music, Glover has received one Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song "Redbone".

There many other awards given to deserving artists, but one unlucky rapper, 21 Savage (Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) was not able to appear for his award on the hit song “Rockstar” which he was featured on. 21 Savage was arrested by the ICE, who tracked him down and arrested him for overstaying his visa.

21 says he grew up in Atlanta, which is in fact true, but he was actually born in the U.K. and moved to the U.S. in 2005. His visa expired in 2006, though he has still been a resident of the U.S since. 21 is now facing deportation and was released on bond for 100,000 U.S. dollars.

Other nominees include Kendrick Lamar, Brandi Carlile, Janelle monae, and one everyone expected, Drake. Drake won best rap song for his hit “God’s Plan”. While Drake was doing his acceptance speech his mic got cut off and part of it is was not aired on tv, instead it was cut straight to commercial.

Drake supposedly was dissing the Grammy awards because of their past, not accepting rappers as nominees. He was likely stating the fact to inspire upcoming artists. The rapper stated that “you don't need an award to know you made it. All that matters is that you did something for your community, and that you are a hero to them.” As Drake paused for one moment his mic was cut off. Producers of the Grammys say it only a mistake, and that they thought he was done. Others think they turned his mic off because of the things he was saying about the awards.

R&B artist Bruno Mars and rapper Cardi B performed Finesse live at the 60th awards last year. Bruno mars performed again at the 61st, as well as Cardi B.