Jon Batiste, Silk Sonic Split Top Awards at the Grammys

(Bloomberg) -- The Recording Academy gave its biggest prizes to old favorite Bruno Mars and singer-songwriter Jon Batiste at the Grammy Awards that featured a surprise appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Batiste, the band leader for comedian Stephen Colbert's late night talk show, won album of the year for “We Are.” He led with 11 nominations coming into the show Sunday night and emerged with five wins -- the most of any artist. He also won for best American roots song and best American roots performance for the song “Cry,” as well as best music video for “Freedom” and another for his work on the soundtrack to the movie “Soul.”

Silk Sonic, a side project of Mars and Anderson .Paak, won all four prizes for which it was nominated, including record of the year and song of the year for “Leave the Door Open.” That was the lead single off their first album together, “An Evening With Silk Sonic.”

“We are really trying hard to remain humble at this point, but in the industry we call that a clean sweep,” Anderson .Paak said after accepting the award for record of the year. Mars has been a Grammy favorite in recent years, with 11 wins previously, including record of the year, song of the year and album of the year, at the 2018 show.

The audience for the Grammys has slipped, as it has for most major awards shows. But the show can still provide a big lift to the winners, especially less popular acts like Batiste. His album, “We Are,” peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard charts, in contrast to chart-topping albums from Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.

The Recording Academy has been hard to predict over the years. Once faulted for awarding legacy artists and ignoring newer ones, the group has shifted to laud younger, more popular performers. Billie Eilish swept the top four prizes two years ago at the age of 18, the youngest artist to do so -- and just the second ever. She followed up with a win for record of the year in 2021, and was nominated again this year.

Favorite to Win

Rodrigo, 19, was considered the favorite for many of the top categories headed into the night, though she is too young to attend many Grammy parties given her age. Rodrigo won the award for best new artist, beating out nine other nominees for one of three awards on the night. She also won best pop solo performance for “drivers license,” the debut single off her first studio album “Sour,” which won for best pop vocal album.

Yet Batiste and Silk Sonic make the kind of crowd-pleasing music that the Grammys have awarded in years past. The Silk Sonic duo opened the show with a performance of the winning song, and Batiste performed in the middle of the show.

Country singer Chris Stapleton, gospel singer Cece Winans and rock band The Foo Fighters all won three prizes. Louis C.K. won the award for best comedy album, his third Grammy and one of the biggest prizes since he admitted to sexual misconduct in 2017.

The Grammys were postponed due to the omicron variant of the coronavirus, and moved from their usual perch in Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The move to Vegas elicited jokes from some of the winners, who noted the city's more lax approach to the coronavirus.

Coronavirus is “not here,” said Jack Antonoff, who won the prize for producer of the year. “Everyone in Vegas, they don't have it. It's very hip.”

Trevor Noah hosted the televised show and was one of a couple of people to make jokes about last week's Oscars, specifically the incident when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.

Wartime Appeal

In his taped appearance, Zelenskiy implored people to speak out about the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian president had been rumored to make an appearance at the Oscars a week earlier, with actor Sean Penn threatening to melt his Oscars in public if Zelenskiy wasn't given airtime.

“Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos,” Zelenskiy said. “They sing to the wounded. In hospitals.”

Wins for Batiste and Silk Sonic may not help the show with another frequent criticism. The Grammys have neglected hip-hop artists when it comes to the top three awards. Though hip-hop and R&B is the most popular genre in the U.S., no rapper has won album of the year since Outkast in 2004.