Grammys 2022: Barack Obama’s hat-trick to Kanye West’s antics, 5 things to watch out for

Grammy Awards 2022 will be held for the first time in person post-pandemic in Las Vegas on Monday, April 4 (IST).

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The music world's most prestigious awards ceremony, Grammy Awards will be held in Las Vegas on Sunday (Monday, 5.30 AM in India). The awards ceremony will be held a week after the dramatic turn of events that took place at Oscars 2022 wherein Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage after the latter cracked a distasteful joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s medical condition.

With so much drama at the Oscars 2022, the security at the Grammys will sure be beefed up to avoid any similar incident. Meanwhile, ahead of the big night of the music world, here are five things one must watch out for at the Grammy Awards 2022 which will be hosted by comedian Trevor Noah.

Will Olivia Rodrigo register a sweep? Billie Eilish had cleaned up all the four big categories -- Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist, two years ago. This year, viral pop sensation and former Disney channel actress Olivia Rodrigo is looking at a similar chance. Olivia has a total of seven nominations this year, including the top four categories. The 19-year-old singer is competing in the top categories alongside pop stars that include Justin Bieber and Doja Cat who have been leading this year’s nominations.

Kanye West’s antics: Kim Kardashian's estranged husband Kanye West has been in the news for his antics, lately. Kanye had also hit out at Kim, her boyfriend Pete Davidson and Trevor Noah who is hosting the Grammys. The organisers of the awards ceremony had recently dropped Kanye from performing to avoid any onstage interaction between him and Noah. However, it will still be interesting to see if Kanye will be up against some drama at the Grammys or not.

Will Jay Z and Beyonce turn up? One of the most important questions that everyone has on their mind is whether rap mogul Jay Z and his wife Beyonce will deign to show up Sunday in Vegas? This is so because Jay Z was a frontrunner in 2018’s Grammy Awards with eight nominations, yet didn’t win a single award. This led Jay and Bey to skip the 2019 ceremony. In November 2021 when the nominations were announced, Jay Z created history by becoming the most nominated artist in Grammys’ history with 83 nominations. Both Jay Z and Beyonce have won many gramophones but never have they won a single Grammy in the top four categories, something that Grammy has been hugely criticized for.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: All eyes will be on the improbable duo of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. The duo are riding high on the success of their second duet album ‘Love For Sale’; it has earned them six nominations. The album is Bennet’s career’s 61st and final studio album. The 95-year-old Bennett was recently revealed that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It kept his medication condition under wraps for all these years. Even though Bennett has stopped touring now, everyone’s hopeful that he will appear with Lady Gaga on Sunday.

Will Obama win his 3rd Grammy? Former US President Barack Obama has twice won a Grammy award in the Best Spoken Word Album category. This year too, Obama has been nominated in the category that includes audiobooks, poetry, and storytelling. Obama’s first Grammy came in the year 2006 and the second in 2008. It will be interesting to see if this is going to be a hat-trick for the former US President or not.