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Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners: '00s And '10s

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Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners: '00s And '10s

Adele, Beck, Dixie Chicks, OutKast, and Taylor Swift are among the artists who won music's biggest album prize

GRAMMYs/May 15, 2017 - 01:36 pm

An incalculable number of albums have been released in music history, but only 58 have earned the coveted distinction of Album Of The Year GRAMMY winner so far. From Henry Mancini's The Music From Peter Gunn to Taylor Swift's 1989, some of these elite albums have arguably surprised, some were seemingly consensus choices and still others have fostered lasting debate. In part five of Album Of The Year GRAMMY Winners, explore the albums that won — and were runners-up for — music's biggest prize for 2000–2015.

2000 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Two Against Nature
Steely Dan

Almost 30 years after their debut Can't Buy A Thrill (and 20 years after their last studio recording, Gaucho) Walter Becker and Donald Fagen returned to the spotlight with Two Against Nature. The pair went on an extended hiatus after Gaucho until Becker produced Fagen's 1993 effort, Kamikiriad. This project led to an unexpected tour together, which ultimately sparked a full-fledged collaboration on Two Against Nature. Heady, jazzy, sleek, and lyrically sardonic, it's Steely Dan at their meticulous best. Up against the odds-on favorite in Eminem's controversial The Marshall Mathers LP — and one of the more ambitious alternative releases in years, Radiohead's Kid A — Two Against Nature won out for 2000, proving you can go back to your old school and still make the top grade.

Other Nominees:                                       
Midnite Vultures, Beck
The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem
Kid A, Radiohead
You're The One, Paul Simon

2001 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

O Brother, Where Art Thou? — Motion Picture Soundtrack
Various Artists

In a high-profile nod to traditional music, the soundtrack for Ethan and Joel Coen's quirky Depression-era movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? was awarded Album Of The Year for 2001. Producer T Bone Burnett crafted an authentic soundscape rich with gospel, bluegrass, folk, and blues music and a stellar cast of artists, including Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, and the Fairfield Four. "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys (aka Union Station's Dan Tyminski, songwriter Harley Allen and Pat Enright of the Nashville Bluegrass Band) is not only a highlight of the album, but it plays a pivotal role in the movie. Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, at the age of 75, brought home his first two GRAMMYs ever, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance for a truly bone-chilling version of "O Death."

Other Nominees: 
Love And Theft, Bob Dylan
Acoustic Soul, India.Arie
Stankonia, OutKast
All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2

2002 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Come Away With Me 
Norah Jones

After dropping out of college in the late '90s, Norah Jones spent time finding herself and honing her sound on the lounge/coffeehouse scene in New York City. But her profile would drastically change in 2002. A sultry combination of pop, soft-soul, jazz, and country, Jones' debut Come Away With Me won four GRAMMYs and she took home the coveted Best New Artist award. Produced by Arif Mardin, the album pairs Jones with a slew of jazz musicians, including Bill Frisell, Tony Scherr and Brian Blade — which made sense considering she spent time recording and playing live with jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter the previous year. Other collaborators on the album include Jesse Harris and Lee Alexander, friends from her New York underground days. In fact, it was Harris who penned "Don't Know Why," Jones' breakthrough GRAMMY-winning single.

Other Nominees: 
Home, Dixie Chicks
The Eminem Show, Eminem
Nellyville, Nelly
The Rising, Bruce Springsteen

2003 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below 
OutKast

André Benjamin and Antwan Patton — better known as André 3000 and Big Boi — spent almost 10 years working together in their hometown of Atlanta before breaking big with their fourth release, Stankonia (named Best Rap Album for 2001). But it was the eclectic, imaginative double-disc Speakerboxxx/The Love Below that placed them, and the distinctive strains of Southern hip-hop, in the coveted Album Of The Year spotlight. The album is creatively split: Big Boi's songs are on Speakerboxxx, while André 3000's are featured on The Love Below. The former is more hard-driving; the latter a more eccentric brand of psychedelic hip-hop. Still, each had more than its share of exceptional moments: "Hey Ya!" (from The Love Below) and "The Way You Move" (from Speakerboxxx) were two of the most pervasive, infectious hits of the year.

Other Nominees:
Under Construction, Missy Elliott
Fallen, Evanescence
Justified, Justin Timberlake
Elephant, the White Stripes

2004 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Genius Loves Company
Ray Charles & Various Artists

Genius Loves Company was a classy project featuring Ray Charles duetting with various guests such as Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, B.B. King, and James Taylor. The material was just as diverse, ranging from "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" with Elton John to the Frank Sinatra standard "It Was A Very Good Year" with Willie Nelson. Beyond being remembered as the final recording from an iconic legend, Genius Loves Company holds another distinction: It was one of the first albums of original music released on Hear Music (in partnership with Concord Records) after being acquired by the Starbucks Corporation. The album's profile was greatly enhanced through exposure in Starbucks outlets around the world and its noteworthy success marked an eye-opening change in the way music was marketed at the time.

Other Nominees: 
American Idiot, Green Day
The Diary Of Alicia Keys, Alicia Keys
Confessions, Usher
The College Dropout, Kanye West

2005 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
U2

Much like their 2000 release, All That You Can't Leave Behind, on How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb U2 mined an even rootsier, stripped-down rock approach. And there's a reason why the Irish lads' first collection of post-Sept. 11 work reverberated so deeply with listeners: More than ever, topics of peace ("City Of Blinding Lights"), love ("A Man And A Woman"), death ("Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"), and the divine ("Yahweh") seemed more relevant and comforting than any salve offered by political leaders or Sunday morning sermons. Including three 2004 GRAMMYs for the album's first single "Vertigo," How To … was graced with a total of eight GRAMMYs.

Other Nominees: 
The Emancipation Of Mimi, Mariah Carey
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, Paul McCartney
Love.Angel.Music.Baby., Gwen Stefani
Late Registration, Kanye West

2006 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Taking The Long Way 
Dixie Chicks

In 2003 the outspoken Dixie Chicks stood their ground after fans and country radio stations reacted negatively to lead singer Natalie Maines' comments in opposition of the Iraq War and President George W. Bush. If anything, it spurred the band to dig their high heels in even deeper. Some of the most stirring lyrics on their subsequent album ("It's a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger" from "Not Ready To Make Nice") were a steely response to a threatening letter the band received in the wake of Maines' political comments. The Rick Rubin-produced album, which won a clean sweep of all five awards it was nominated for, features the rock and roots contributions of Gary Louris, Benmont Tench, John Mayer, Keb' Mo', Sheryl Crow, and Linda Perry.

Other Nominees:
St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley
ContinuumJohn Mayer
Stadium ArcadiumRed Hot Chili Peppers
FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake

2007 ALBUM OF THE YEAR 

River: The Joni Letters
Herbie Hancock

Only two other jazz artists (Stan Getz and João Gilberto for their 1964 self-titled album) have managed to garner the Album Of The Year GRAMMY. But in gracefully connecting jazz with pop, R&B and folk, Herbie Hancock did just that with River: The Joni Letters, an elegant homage to longtime creative collaborator and eight-time GRAMMY-winning songstress Joni Mitchell. Partnering with relative new schoolers such as Corinne Bailey Rae, Norah Jones and Luciana Souza, as well as legends including Leonard Cohen and Tina Turner, Hancock crafted fitting interpretations of some of Mitchell's most moving songs, including "Court And Spark," "River," "Both Sides Now," and "The Tea Leaf Prophecy." The album — backed by the stellar lineup of guitarist Lionel Loueke, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and bassist Dave Holland — is not only an imaginative tribute to Mitchell, it is yet another artistic milestone in Hancock's vibrant career.

Other Nominees
Echoes, Silence, Patience & GraceFoo Fighters
These DaysVince Gill
Graduation, Kanye West
Back To BlackAmy Winehouse

2008 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Raising Sand 
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

At first glance, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant seemed an unlikely duo, but their musical résumé made them a formidable pair. By the time they linked for 2007's Raising Sand, Krauss had already earned 21 GRAMMYs, the most by a female artist, while Plant's career included platinum records, a 2005 Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Led Zeppelin. Add acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett to the mix and Raising Sand was bound to be a hit. The album spans blues, folk, country, and pop with "Rich Woman," and the Everly Brothers' "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" winning Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. Raising Sand netted five GRAMMYs, including Record Of The Year for "Please Read The Letter," proving that a rock god and bluegrass queen can create sweet harmony.   

Other Nominees:
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, Coldplay
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
Year Of The Gentleman, Ne-Yo
In Rainbows, Radiohead

2009 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Fearless 
Taylor Swift

If the sophomore jinx is real, Taylor Swift knows nothing about it. Her second album, 2008's Fearless, generated eight GRAMMY nominations and was the best-selling album of 2009 in the U.S. On her first collection as an adult, Swift sounds like a woman beyond her years with songs such as "Fifteen" ("I wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now") and the GRAMMY-winning "White Horse" ("I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale"). She wrote or co-wrote every track on the album, including her first Top 5 crossover hit, "Love Story." Though the album won an additional three GRAMMYs in the Country Field, including Best Country Album, the power ballad "Breathe" (with Colbie Caillat) and yearning "You Belong With Me" foretold the pop sounds of subsequent Swift offerings.  

Other Nominees:
I Am … Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé
The End, the Black Eyed Peas
Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King, Dave Matthews Band
The Fame, Lady Gaga

2010 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Suburbs
Arcade Fire

Upon accepting Arcade Fire's GRAMMY for Album Of The Year, Win Butler incredulously asked, "What the hell?" The indie rockers had just triumphed over pop stars Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, Lady Antebellum's country smash Need You Now, and Eminem's Recovery, which it previously pushed out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. Despite Butler's surprise, fans had taken to the band's brand of alt-rock, which was steered by Butler and his wife Régine Chassagne, brother William Butler, and Richard Reed Parry on vocals in addition to a multitude of instruments. Drummer Jeremy Gara, bassist Tim Kingsbury and violinist Sarah Neufeld also contributed. Together they created a sound Win Butler described as "a mix of Depeche Mode and Neil Young." Standout tracks such as "Month Of May" and "Ready To Start," which they performed on the 53rd GRAMMY Awards, helped the group earn their sole GRAMMY win to date. 

Other Nominees:
Recovery, Eminem
Need You Now, Lady Antebellum
The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga
Teenage Dream, Katy Perry

2011 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

21
Adele

After Adele's 2008 debut album, 19 (recorded when she was 19), earned her two GRAMMYs, including Best New Artist, the British singer's sophomore album had some big shoes to fill. 21 (recorded when she was 21) continued the themes of her first album: There was scorn (Record Of The Year-winning "Rolling In The Deep"), mourning ("Someone Like You" and "Set Fire To The Rain"), love ("One And Only" and "Lovesong" produced by Rick Rubin), and her trademark wittiness ("Rumour Has It" co-written by Ryan Tedder). The smash album firmly rooted Adele's place in music and GRAMMY history — 21 was the best-selling album in the United States in 2011 and "Someone Like You" became the first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 to feature solely voice and piano. She won six awards at the 54th GRAMMY Awards, matching Beyoncé's record for the most GRAMMYs won in one night by a female artist and Eric Clapton's record for most GRAMMYs won in one night by a British artist.

Other Nominees:
Wasting Light, Foo Fighters
Born This Way, Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops & Hooligans, Bruno Mars
Loud, Rihanna

2012 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Babel
Mumford & Sons

If Mumford & Sons' mantra while recording Babel happened to be "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," who could blame them? Their debut album Sigh No More garnered them a Best New Artist nomination and a nod for Record Of The Year for their first Top 30 hit "The Cave." For Babel, the band — comprising multi-instrumentalists Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, and Marcus Mumford — reteamed with GRAMMY-winning producer Markus Dravs, who produced Sigh No More and previously scored an Album Of The Year GRAMMY as co-producer for Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. The folksy sound of their debut carried over onto Babel, especially on the album's breakthrough hits "I Will Wait" and "Lover Of The Light." With their double bass, banjo, mandolin, and resonator guitar, the quartet spun a spirited and soulful tale, earning their first No. 1 album, among other accolades. 

Other Nominees:
El Camino, the Black Keys
Some Nights, Fun.
Channel Orange, Frank Ocean 
Blunderbuss, Jack White

2013 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Random Access Memories
Daft Punk

French duo Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) came onto the house music scene with their 1997 debut, Homework. At the 56th GRAMMY Awards, however, the pair took their star status to the next level when they collected four awards for Random Access Memories, including Best Dance/Electronica Album and Record Of The Year for "Get Lucky" (with Pharrell Williams on vocals and Nile Rodgers on guitar). The enigmatic robots went all out on Random Access Memories, tapping not only Williams and Rodgers, but disco legend Giorgio Moroder ("Giorgio By Moroder") and songwriter Paul Williams ("Touch" and "Beyond"). The album features extensive live instrumentation, including Rodgers' funky guitar ("Lose Yourself To Dance") and beats created with drumsticks instead of loops ("Contact"), warming up the album's electronic backbone. 

Other Nominees:
The Blessed Unrest, Sara Bareilles
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar
The Heist, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Red, Taylor Swift

2014 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Morning Phase
Beck

Morning Phase came as a delayed follow-up to Beck's 2002 heartbreak-inspired Sea Change. The album is an acoustic tour de force of melancholy, perhaps inspired by the severe back injury Beck suffered in 2005. Beck's poetry and folk-rock mastery reach from "Morning" ("Looked up this morning, saw the roses full of thorns") to "Heart Is A Drum" ("Why does it hurt this way, to come so far to find they've closed the gates"). The album earned four 57th GRAMMY nominations, including Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for the ode to loneliness, "Blue Moon," and won for Best Rock Album. Beck's triumph wasn't without a little controversy: Kanye West jokingly stormed the stage before Beck's acceptance speech. The amiable Beck took it in stride, inviting West to come back and "help" before finishing his thank yous. 

Other Nominees:
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
X, Ed Sheeran
In The Lonely Hour, Sam Smith
Girl, Pharrell Williams

2015 ALBUM OF THE YEAR

1989
Taylor Swift

Despite being born in 1989, 2015 was a very good year for Taylor Swift. Released in late 2014, Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, saw the singer/songwriter release an all-pop collection co-produced with GRAMMY winner Max Martin. The album yielded two No. 1 singles, "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space" — the latter her witty response to the media's obsession with her love life — and peaked at No. 1 in more than 10 countries. Inarguably a successful crossover to pop, 1989 garnered seven 58th GRAMMY nominations. At the end of the night, Swift took home three statues, including Best Music Video for her star-studded "Bad Blood" video in collaboration with fellow GRAMMY winner Kendrick Lamar. Notably, Swift's win earned her the distinction of being the first female solo artist to win Album Of The Year twice, an achievement Swift punctuated in her acceptance speech.

Other Nominees:
Sound & Color, Alabama Shakes
Really Love, D'Angelo And The Vanguard
To Pimp A Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar
Traveller, Chris Stapleton
Beauty Behind The Madness, The Weeknd

The Taylor Swift Effect: 8 Ways The Eras Tour Broke Records & Shattered Sales
Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Nov. 24, 2023.

Photo: Buda Mendes/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

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The Taylor Swift Effect: 8 Ways The Eras Tour Broke Records & Shattered Sales

As the Eras Tour hits Disney+ with 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version)', take a look at some of the mind-boggling feats the pop superstar has accomplished with her culture-shifting trek.

GRAMMYs/Mar 14, 2024 - 05:13 pm

Taylor Swift has continuously redefined what it means to be a pop superstar for almost two decades. But 2023 might have been her most defining year to date, thanks to the Eras Tour.

With 152 dates in stadiums across five continents, the Eras Tour isn't just Swift's personal biggest tour to date — it's a feat few other artists have accomplished. The sprawling 3 1/2-hour show is an impressive feat in itself, but the tour has gone on to break records and boost economies, firmly cementing Swift's stratospheric position as one of pop's all-time greats. 

There's a reason why the term "The Taylor Swift Effect" has been coined — it captures the impact Swift has had not just on music, but society as a whole. Swift's latest concert tour weaves through her 10- (and soon to be 11-) album discography, totaling a whopping 44 songs across 10 different acts for each "era." Between the allure of each set's surprise song and the next-level fan engagement, the tour has become far more than your average concert — it's a full-on cultural moment. 

Though the trek still has a bewildering nine months to go (it will hit Europe and another North America stretch from May to December), Swift is celebrating the Eras Tour's one-year anniversary by bringing its record-breaking concert film to Disney+ on March 14th. 

As fans get ready to stream Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version), GRAMMY.com looks at the impact of the Eras Tour so far, exploring the records Swift has shattered since it first began.

Becoming The Highest Grossing Tour Ever

In eight months, Swift's Eras Tour did something no other artist has ever done: gross over $1 billion on a single tour. Pollstar reported the news in December 2023, stating that the 60+ shows she played in 2023 accumulated to 4.3 million tickets sold. 

This number is even more staggering when compared to Elton John's farewell tour, which lasted five years and had 328 shows and accumulated $939 million. Not only has Swift been able to do the same with 152 shows, but she still has nine months to go — and at the pace she's going, Pollstar projects that she could pass the $2 billion mark.  

Shattering Attendance Records

From breaking the all-time record for attendance during her three shows at Nashville's Nissan Stadium in May 2023 to playing the largest shows of her career at Melbourne's Cricket Ground in February 2024 (performing to 288,000 fans over three days), Swift couldn't stop breaking attendance records at various stops. Including those venues, she's broken eight attendance records at seven so far: Seattle's Lumen Field, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, Pittsburgh's Acrisure Stadium, AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Sao Paolo's Allianz Parque (where she broke one-day and three-day attendance records).

Although her friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran already broke some of her attendance records during his own 2023 world tour, Swift has done the impossible again by creating an entirely new record to break: how many people are both inside and outside the venue. Cities like Tampa and Detroit all had "Taygating" — mass parties with thousands of fellow Swifties that include singalongs, cookouts, and trading handmade friendship bracelets like the fans inside. In Philadelphia alone, cell phone usage data in the area determined that around 57,000 fans "taygated" outside throughout the tour's three nights.

Spiking Craft Sales

Creating costumes for Taylor Swift concerts is something that fans have been doing since Swift's Fearless Tour in 2009 and 2010, but a lyric from MIdnights' "You're On Your Own Kid" created a new way for fans to engage with each other. The lyric "So make the friendship bracelets/ Take the moment and taste it" sparked a friendship bracelet frenzy, and caused a 40 percent chainwide increase in jewelry sales overall at Michaels craft stores, with locations within Eras Tour stops seeing a 300 percent sales increase in beads and jewelry categories leading up to the concert.

Since the start of the tour, Michaels has also helped Swifties create over 22,0000 bracelets in their bracelet-making classes in-store. And that simple lyric has inspired other fandoms to take part — Formula One fans are handing bracelets off to drivers before races, and British soccer players are making them to help boost team morale.

Spawning The Highest Grossing Concert Film Of All Time

When she announced that the Eras Tour concert film would be headed to the big screen, Swift opted to "bet on herself" by personally investing $10-20 million to bypass Hollywood entirely to facilitate a partnership directly with AMC. To say that bet worked would be an understatement: the Eras Tour concert movie became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, amassing $250 million in worldwide movie ticket sales. On the day it was announced, movie ticket buyers broke AMC's single-day advance ticket sales record, amassing $26 million within 24 hours.

The Eras Tour film would not only become a huge box office achievement, but would become the first concert film to ever be nominated for a Golden Globe, competing against other major box office blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer.

Igniting Social Media

If fans can't physically be at the concert or "Taygate" outside the venue, they can tune in thanks to TikTok's live-streaming capabilities. Fellow fans provide streams of the entire concert for those who want to watch the gig. Although the viewer count varies, anywhere from 30k+ people can be tuning in on one stream (statistics have shown that most fans tune in for Swift's surprise songs).

Since the start of the Eras Tour, TikTok has been flooded with over 1.9 million videos, with Variety reporting that Taylor-related content can average around 380 million views per day and no day falling below 200 million views. Swift took note of some of the fan-fronted trends, too, including the viral "Bejeweled" dance, created by fan Mikael Arellano, as part of her choreography on tour.

Read More: Behind The Scenes Of The Eras Tour: Taylor Swift's Opening Acts Unveil The Magic Of The Sensational Concert

Boosting The Economy

Every weekend, cities that hosted the Eras Tour awarded Swift with something special — Nashville placed a bench in Centennial Park as a nod to a lyric in "Invisible String," Santa Clara made her an honorary mayor, Minneapolis renamed the city 'Swiftie-apolis,' and Rio de Janeiro projected Swift's junior jewels shirt from the "You Belong With Me" onto Christ the Redeemer. No matter how the cities honored Swift, her visit was certainly beneficial for their local economies — one stop of the Eras Tour averaged around $1,300 spending per person on travel, hotels, food, and merchandise. 

The U.S. Travel Association likened it to the Super Bowl, but happening 53 times across 20 cities, estimating the economic impact to be around $10 billion by the time the tour wraps. It's a tour that has single-handedly changing travel, according to CNN, with fans choosing their travel based on where they can get tickets. And since money talks, politicians and world leaders — from Canada's Prime Minister to the Chilean President — have come out in spades to beg for Swift to add their countries to the worldwide tour. 

Breaking Niche Records

Two nights in Seattle resulted in a "Swift Quake" after so many fans danced to "Shake It Off," which caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. Seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach collected 10 hours of data — from the music to the speakers to the dancing — to see how that energy can impact the ground enough to shake it.

Although not an official record, within the Swiftie community, fans have had battles to see which city can have the longest-standing ovation after "champagne problems," as detailed on Reddit and Billboard. Right now, Swift's penultimate Los Angeles show at SoFi Stadium is the winner, clocking in at 8 minutes.

Elevating Swift's Discography

After the start of a tour, it's natural for artists to see their discography have a short influx of listeners and then taper off again. But after the first 10 weeks of the Eras Tour, Swift's catalogue was growing more and more with every stop — up to 79 percent more than where she was before the tour began. And instead of listeners streaming specific singles or albums, the streamers were all over Swift's set list; Billboard reported that 23 of the 42 songs performed have doubled in weekly streams. 

The tour even helped the resounding fan favorite from 2019's Lover, "Cruel Summer," transform from beloved deep cut to chart topper. Streams of "Cruel Summer" went up 304 percent, resulting in the track becoming both her 10th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and her sole longest-leading No. 1 on Billboard's all-format Radio Songs chart.

Using the Eras Tour to work in tandem with her rerecording release schedule has also become an integral marketing tactic. So much so that coinciding the tour and the releases (as well as the announcements) has helped contribute to her having six albums in the top 20 of the year-end Billboard 200, more No. 1 albums than any woman in history with 13 (as of press time), and 1989 (Taylor's Version) outselling the original — a staggering 1.3 million albums in its first week. 

Swift wrapped her first 2024 Eras Tour leg in Singapore on March 9, as she's now preparing to release her highly anticipated 11th album, The Tortured Poet's Department, on April 19. Three weeks later, the Eras Tour will pick back up in Nanterre, France, on May 9, with dates nearly every week until it wraps in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 8. 

With an already record-breaking tour and a new album on the way, there's no doubt that the world will continue to feel the impact of Taylor Swift and her pop star prowess — throughout 2024 and beyond.

5 Reasons Why Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Will Be The Most Legendary Of Her Generation

GRAMMY Rewind: Watch The Chicks Take 'Home' Best Country Album In 2003
The Chicks at the 2003 GRAMMYs.

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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GRAMMY Rewind: Watch The Chicks Take 'Home' Best Country Album In 2003

Revisit the Chicks' heartfelt acceptance speech after their sixth studio album, 'Home,' won Best Country Album at the 45th GRAMMY Awards — one of their three golden gramophones from the night.

GRAMMYs/Mar 8, 2024 - 06:00 pm

When the Chicks walked into the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards, they already had four GRAMMYs to their name. But like Natalie Maines cheered at the start of their speech for Best Country Album, "No, this never gets old."

In this episode of GRAMMY Rewind, relive the moment when the trio and Maines' father shared the stage to accept the golden gramophone for their sixth album, Home.

"We are so attached to this album and really proud of it," Maines shared. "It's our first co-producing effort, and we did it with my dad, Lloyd Maines. So, I want to check the record books and find out how many fathers and daughters have won GRAMMYs together."

"We want to say we are so glad we kissed and made up with Sony because they've done so many wonderful things with this record — a record that's acoustic and not very mainstream," Martie Maguire chimed. "Yet, it's winning GRAMMYs and topping the charts. We really credit the Columbia New York team."

Before closing out the speech, Emily Strayer and Maines praised the rest of their team in Nashville, and, of course, the fans: "We thought this would just be a project we gave away on the internet."

That same night, the Chicks — who at the time still went by the Dixie Chicks; they changed their name in 2020 — also won Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Lil' Jack Slade" and Best Duo/Group Country Vocal Performance for "Long Time Gone." As of press time, the Chicks have won 12 GRAMMYs, including four Best Country Album wins.

Press play on the video above to hear the Chicks' complete acceptance speech for Best Country Album at the 2003 GRAMMY Awards, and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind.

Why 2024 Is The Year Women In Country Music Will Finally Have Their Moment

Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More
(Clockwise, from top left): Jennie, Janelle Monáe, Anitta, Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, Ariana Grande, Lainey Wilson

Photos (clockwise, from top left): Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Lufre, MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Paras Griffin/Getty Images, JOHN SHEARER/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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Listen: GRAMMY.com's Women's History Month 2024 Playlist: Female Empowerment Anthems From Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Jennie & More

This March, the Recording Academy celebrates Women's History Month with pride and joy. Press play on this official playlist that highlights uplifting songs from Taylor Swift, Victoria Monét, Anitta and more.

GRAMMYs/Mar 8, 2024 - 04:44 pm

From commanding stages to blasting through stereos, countless women have globally graced the music industry with their creativity. And though they've long been underrepresented, tides are changing: in just the last few years, female musicians have been smashing records left and right, conquering top song and album charts and selling sold-out massive tours.

This year, Women's History Month follows a particularly historic 66th GRAMMY Awards, which reflected the upward swing of female musicians dominating music across the board. Along with spearheading the majority of the ceremony's performances, women scored bigtime in the General Field awards — with wins including Best New Artist, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Album Of The Year.

Female empowerment anthems, in particular, took home major GRAMMY gold. Miley Cyrus' "Flowers" took home two awards, while Victoria Monét was crowned Best New Artist thanks to the success of her album Jaguar II and its hit single "On My Mama." As those two songs alone indicate, female empowerment takes many different shapes in music — whether it's moving on from a relationship by celebrating self-love or rediscovering identity through motherhood.

The recent successes of women in music is a testament to the trailblazing artists who have made space for themselves in a male-dominated industry — from the liberating female jazz revolution of the '20s to the riot grrl movement of the '90s. Across genres and decades, the classic female empowerment anthem has strikingly metamorphosed into diverse forms of defiance, confidence and resilience.

No matter how Women's History Month is celebrated, it's about women expressing themselves, wholeheartedly and artistically, and having the arena to do so. And in the month of March and beyond, women in the music industry deserve to be recognized not only for their talent, but ambition and perseverance — whether they're working behind the stage or front-and-center behind the mic.

From Aretha Franklin's "RESPECT" to Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)," there's no shortage of female empowerment anthems to celebrate women's accomplishments in the music industry. Listen to GRAMMY.com's 2024 Women's History Month playlist on streaming services below.

5 Inspirations Behind Norah Jones' New Album 'Visions': Nightly Dreams, Collabs, Harmony Stacks & More
Norah Jones

Photo: Joelle Grace Taylor

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5 Inspirations Behind Norah Jones' New Album 'Visions': Nightly Dreams, Collabs, Harmony Stacks & More

On her iridescent new album 'Visions,' out March 8, Jones embraces a newer collaborator in Leon Michels, and brings the stuff of phantasmagoria into immediate, organic relief.

GRAMMYs/Mar 8, 2024 - 03:06 pm

Not all Norah Jones fans know this, but her debut 2002 album Come Away With Me was recorded in its entirety a whopping three times. Her latest, Visions, is no less detailed or exacting. But in true Blue Note fashion — it's out March 8, via said label — it sprang from an improvisatory, immediate space.

"I didn't really have a lot of preconceived ideas," Jones tells GRAMMY.com over Zoom, as a typically oppressive winter in New York blurs into spring. ("I like winter," she says. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one.") Despite this dearth of advance material, "We just wrote and played," Jones continues. "And, honestly, he's one of the most fun people I get to play music with."

"He" is none other than producer, multi-instrumentalist and two-time GRAMMY nominee Leon Michels; Jones, a nine-time GRAMMY winner and 19-time nominee herself, previously worked with him on her first-ever holiday album, 2021's I Dream of Christmas.

Highlights like "Staring at the Wall," "Running" and "I'm Awake" show Jones is clearly the same artist who made classics like Come Away With Me and 2004's Feels Like Home — but in the ensuing decades, her work has assumed layers of adventurousness and dynamism.

"I love playing music with people and collaborating and trying new things, and I feel very at ease with myself and as myself in all those situations," Jones says. "Which is why it works, I think. I'm not trying to be somebody else when I do this. I'm comfortable, but I love to just try new clothes on musically."

Read on for a breakdown of people, concepts and things that inspired the making of Visions.

Her Podcast "Norah Jones Is Playing Along"

Over 32 episodes and counting, Jones has sat down with everyone from Jeff Tweedy to Seth MacFarlane to Laufey for extemporaneous collaborations and conversations. Jones notes that they're gearing up to release more episodes.

While she doesn't expressly note the podcast as a direct influence, its one-on-one format harmonizes with the dynamic between herself and Michel on Visions.

"I think anything you do influences you in some ways, even if you don't realize how," Jones says. "I've always been a pretty open musician, but I just feel like I get more and more open."

Her Creative Synergy With Leon Michels

When Jones had a shred of an idea — a few lyrics, a sketch of a melody — she would sit at a piano or guitar, Michels would get behind the kit, and they'd jam it out, garage band-style.

From there, the collaborators would add "a ton of harmonies" — more on that later — as well as bass, guitar, horns, organ, or whatever else would elevate the songs.

"The live energy you feel on those recordings is from me and him playing drums and piano or guitar," Jones says, "and just having fun."

Subconscious, Subterranean Zones

As Jones noted in the press materials, Visions came from a space beyond wakefulness.

"The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep," she said. She then evoked the lead single: "'Running' was one of them where you're half asleep and kind of jolted awake."

"I think it just all flowed really fast," Jones says in retrospect. "There were some songs that I had to tweak the lyrics more because they were slower to come, but most of them were pretty fast."

Stacking Harmonies — Christmas Style

Two years and change ago, I Dream of Christmas displayed a newer facet of Jones' sound: dense, layered harmonies. It worked so well on those yuletide tunes that Jones and Michels expanded on that concept for Visions.

"I'm always hearing harmonies, and I'm pretty quick at adding them," Jones recalls, and he's always, "Add a harmony, add a harmony, add a harmony." It's really part of the sound of the record."

Jones says this comes straight from her record collection. "It does come pretty naturally. It comes from years of loving music," she says. "I mean, I used to imitate Aretha's background singers. I think it was Cissy Houston. I love that kind of harmony." (Plus, she sang in jazz groups and high school and college, with 10 vocalists as a united throng.)

For Jones' upcoming tour dates on the East Coast, which span May and June, Michels won't be present. But those shimmering, layered vocals will.

Bringing Two More Singers To The Party

Along with four-time GRAMMY-winning drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and the great, indie-oriented bassist Josh Lattanzi, Jones will perform alongside singers Sasha Dobson and Sami Stevens, who will also chip in on guitar and keys.

"We had our first rehearsal yesterday, and it sounds incredible," Jones says, aglow. She then considers the nuances of bringing studio creations to life onstage.

"Sometimes, you want to hit all the parts and sometimes you can and sometimes you can't," she says. "And you have to strip a song back and it sounds just as great, because it's a good song, and that's always a good feeling."

Onstage, though, Jones says they'll have all the resources to pull it off. Call it Visions come to life, and made material.

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