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GRAMMY Rewind Returns With History-Making Performances, Acceptance Speeches & More

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Diving into the archives, GRAMMY Rewind presents a series of classic and beloved GRAMMY performances and acceptance speeches, starting with Willie Nelson performing "Always On My Mind" at the 25th GRAMMY Awards
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Aug 30, 2019 - 10:20 am

It won't be long before GRAMMY season is upon us, and to celebrate, we're taking you into the archives where some of our most classic and beloved GRAMMY performances (and acceptance speeches!) reside. 

To kick things off, outlaw country hero Willie Nelson performs his '82 gem "Always On My Mind" at the 25th GRAMMY Awards in 1983. Nelson won the Best Country Vocal Performance (Male) GRAMMY for "Always On My Mind" that year. Check out his performance below. 

Willie Nelson Performs "Always On My Mind" In 1983

Other upcoming GRAMMY Rewind editions offer performances from pop titan Cyndi Lauper performing "Time After Time" at the 27th GRAMMY Awards, Mariah Carey performing "Vision Of Love" at the 33rd GRAMMY Awards and much more. 

Subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit our video page to watch each GRAMMY Rewind episode, along with other exclusive content, as it's released.

ReImagined Returns With More Exclusive & Unexpected Cover Performances All Summer Long

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GRAMMY Rewind: 25th Annual GRAMMY Awards

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Toto wins Album and Record Of The Year against these nominees
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 4:06 pm

(For a list of 54th GRAMMY Awards nominees, click here.)

Music's Biggest Night, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

In the weeks leading up to the telecast, we will take a stroll down music memory lane with GRAMMY Rewind, highlighting the "big four" categories — Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist — from past awards shows. In the process, we'll examine the winners and the nominees who just missed taking home a GRAMMY, while also shining a light on the artists' careers and the eras in which the recordings were born.

Join us as we take an abbreviated journey through the trajectory of pop music from the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards in 1959 to last year's 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.

25th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Feb. 23, 1983

Album Of The Year
Winner: Toto, Toto IV
John Cougar, American Fool
Donald Fagen, The Nightfly
Billy Joel, The Nylon Curtain
Paul McCartney, Tug Of War

Toto IV, which featured such well-crafted hits as "Rosanna" and "Africa," took Album Of The Year honors over a strong field. McCartney and Fagen received their first nominations in this category as solo artists. McCartney had previously won in the category with the Beatles and had been nominated with his subsequent group Paul McCartney And Wings. Fagen had previously been nominated with Steely Dan. Joel, who won the award three years earlier for 52nd Street, was back in the finals with The Nylon Curtain. John Mellencamp (then known as John Cougar) rounded out the field with American Fool, the album that made him a star. It spawned the hits "Hurts So Good," which won a GRAMMY for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male; and "Jack & Diane," Mellencamp's lone No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 single.

Record Of The Year
Winner: Toto, "Rosanna"
Joe Jackson, "Steppin' Out"
Paul McCartney And Stevie Wonder, "Ebony And Ivory"
Willie Nelson, "Always On My Mind"
Vangelis, "Chariots Of Fire"

Toto took honors for "Rosanna," which made them the first group or duo to win Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year in the same year since Simon & Garfunkel achieved the feat 12 years earlier. McCartney and Wonder were nominated for their glossy brotherhood anthem "Ebony And Ivory." Wonder had previously been nominated in the category for "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life." This was McCartney's first nomination in the category since the Beatles ("I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" were all Record Of The Year contenders). Vangelis' "Chariots Of Fire" was the first instrumental movie theme to be nominated for Record Of The Year since Isaac Hayes' 1971 classic "Theme From Shaft." Nelson, cited for "Always On My Mind," was the first country artist to be nominated in the category since Kenny Rogers, who received nods in 1979 and 1980 for "The Gambler" and "Lady," respectively. (The song won Nelson a GRAMMY for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male.) Jackson rounded out the field with his stylish "Steppin' Out," which broke the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982.

Song Of The Year
Winner: Willie Nelson, "Always On My Mind"
Donald Fagen, "I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)"
Paul McCartney And Stevie Wonder, "Ebony & Ivory"
Survivor, "Eye Of The Tiger"
Toto, "Rosanna"

"Always On My Mind" (written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson) became the first song to win both Song Of The Year and Best Country Song since Bobby Russell's "Little Green Apples" took both awards in 1968. McCartney, who won Song Of The Year with John Lennon for "Michelle" in 1966, was nominated for "Ebony And Ivory." "I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)" marked the first Song Of The Year award for Fagen. The other two nominated songs were written by members of the groups that made them hits: "Eye Of The Tiger," written by Survivor's Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik;; and "Rosanna," written by Toto's David Paich. Featured in the hit movie Rocky III, "Eye Of The Tiger" won Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals honors and was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Best New Artist
Winner: Men At Work
Asia
Jennifer Holliday
Human League
Stray Cats

Australia's Men At Work, who topped the Billboard Hot 100 with their hits "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under," took the award for Best New Artist. Asia, comprising former members of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson and Yes, was also nominated. Asia's chart-topping debut album spawned the hits "Heat Of The Moment" and "Only Time Will Tell." The field also included Human League, an English group who topped the chart with "Don't You Want Me"; Stray Cats, a rockabilly trio from New York who scored such hits as "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut"; and Holliday, who became the toast of Broadway (and won a Tony Award for best actress in a musical) with her performance in "Dreamgirls." She won a GRAMMY for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for her performance of the musical's signature song, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going."

Come back to GRAMMY.com Jan. 24 as we revisit the 30th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Meanwhile, visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Facebook and Twitter for updates and breaking GRAMMY news.

 

 

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Watch Will Smith's Powerful GRAMMY Acceptance Speech From 1998 | GRAMMY Rewind

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"We want to dedicate this GRAMMY to the memory of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G," the 'Men In Black' star said at the time
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Oct 18, 2019 - 11:18 am

Here come the Men In Black!

At the 40th GRAMMY Awards in 1998, Will Smith won Best Rap Solo Performance for his title track to the hit comedy Men In Black. In the latest edition of GRAMMY Rewind, the Fresh Prince himself walked up to the podium with his frequent musical collaborator D.J. Jazzy Jeff and gave a poignant speech.

Will Smith Wins Best Rap Solo Performance In 1998

"Hey! This is actually the first time that I've ever been on a GRAMMY stage!" he exclaimed before recounting his at times fraught experience with the Academy: "In 1988, [Jazzy] Jeff and I won the first GRAMMY ever given to a rap artist. But the GRAMMYs weren't televising the rap portion, so we boycotted. In 1991, we won our second GRAMMY, I ain't think we was gonna win, so we didn't come. And now this year we won, so if you guys'll bear with me, I wanna give my speech from '88 and '91.

Smith continued, dedicating his golden gramaphone to his hip-hop heroes: "I'm really excited about winning this for one reason, because, about two-and-a half years ago, the state of rap music was such that I didn't really even want to rap anymore. I like to refer to it as "the rap dark ages." And then with people like Tupac and Biggie, who I consider prophets, with the loss of Tupac and Biggie [Smalls], that kind of shook the industry and people realized that even though we are artists, we do have a responsibility for the ears—and for what goes into the impressionable ears that are listening to the music that we make. So Jeff and I, we want to dedicate this GRAMMY to the memory of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G."

Watch Smith's entire '98 speech above, and look out for more GRAMMY Rewind throwback videos in the weeks to come.

GRAMMY Rewind Returns With History-Making Performances, Acceptance Speeches & More

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Watch Shakira's Fiery Performance Of "Ojos AsÍ" At The First-Ever Latin GRAMMYs | GRAMMY Rewind

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In this special edition of GRAMMY Rewind, the Colombian pop great takes the stage to perform her hit '90s single
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Oct 11, 2019 - 9:52 am

Though she's been recording in her native Spanish since the early '90s, today Shakira is one of the most recognizable Latin crossover success stories of the modern music era. And she's got the trophies to prove it: The Colombian pop powerhouse has 13 Latin GRAMMYs and three GRAMMYs to her name. 

In the year 2000, at the first-ever Latin GRAMMY Awards, she not only pulled in a golden gramophone for her late '90s single "Ojos AsÍ" ("Eyes Like That"), but she took to the stage for a fiery performance of the late-'90s track. Watch Shakira's hip-shaking rendition of "Ojos AsÍ" below in this special edition of GRAMMY Rewind. (And stay tuned for her upcoming performance at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime show.)

Shakira Performs "Ojos AsÍ" At The Latin GRAMMYs

Catch the 20th Annual Latin GRAMMYs live from Las Vegas on Univision on Nov. 14.

Watch Shakira Win Best Pop Vocal For "Ojos AsÍ" At The First-Ever Latin GRAMMYs | GRAMMY Rewind

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Watch Celia Cruz Win Best Salsa Performance At The First-Ever Latin GRAMMYs | GRAMMY Rewind

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"You guys are going to give me a heart attack!" the Queen Of Salsa exclaimed as she accepted her golden gramophone in the year 2000
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Oct 4, 2019 - 11:08 am

In the year 2000, at the first-ever Latin GRAMMY Awards, Cuban salsa icon Celia Cruz accepted a golden gramophone for Best Salsa Performance for her famed live album A Night Of Salsa.

Celia Cruz Wins At The 1st Latin GRAMMYs In 2000

Dancing up to the stage to accept her award, the blue-haired performer exclaimed in Spanish, "This is really a surprise! You guys are going to give me a heart attack!"

"I would like to thank God because he has given me the opportunity to be here with you," she continued. "I want to thank the Academy. I want to thank my husband Pedro Knight, who is here tonight. And for this award, I want to dedicate it to and thank La India, who worked with me on this album. To the Maestro, Johnny Pacheco, my divine God. To my brother, wo has left us but tonight, Tito Puente."

Watch Cruz's acceptance speech above in our latest edition of GRAMMY Rewind. 

Watch Shakira Win Best Pop Vocal For "Ojos AsÍ" At The First-Ever Latin GRAMMYs | GRAMMY Rewind