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Lil Nas X

Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP

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2020 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony In Photos lil-nas-x-imogen-heap-2020-grammys-premiere-ceremony-photos

Lil Nas X To Imogen Heap: 2020 GRAMMYs Premiere Ceremony In Photos

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Awarding GRAMMYs in more than 70 categories with unforgettable performances, see the highlights from the 62nd GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony
GRAMMYs
Jan 26, 2020 - 1:30 pm

Music’s Biggest Night kicks off each year with the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony, where more than 70 GRAMMYs are awarded across music’s most esteemed genres, from classical to jazz, R&B, hip-hop, country and more, as well as outstanding creatives working behind the scenes.

Hosted by Imogen Heap, the 62nd GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony also featured performances from the likes of Chick Corea & The Spanish Hearts Band, I’m With Her, Angélique Kidjo and Nicola Benedetti, among others. GRAMMY Awards were presented by PJ Morton, Nathalie Joachim, Jimmy Jam, Luis Fonzi and Esperanza Spalding.

Take a look back at all the performances, artists and presenters you may have missed in photos.

Esperanza Spalding
2020 GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony | Photo Gallery

The 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, hosted by Alicia Keys, will be broadcast live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT on CBS.

Track all the winners from Music’s Biggest Night here.

GRAMMYs

Lil Nas X

Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images

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Go Inside The 2020 GRAMMYs Gift Lounge go-inside-official-2020-grammys-gift-lounge

Go Inside The Official 2020 GRAMMYs Gift Lounge

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As rehearsals went underway at Staples Center for this year’s 2020 GRAMMY Awards, the participating talent had the opportunity to tour the GRAMMY Gift Lounge
Vidisha Jain
GRAMMYs
Jan 25, 2020 - 3:52 pm

As rehearsals went underway at Staples Center for this year’s 2020 GRAMMY Awards, the participating talent had the opportunity to tour the GRAMMY Gift Lounge. A coveted spot hidden away underneath the Staples Centre, brands and bands join forces to exchange high-luxury products for endorsements in return. 

Spotted on Friday were highly anticipated guests, including the likes of Lil Nas X and Kesha. The lounge had a live DJ and was decorated with lampshades designed by gifting participant Pillow Pops. Gifts ranged from the expected jewelry and clothing lines, all the way to pillows, sunglasses, skateboards and custom-made cakes, with one brand even introducing smart-fit bras with custom molding technology.

GRAMMYs Official Backstage Gift Lounge Tour

At the entrance stood Grosse, a Japanese jewelry brand that actually started in Germany. Focusing on the concept of jewelry for all genders, it’s bling is apt for everyone, including the likes of Bruno Mars, who has worn the brand on stage.

While Grosse was founded back in 1907, there were also new businesses like Transparent Sunglasses that were founded a mere four months ago, yet their quality shone through as they already found themselves at the Lounge. Founder Margot Hogan wants to use Transparent to change what the significance of sunglasses can be. She speaks of her own experience with sunglasses as being "something both magically simple and fun about being able to make a bold statement with just one accessory. And so I decided to combine my love for sunglasses with a passion for confidence: designing sunglasses that inspire you to celebrate who-you-are." The name "Transparent" therefore is a signifier of both sides of the business—the sunglasses, but also, being yourself. 

2020 GRAMMY Awards Viewer's Guide: Where To Watch Music's Biggest Night

The range of luxury brands continued with Soma, a woman's brand that introduced the "INNOFITBRA" where the cups of the bra are infused with technology to help women find the perfect fit. With this, Soma was also gifting intricately designed silk robes.  

Within the range of clothing and garments, there was also a prominent theme of animal-friendly creation, like "vegan gloves" as Donna Leah, a brand for "clothing for the modern woman" showcased. 

Peta NOIZE makes animal-friendly jackets, with animal mannequins to signify the animal whom they saved with that coat. That is, instead of feathers or fur or wool, each NOIZE coat is filled with 100% recycled plastic bottles. Peta NOIZE aims to inspire their consumers to join their cause to protect animals and the planet, starting with their product and accompanying beanies.

GRAMMYs

Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Alongside products, awareness of personal health was also emphasized in the selection of showcasing brands at the Lounge. Artistology stood out with a huge display who was gifting opportunities to help artists with their well being. They feature online wellness courses tailored to the artists' needs, as well as anonymous counseling support. Artistology was created out of the belief from founder Tammy McCrary that "artists are the cultural architects of society. I believe that when artists thrive—mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically and financially—they can have a significant and positive impact on society." Thus Artistology puts these artists' wellbeing first, a revolutionary company, in a music industry that only recently started to acknowledge the psychological toll that artists may face on their creative journeys. 

Along with mental well-being, products to aid physical well-being were also popular. This includes Oxygenetix makeup foundation, which is a brand that has been a long-term partner of the GRAMMY Gift Lounge, is a make-up facial foundation that ensures the skin still receives oxygen and so does not get damaged by regular daily use. There were also diet products that emphasized being able to diet without compromising nutritional value.

Sweety Kake added to the health trend, and also brought the energy of a family business, with a third-generation recipe for custom-made cakes. Their business mission to be able to infuse extract of any flavor requested, but more importantly that their cakes are never frozen, not even when delivered, again honing in on the health benefits that should be considered even in desserts. 

"Un-Expect Everything" is the 2020 GRAMMY slogan, and the GRAMMY Gift Lounge definitely encompasses the aims of the Recording Academy. The connections being formed at every corner of the Lounge was an inspirational opportunity for discovery for all sides as the talent prepare for the weekend.

Watch the 2020 GRAMMY Awards this Sunday, Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

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Alicia Keys

Photo credit: Milan Zrnic

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2020 GRAMMY Awards Viewer's Guide 2020-grammy-awards-viewers-guide-where-watch-musics-biggest-night

2020 GRAMMY Awards Viewer's Guide: Where To Watch Music's Biggest Night

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Don't miss a beat at the 62nd GRAMMYs—here's your complete guide on how to Un-Expect Everything on Jan. 26
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jan 14, 2020 - 6:25 pm

The 2020 GRAMMY Awards are mere days away—are you ready?

This year, Music's Biggest Night airs live on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS. Hosted for the second straight year by 15-time GRAMMY winner Alicia Keys, excitement has been mounting as more and more performers are announced, including  Aerosmith, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Demi Lovato, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani.

To gear up for all the action, here are a few more ways to catch your favorite performers, presenters, nominees and winners at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards.

https://twitter.com/RecordingAcad/status/1216808135324729344

Do you want to see @ArianaGrande, @Aerosmith, @lizzo, and more artists take the GRAMMY stage in person at the @STAPLESCenter? 🎶

Enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the 62nd #GRAMMYs on Sunday, January 26th, 2020: https://t.co/g6SdaTSMWV. 💥 #UnexpectEverything pic.twitter.com/N8ZD44ZclQ

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) January 13, 2020

Stream The Premiere Ceremony

Start your GRAMMY Sunday, Jan. 26 the right way, by streaming the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony right here on GRAMMY.com. You'll find out who wins the first GRAMMY Awards of the evening and catch amazing performances from a wide variety of nominees. What better way is there to gear up for the main event?

Walk Down The Red Carpet

Catch a glimpse of music's biggest stars in real-time as we stream all the red carpet arrivals and exclusive interviews live from Los Angeles right here on GRAMMY.com at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. 

Go Backstage

Don't miss your exclusive second-screen experience by visiting GRAMMY.com during the show for all the highlights from on-the-ground, show-stopping performances, exclusive backstage access, and more. You can also keep find out who takes home GRAMMY Gold in real-time with our leaderboard and hear from the winners themselves in interviews, acceptance speeches and more.

Get Insights From Watson

Want more from your GRAMMY coverage? This year IBM is enhancing the fan expereince with the all-new GRAMMY Insights with Watson, which will analize red carpet video and audio in real-time using artificial intelligence to generate artist insights that will be overlaid during the livestream. Together with this inventive use of AI, IBM and the Recording Academy will surface new information to give die-hard music fans a better, more engaging experience.

Socialize It

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for up-to-the-minute info and insight on all things 2020 GRAMMYs. Like, comment and share to your heart's content on GRAMMY Sunday, and don't forget to use #GRAMMYs.  

And The GRAMMY Goes To... Your Inbox

What better way to relive the highlights than the exclusive GRAMMY Newsletter? You'll receive a special email blast with the best-of-the-best from Music's Biggest Night. Sign up below and don't miss a beat at this year's GRAMMYs!

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Demi Lovato To Perform At 2020 GRAMMY Awards On Jan. 26

Entertainment Law Initiative 2020 Event

22nd Annual Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Event & Scholarship Presentation | GRAMMY Week 2020

Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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GRAMMY Week 2020: ELI Event Embraces Change grammy-week-2020-entertainment-law-initiative-event-celebrates-change-makers-and

GRAMMY Week 2020: Entertainment Law Initiative Event Celebrates Change-Makers And Discusses Today's Most Pressing Issues

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As the music industry continues to evolve, the Recording Academy recognizes those at the vanguard of entertainment law and the leaders pushing the profession forward
John Ochoa
Advocacy
Jan 31, 2020 - 7:47 am

They say change is the only constant in life. That's a mantra by which the music industry lives. And when it comes to entertainment law, change is what drives the business forward. 

Change is the theme that defined the 22nd Annual Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Event & Scholarship Presentation, the most prominent gathering for entertainment attorneys and other music business professionals during GRAMMY Week. Every year, the ELI event unites the music business community and addresses some of the most compelling issues facing the music industry today. The 2020 ELI event—held last week (Friday, Jan. 24) as an official GRAMMY Week event at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif.—honored an industry luminary initiating change today while also recognizing some future leaders in law. 

For over two decades, ELI has addressed the shifting landscape of entertainment law head on, providing a forum for legal thought leaders and honoring its own practitioners who are ensuring the industry adapts to the ever-changing music and entertainment industry. 

It's no wonder, then, that this year's ELI Service Award honored Jeff Harleston, a music industry veteran who has faced virtually every sea change to directly challenge the entertainment law field. 

"Over the last 25 years or so, no industry has experienced more change than the music industry," Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, said in his opening remarks at the gathering. "But throughout this period of turmoil and transformation, there've been two constants. First, amazing artists making great music. And secondly, as if you didn't know by now, Jeff Harleston's extraordinary sound judgment."

Harleston, who currently serves as the general counsel and executive vice president of business and legal affairs at Universal Music Group, has been a champion for artists and creators throughout his decades-long career. Across his days as the head of the business and legal affairs department at MCA Records in the late '90s to his time as general manager of Geffen Records, Harleston has worked with iconic artists like Mary J. Blige, Nelly Furtado and Snoop Dogg, among many others. 

"There's no bigger friend to artists than Jeff," three-time GRAMMY winner Common said of Harleston in a personalized tribute video. "So you can call Jeff a general counsel or a board member or a role model. They all fit. But I'll continue to call him a friend. He's a true advocate for artists. And I couldn't be prouder of the recognition he's receiving today."

ELI 2020 - Jeff Harleston - Sir Lucian Grainge

Making his way to the stage, the crowd offering a well-deserved standing ovation, Harleston addressed the room with pride and jubilation in his voice and optimism in his sight. 

"This is to the lawyers in the room," he said. "At times, we know being a lawyer in the music business can be an entirely thankless task, but we love it because we love music… But most importantly, we have learned to work together. And what we've been able to do when we work together is move it forward really well. We move things forward legislatively, we've empowered new services that are finding ways to bring our music and the artists' music to places they've never been before. And it's all because we've allowed ourselves to respect each other and trust each other. I really am happy to see that happen and I really hope that we can continue that spirit." 

As he remembered his extensive career and all that he and his colleagues have together accomplished for the industry and the wider artist community, he took a moment to acknowledge the road ahead for entertainment law and the challenges to come. 

"As I reflect on my almost-27 years in this business," he said, "there's one thing that's clear about the music business: the constant is change. Change happens all the time... But what we have to do and what we've learned to do... we've learned to deal with the change. And change is hard. It can be abrupt. It can be unexpected. It can be painful. But it's important, and it has to happen.

"We are in the midst of a change as we speak. But I know that we are strong and resilient, and we will get through it. And when we come out the other side, we will be better, we'll be stronger and the world will be great. In the words of Bob Dylan, 'The times, they are a-changin’."

Fittingly, Dylan's eternal lyrics and Harleston's remarks nod to the ever-evolving music industry and the modern issues it faces, many of which were addressed by the entrants of the 2020 ELI Writing Competition. 

As one of its core elements, ELI has supported promising law students and has fostered future careers in entertainment law, having provided more than 800 students with scholarships to date. The event's popular yearly student writing competition and scholarship presentation acknowledge the outstanding law students who are seeking to push entertainment law into the future.

This year's writing competition entrants, who each addressed a compelling legal issue confronting the music industry and proposed a solution in their essays, tackled some of today's most timely and pressing matters in the field.

Christopher Chiang, a student at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, won the writing competition with an essay proposing a sliding scale framework for copyright protection in music. Chiang was presented his award, which came along with a $10,000 scholarship and tickets to various GRAMMY Week events, onstage by Ken Abdo, a partner at Fox Rothschild who has been involved with the ELI Writing Competition since its beginnings. Runner-ups included John Gilbertson, a student at Drake University School of Law in Des Moines, Iowa, and Graham Fenton from UCLA Law. 

ELI 2020 - Christopher Chiang - Ken Abdo

Perhaps the most urgent issue and forthcoming change to affect the music industry today comes via California Assembly Bill 5, more commonly known as AB5. The newly passed state statute aims to protect workers in the "gig economy," namely Uber drivers. However, its impact on the music industry could prove detrimental. (Music creators, particularly those who work as independent contracts, such as studio musicians or session/backing players, would potentially need to be recognized as employees and/or employers in order to secure work, which in turn entails a more complicated hiring process and higher fees for one-time gigs and short-term projects and performances.) Having gone into effect at the beginning of 2020, AB5 today stands as one of the most timely and important issues for music creators' rights in 2020.

In a panel that followed remarks by ELI Executive Committee Chair Michael Kushner, who is executive vice president, business & legal affairs and general counsel at Atlantic Records, some of the brightest and most active voices in the battle over AB5 spoke of the well-intended law and its potentially damaging effect on the music industry.

"AB5 is the definition of the 'law of unintended consequences,'" said Jordan Bromley, a partner at Manatt Entertainment Transactions & Finance. "It was meant to hit a certain sector of California industry, and it [was] painted with such a wide brush that everyone is affected, unless there's a specific exemption in the bill. I would say the one way to look at it is if somebody is providing you or your company or your artists or your producer or your songwriter a service that is 'core to the business,' they are now your employee."

Since its passing, the music biz and artist community have largely banded together to address AB5, with many from both sides of the industry launching online petitions and meeting with California lawmakers directly in an attempt to secure exemption from the law on behalf of the wider music industry. 

Ari Herstand, an independent musician, author and music industry blogger, has been at the forefront of the AB5 debate since it went into law. He's since gathered 50,000 petitions from California music professionals who are against the law. 

"We're 20-something days into this thing right now, and I'm literally gathering stories every single day from musicians who are losing work," he said. "I've hundreds of documented cases of musicians in California that are losing work."

Daryl Friedman, Ari Herstand, Morgan Kibby and Jordan Bromley at 2020 Entertainment Law Initiative event

But much like any other major change to impact the business, the music industry is already making headway into addressing and alleviating the issues of AB5.

Both Bromley and Herstand agree education is a key component in pushing things forward.

"The unions ran the bill," Bromley said. "The unions will run the next bill, most likely. So we need the unions on board. They're all conceptually there... It's frankly a lot of education on our business because it's weird and wacky and nuanced. And even some of the unions that exist in our business don't really understand how it's evolved in the last 10 years. So it's just a lot of patience and education, but everyone's at the table and everyone is focused on a solution."

"There needs to be education," Herstand added. "Right now, because of all of the hysteria around this—that's why so many musicians are literally losing work every day. So as soon as this—hopefully it's an urgency bill—passes, everybody needs to write about it. Every lawyer needs to know this to be able to educate. So I encourage everybody here to follow this process along and, once this thing gets passed, to educate your clients on what is actually happening and that we have found a fix, hopefully."

Panel moderator Daryl Friedman, Chief Industry, Government and Member Relations Officer for the Recording Academy, concluded the chat on a high note of optimism regarding the road ahead with AB5.

"It's going to be a lot of hard work by a lot of people," he said. "Hopefully a year from now, we will realize that this has been fixed. But I think there's also another lesson that is more enduring: the lesson of when creators get involved [and] when creators speak. They make the difference here. When creators speak, policymakers listen."

It's the exact kind of dialogue that has come to define the ethos and vision of ELI throughout the decades: When change comes a-knockin', we will be there to adapt, listen, learn and educate. 

The Entertainment Law Initiative maintains its support for the music industry as a whole, from its creators to its executives to its attorneys, and will continue to foster the next generation of change-makers within the music business and legal community for decades to come.

What's Ahead In 2020 For Music Creators' Rights?

GRAMMYs

Nikita Dragun, Tess Holliday, Kéla Walker, Shaun Ross and Ty Hunter

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2020 GRAMMYs Red Carpet: Go 'Behind The Seams' 2020-grammys-red-carpet-go-behind-seams-k%C3%A9la-walker-nikita-dragun-tess-holliday-shaun

2020 GRAMMYs Red Carpet: Go 'Behind The Seams' With Kéla Walker, Nikita Dragun, Tess Holliday, Shaun Ross And Ty Hunter

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Nikita Dragun, Tess Holliday, Shaun Ross and Ty Hunter join GRAMMY.com correspondent Kéla Walker to break down the good and the greatest style moments of this year’s GRAMMY Awards
GRAMMYs
Jan 29, 2020 - 4:09 pm

There's no shortage of dazzle at Music's Biggest Night — from high-energy performances to heartfelt acceptance speeches and, of course, some of the trendiest fashion on the 62 GRAMMY Awards red carpet.

2020 GRAMMYs Style Recap | Behind The Seams

This year, the Recording Academy sat down with a panel of bona fide sartorial experts—Nikita Dragun, Tess Holliday, Shaun Ross and Ty Hunter—who weighed in with their opinions on who brought the heat to the red carpet this year. Join them and GRAMMY.com correspondent Kéla Walker to break down the greatest style moments of this year’s GRAMMY Awards.

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.