The atmosphere outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday (Feb. 1) afternoon was organized chaos meets high glitz, as nominees, significant others, publicists, photographers, agents, security guards and other assorted industry folks and fans swanned around the site of the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Related
It was 80 degrees and sunny, but despite the heat, looks stayed fresh as everyone filed inside for the ceremony. A select number of these people eventually made their way on stage to accept awards, and some of them were later routed to the backstage press room to offer remarks to the pool of assembled journalists.
Read on for everything that went down that you didn’t see on TV.
3:14 p.m. PT: While reflecting on his win for best country duo/group performance for “Amen,” his collaboration with Jelly Roll, Shaboozey got emotional several times while talking about being a child of immigrants and how this topic overlaps with the roots of country music itself.
“My parents were born Nigeria and came here and my dad. I know the things he sacrificed, came here and my mother as well,” the artist said. “So to know that I’m an example of that and I’m from that lineage and I’m inspiring people hopefully and just trying to live up my fullest potential. I’ve had so many dreams of being able to do something like this. I’m from a small town in Virginia. I wasn’t the most talented in any respect, but I had dreams; I was a dreamer. And I think this is just a representation of one of my dreams.” The artist then took a moment to fight back tears, getting applause and encouragement from those gathered in the room.
Then speaking about the history of country music, Shaboozey continued that “the banjo came from West Africa … Irish immigrants and Irish settlers came here along with people who were forced to be here to work on this country. They kept their stories, they kept their traditions, they could have let all of that die with them. They had to have hope to bring those stories here … country music and music is general is just people being brave and having hope and continuing to keep something alive.”
7:05 p.m. PT: Coming backstage to speak about winning all three Grammys he was nominated for, including best contemporary country album for his Beautifully Broken LP, Jelly Roll smiled big and announced that “as you can imagine, I’m f–king elated!”
When asked what his younger self would think of the accomplishment, he said, “If 16-year-old me could see this, he would probably think to himself, ‘How in the hell are we going to end up there?’ I would tell him that everything that’s happening, believe it or not, as horrible as some of things that are going to happen are going to be, God is going to use that in a way you can never dream of. On the world’s biggest stage you’re going to sweep and go three for three in front of the world. You’re going to scream his name, people are going to cheer for you and you’re going to shut down the Sunset Strip and turn a little water into wine, baby!”
The artist, who recently lost roughly 275 pounds, was then asked about how he got the weight off. He advised, “First of all, I did it with a lot of consistent cardio and food. I had to fight my food addiction just the way I fought my cocaine addiction. I had to really take it serious; I had to change my relationship with food; I had to do a lot of mental therapy and a lot of mental work … Never did a GLP-1, but I don’t judge nobody who does it. Anybody who’s 500 pounds, I don’t care if you take one shot or 10. Do whatever it takes to get the weight off, don’t listen to nobody else. Get your life straight and save that heart.”
Jelly Roll was also asked about the advice he’d give to people going through hard times in their lives, with the artist, who’s been very open about his own experiences with drug addiction and jail time, observing that “the saddest feeling that we can all feel is hopelessness and loneliness. I say plug into something. Find a community, find a source of love, get way from the hate on the internet and go connect with actual people. If you’re struggling with drugs, I suggest you go find an AA room or an NA room, and you’d be surprised by how fast you can connect. Or a local church, or a local mosque. Go connect with community and people who are doing stuff for betterment, get away from the toxicity on the internet.”
7:48 p.m. PT: After winning the award for best pop solo performance for her hit song “Messy,” Lola Young came backstage and was asked why she thinks the song resonates with people so deeply. The British artist observed: “I feel like ‘Messy’ is a song that symbolizes how we all feel. I’m very proud of this song. I feel it speaks on just being a messy human being, and not being enough for the world. That’s how a lot of us feel a lot of the time, and I how I felt a lot of the time, so that’s why I think it related.”
Young then also comments on the hiatus she took in late 2025, announcing last September that she was “going away for a while” after collapsing on stage at All Things Go Festival. Speaking to this situation and her comeback with a Grammy win, Young said, “I would say this is a very difficult industry to be in, and I took the time out to get better, because there was a lot of things going on in my head and in my personal life. We constantly have to be protected as artists, and I had to make a decision to do it for myself and to be kind to myself and give myself space, but now I am back.
“I feel better,” she continued. “I will do as much as I can to be good for my fans and to be good for the people that love me, and thank you to all of my fans and everyone who supports me and is following me on this journey. It’s a great and beautiful moment for me, this is.”
7:42 p.m. PT: The songwriting team behind K-Pop Demon Hunters sensation “Golden” arrived backstage to discuss the song’s win for best song written for visual media. The group’s EJAE gushed, “So proud to be Korean. Growing up, people didn’t know where Korea was and what Korea was. That’s why it’s so incredible to have ‘Golden’ being sung all over the world, [seeing people] singing Korean lyrics word by word means so much. I think this award is about that representation; today is about celebrating culture, and music that unites all cultures and we need that right now.”
8:42 p.m. PT: Jon Batiste, who has an incredible 25 Grammy nominations and eight wins dating back to 2019, came backstage to discuss winning the award for best Americana album (for his Big Money LP) and then performing in the all-star tribute to Roberta Flack and D’Angelo.
“To come and celebrate the life of D’Angelo and Roberta Flack with Ms. Lauryn Hill and all my friends, it was a reunion on stage. It was like Black music Avengers. It was a great vibe, and rehearsal was like that too, there were so many stories, just interconnected in ways that we knew and didn’t know. I’m all about lineage, and this music is bigger than any one person. It’s bigger than me, it’s bigger than anybody, it’s bigger than any award.”
9:13 p.m. PT: When asked why is it important for artists to speak on social issues, as many artists did on Grammy night, SZA remarked, “It’s incredibly dystopian that we’re dressed up and able to celebrate accolades and the material world and people are getting snatched up and shot in the face on the street. It just feels bizarre, and I find so many of us don’t really know how to feel right now, besides rage and hopelessness, and I don’t feel like that’s the calling card I want to subscribe to.
“I really believe in great possibility,” she continued. “I believe that entropy can rechange. I believe that this is a time when we can dig deep as a community and really learn that it’s not time to count on anyone else but us and our neighbors to protect ourselves, to provide for each other, to be that morale booster, to disseminate mutual aid, to take are of each other. I just feel like, yay, that’s an amazing opportunity, boo that this is even happening. It’s always f–k ICE, but it’s also matter of, I just don’t want everyone to fall into despair, because when you lose morale, change becomes impossible, but it’s so not. I personally am not going. I will not being going quietly into the dying of the light, so I encourage everyone the same.”
The room burst into applause.