Photo contributed Elle Robinson
Dresses, jewelry, and slightly offensive jokes are all to come with award season! This season gives actors, performers, singers, dancers, and artists a chance to dress to the nines and show off all their hard work (or to prove their superiority). The season typically features a lot of award ceremonies, the pinnacle of which are The Grammys, The Emmys, The Tonys, and The Oscars. Of course, with award season comes drama, whether it be canceled comedians or snubbed singers, so here’s a recap of all that you may have missed.
Starting strong with our singers! We all expected big things from Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights, which ended up winning Album of the Year. This album was arguably the most consistent piece of work by Swift and brought us back to her pop self after her folkier recent projects. SZA had 10 nominations for works off of her second studio album, SOS, and won Best R&B Song for “Snooze” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Ghost in the Machine” featuring Phoebe Bridgers. Bridgers is a member of boygenius, which won Best Rock Song and Best Alternative Song for “Not Strong Enough” which is the 6th track on the record. Surprisingly, Miley Cyrus had never won a Grammy until this year, winning Record of the Year for her chart-topping single, “Flowers”. Also, one of the most decisive categories this year was Best New Artist, which consisted of names such as Noah Kahan, Victoria Monét, Gracie Abrams, Jelly Roll, Coco Jones, and Ice Spice. Monét won the award and promised a great future with such powerful and soulful vocals, but the other nominees should not be underestimated either with many promising new faces.
At The Emmys, The Bear swept the awards for good reason. The comedy series featuring Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edibiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is full of laughs, hard themes, and amazing cinematography plus acting. The Bear won Outstanding Director in a Comedy, Outstanding Writing for “System”, and Outstanding Comedy, which was against fierce fellow nominees such as Only Murder in the Building, Abbott Elementary, and Ted Lasso. White won Outstanding Actor, Edibiri won Outstanding Supporting Actress, and Moss-Bachrach won Outstanding Supporting Actor. However, one of the more competitive awards was Outstanding Drama Series, with nominees such as Better Call Saul, Andor, Succession, The Crown, The Last of Us, House of Dragon, The White Lotus, and Yellowjackets. Succession ended up winning; however, all of the nominees were deserving and great pieces of work.
The Oscars came in hot, with many unsurprising wins and some shockers. The 3-hour Christopher Nolan film, Oppenheimer, won Best Picture, Cillian Murphy won Best Actor, Nolan won Best Director and Best Cinematography and Robert Downey Jr. won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Surprisingly, Greta Gerwig’s box-office-breaking film, Barbie, only won the Oscar for Best Original Song for Billie Eilish and PHINEAS’S single, “What Was I Made For?” and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award at the Golden Globes, and many believed was snubbed regarding nominations for Best Actress and Best Director for Margot Robbie and Gerwig, respectively. Poor Things actress, Emma Stone, won her second Oscar in the category of Best Actress and The Holdover actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. At The Oscars, Ryan Gosling performed a rendition of “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie, notably bringing out Slash and Eilish and FINNEAS performed a tear-jerking “What Was I Made For?” Although we are still awaiting the results from The Tonys, it’s sure to be something to look forward to in anticipation of our favorite celebrities walking the carpet once more!