Dear listeners,
This year’s Grammy broadcast was full of memorable moments: Bad Bunny getting all verklempt before accepting a history-making album of the year; Justin Bieber using the sorcery of a loop pedal and lavender basketball shorts to make time stop; Cher accidentally awarding record of the year to an R&B icon who has been dead for over two decades.
But only 10 of the 95 total Grammys given out on Sunday night were awarded during the telecast, meaning that a large majority of winners did not get their big moments on prime-time TV. Today’s playlist is all about them.
You’ll hear from quite a few first-time Grammy winners here, like the Baltimore rock band Turnstile, the dance-floor auteur FKA twigs, and the bitingly irreverent country rocker Tyler Childers — as well as a beloved group that won its first Grammy 50 years into its existence. Congratulations are also in store for first-time Grammy winner the Dalai Lama, who triumphed in the best audiobook, narration and storytelling category. Might an EGOT be in His Holiness’s future? Time will tell.
High in the hackles,
Lindsay
Listen along while you read.
1. Turnstile: “Never Enough”
Baltimore’s Turnstile took home two Grammys this year, winning best metal performance for the pummeling (though arguably not quite “metal”) “Birds,” and best rock album for its fourth LP, “Never Enough,” an eclectic collection of tunes that takes Turnstile far beyond its roots as a hardcore band. This title track, which opens the album, is full of soaring catharsis and sky-scraping guitars. 
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. FKA twigs: “Girl Feels Good”
Another established artist who won her first Grammy this year is the electro-pop experimentalist FKA twigs, whose “Eusexua” took best dance/electronic album. (The actor Darren Criss had his own “Luther Gandross” moment during the preshow when he presented this award and pronounced the album’s title in a manner that is still boggling my mind.) Here’s one of my favorite songs off the LP, a pulsating ode to pleasure on which Twigs effectively channels the goddess energy of late-90s Madonna.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. The Cure: “Alone”
This fact seemed so implausible, I had to Google it three different times before I accepted that it must be true: Before this year, the Cure — yes, the same band that made “Disintegration” and “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me,” the same band that wrote “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Just Like Heaven” and “Friday I’m in Love” — had never won a Grammy. I would be ranting to everyone I know about this injustice had it not finally been righted on Sunday, when the goth legends won best alternative music album (for the excellent “Songs of a Lost World,” a return to form after a 16-year recording hiatus) and best alternative performance for this gorgeous and glacial 2024 single. If there were a Grammy for “best extended and gloriously melodramatic instrumental break before the lead singer even utters a single note,” the Cure would have already been awash in trophies, and surely would have picked up another for this song.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Billy Strings: “In the Clear”
The fleet-fingered, flat-picking virtuoso Billy Strings won best bluegrass album for the second consecutive year (and third time overall), this time for his sprawling release “Highway Prayers,” which he co-produced with Jon Brion. This track represents the album at its most reflective and soul-searching — “They say heaven knows the road is slow / but Lord, how the hell would heaven know?” — but even in his moments of melancholy, Strings’s playing remains impressively precise.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. I’m With Her: “Ancient Light”
Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan comprise the trio I’m With Her, a kind of folk musical supergroup that released its second album, “Wild and Clear and Blue,” last May. That LP took home the award for best folk album, while this contemplative and finely crafted leadoff track, which draws inspiration from the natural world and cosmic connections between past and present, won best American roots song.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Durand Bernarr: “Overqualified”
One of the most joyous moments of the Grammy preshow came when an absolutely ecstatic Durand Bernarr won best progressive R&B album for the silky and self-reflective “Bloom.” Every single second of his acceptance speech was iconic: His hurried sprint onto the stage, his opening line (“Happy Black History Month for the rest of my life!”), his sudden break into song (“Thank you for the Grammyyyyyy!”) and the heartwarming moment when his parents surprised him by joining him onstage. Bernarr’s win was particularly triumphant given the fact that he has long been a prolific backing or featured vocalist for higher-profile artists like Erykah Badu and Kaytranada but hasn’t always gotten his due as a solo artist. He knew that that was his moment, and he wasn’t about to waste it.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Tyler Childers: “Bitin’ List”
Finally, the country iconoclast Tyler Childers is at last eatin’ big time after winning his first Grammy. The trophy for best country song went to this tautly written and fiery little ditty that speaks to a universal human experience: fantasizing about giving your enemies rabies. “To put it plain, I just don’t like you / not a thing about the way you is,” Childers begins, delivering the lines — and the entire song — in an appropriately feral tone. Call it country music’s “Not Like Us.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“7 Great Grammy Winners You Didn’t Hear on TV” track list Track 1: Turnstile, “Never Enough” Track 2: FKA twigs, “Girl Feels Good” Track 3: The Cure, “Alone” Track 4: Billy Strings, “In the Clear” Track 5: I’m With Her, “Ancient Light” Track 6: Durand Bernarr, “Overqualified” Track 7: Tyler Childers, “Bitin’ List”
Bonus Tracks
Caryn the editor here! Just wanted to point you to the rest of our Grammys coverage, in case you missed it: our minute-by-minute live updates, recap of the best and worst moments, full winners list (95 categories!), spotlight on Justin Bieber’s stripped-down performance, rundown of unforgettable looks, instant Popcast reactions, piece about Cher’s gaffe at the podium, update on President Trump’s response to the show and story about how stars made this one of the most political Grammys in years.
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Lindsay Zoladz is a pop music critic for The Times and writes the music newsletter The Amplifier.
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