Shocking Wins and Moving Speeches: The 2026 Grammys’ Biggest Moments

Musical artists from left to right: Olivia Dean, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), and Billie Eilish seize the moment and share moving speeches while on the Grammys stage. These three artists made an extra effort to share their opinions about current events, while also spending time thanking their friends, family, and producers for their support. Photo Creds: Rolling Stone

Carrie Bradbury, Review Desk lead

On February 1, the 68th Annual Grammy Awards brought together America's most beloved artists to share a night of performance and music. The night celebrated musicians of all ages, ethnicities, and languages, announcing nominees for each category and presenting awards to the winners. Famous music icons took to the stage, performing their hit songs, announcing award winners, and giving winning speeches. While this year was hardly different from previous Grammy shows, a handful of wins and speeches stood out as particularly special. 

The show started with multiple impressive and moving performances by this year's Best New Artist nominees: Olivia Dean, KATSEYE, The Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and Lola Young. Despite the awards' stiff competition, Olivia Dean came out on top. Dean has recently shown her songwriting and singing abilities in her hit songs “Man I Need,” “Baby Steps,” and “Couple Minutes,” along with many others, making her talents hard to miss. The award was well-deserved and well-received by Dean, making this category especially heartwarming. 

Upon receiving her award, Dean gave an emotional speech in which she thanked her manager and best friend, Emily Braham, and made moving comments about her family's heritage. 

“And I guess I want to say I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant,” said Dean. “I'm a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.” 

While speaking to the large crowd, Dean showed an emotional reaction to winning the award, proving how she truly deserved to be crowned the Best New Artist of 2026.  

While she didn’t win Best New Artist, Lola Young did not come home empty-handed either. The 25-year-old artist, who has become popular for her pop-grunge writing style and raspy voice, won Best Pop Performance for her breakthrough hit “Messy.” The song has taken off due to its moving lyrics that discuss the crushing expectations put on people in unhealthy relationships and how tiresome it can be attempting to be someone you're not. Listeners of all ages, but most commonly teens and young adults, have found the song relatable as well as fun to listen to.

Lola Young was obviously shocked to have won the award and celebrated with a heartwarming display of excitement, followed by an emotional and funny speech. The win was shocking for both Young and viewers due to the other famous artists nominated for the category, including Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, and 2025’s Best New Artist, Chappell Roan. Although these are all well-known artists, and Young is new to the scene, the win was well deserved. Any fan watching the show could tell that Young was beyond grateful and appreciative, as well as having a reaction that was both entertaining and humorous. 

“I don't know what I'm going to say because I don't have any speech prepared,” said Young. “Obviously, I don't. It's messy.”

The Grammys didn’t just highlight the work of new artists, but they also awarded many returning and well-known artists as well. Lady Gaga won multiple Grammys this year, and despite already having 45 nominations and 16 wins, she had an emotional reaction that held as much gratitude as her first win did. This year, Lady Gaga took home wins for Best Pop Vocal Album with her most recent album “MAYHEM” and Best Dance Pop Recording for the hit song “Abracadabra.”

During her winning speech, Lady Gaga left the crowd, yet again, speechless. The emotion and passion that Gaga spoke with could be felt through the screen. While ‘MAYHEM’ was a more unconventional album, especially compared to the other albums that it was up against, Lady Gaga most definitely deserved the award. Despite her ongoing success and multiple awards before this one, Gaga was still thankful for the honor and reminded of the time that she spent working on music before becoming famous. 

“I have been making music since I was a little girl, and every time I am here I still feel like I need to pinch myself,” said Gaga.

Equally famous and talented artist Billie Eilish had a very different reaction when she won her Grammy this year for Song of the Year with the hit “WILDFLOWER.” Eilish’s song got traction due to its popularity on social media and fandom amongst younger listeners. The song did have some challenging competition, though, with other nominations being: “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “Anxiety” by Jaylah Hickmon (Doechii), “APT” by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars, “DtMF” by Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), “Golden- From KPop Demon Hunters” by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI, “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar with SZA, and “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter. 

Although Eilish did not have an emotional reaction, she used her time on stage to express her opinions about some of the current events happening in the United States. 

“As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land,” said Eilish. “It’s just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now. And I feel really hopeful in this room, and I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter.”

While every speech at the Grammys was motivational, no one was as inspiring as Puerto Rican artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio ‘Bad Bunny’. He made history as the first artist ever to be nominated in the Album, Song, and Record of the Year categories in a single year. The first speech he made of the night was for his win for the Best Música Urbana Album with “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”

 “Before I say thanks to God, I am going to say ICE out. We’re not savages. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans. And we are Americans,” said Ocasio. “Hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.” 

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, Bad Bunny went on to win the most important and popular award of the night, Album of the Year with “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” This was the first time an all-Spanish album had ever won the award in all of Grammy history. This category was also packed full of talent with albums: “SWAG” by Justin Bieber, “Man’s Best Friend” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Let God Sort Em Out” by Clipse, Pusha T & Malice, “MAYHEM” by Lady Gaga, “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar, “MUTT” by Leon Thomas, and “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator. 

Bad Bunny got up on stage for the second time that night, looking close to tears. He then gave the first part of his speech in Spanish. This did make it hard for English speakers to understand, but it was a beautiful way to include his Spanish-speaking fans and listeners, especially those from Puerto Rico.

 Translated into English, Bad Bunny said, “Thank you, Mom, for giving birth to me in Puerto Rico.” Midway through the speech, he switched to English and said, “I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.” 

The artist closed his winning speech in Spanish, saying, “To all the Latinos around the world and all the artists before who deserved to be on this stage receiving this award, thank you so much.”

Though both Bad Bunny’s music and Grammys speech are in Spanish, listeners worldwide can now come together again to see him perform at this year's Super Bowl on Sunday, February 8. Before the Grammys, there was some debate if Bad Bunny deserved the honor of performing at the Super Bowl, but with his multiple wins at the Grammys, the conflict seems settled. 

While the Grammys had more political connections than usual, artists who took to the stage that night delivered clear and inspiring messages that left viewers with more appreciation for the music created in 2026 and excitement for what will come before the Grammys in 2027.