The Most Viral Moments of the Night

Along the way, Viola Davis became just the 18th person to score an EGOT, picking up a Grammy for her work recording the audiobook for her memoir, “Finding Me.”

Beyoncé set a record for nominations heading into the night with a total of 88 of them, and led all artists with a total of nine nominations. She only needs four of those nominations to turn into wins to take the all-time wins record from Hungarian conductor Georg Solti, who sits at 31.

Her husband Jay-Z came into the night poised to set a record of his own. Currently tied with Kendrick Lamar as the rapper with the most Grammys, Jay-Z is nominated five times. Both artists have 24 trophies.

After the first performance, Trevor gave the traditional Grammys monologue, but not from the stage. Instead, he was in the crowd mingling with all of the celebrities, throwing around praise and very gentle jokes.

He quipped that even if Beyoncé doesn’t set that record, she still gets to be Beyoncé, so she’s doing just fine. He also zeroed in on Harry Styles, declaring him the sexiest human being alive. He joked that women throw their panties at him and Harry puts them on and looks better in them!

He had love to share for Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Jay-Z and Taylor Swift. He shared with the audience that she’d sold more records than any other artist this past year, which seemed to be news to Taylor, who could be seen mouthing her surprise.

For Adele, Trevor had a special surprise. In a bit where he joked about all the research he did and all he knew about the assembled stars, he shared that Adele is a huge fan of Dwayne Johnson, but has never met him.

Trevor shared that Dwayne was a huge fan of Adele, too, before lamenting that he didn’t have him there to meet Adele — but he did have The Rock. We only got a glimpse of Adele’s excitement at meeting him, but we imagined Dwayne sitting with her and the two of them chatting it up.

Trevor Noah blamed traffic for Beyoncé being tardy and missing her own record-tying moment. He did not, however, explain how it was that he said “Beyoncé is in the building” during his opening monologue, which clearly wasn’t quite accurate.

Or maybe she was anticipating a win later and wanted to savor that moment, so she was staying out of sight until she held the record. It did seem inevitable it would fall.

After “Cuff It” won for Best R&B Song, presented by fresh EGOT winner Viola Davis, Terius Gesteelde-Diamant came up to accept it and after saying something off-color enough to get completely censored, he offered Beyoncé’s thanks and walked off — all of which took about four seconds total.

He did finally return alongside Nile Rodgers for a more proper speech, after some urging from Trevor, but it was clear the assembled superstars were awaiting the Queen’s arrival. Damn that LA traffic!

Queen Bey did finally arrive (only an hour and twenty minutes late), with Trevor hand delivering her Grammy to her at her table.

By the time she hit the stage, Shania had toned her look way down from her spotted bell bottom look from the red carpet, but those red locks were still on full display, and definitely getting the attention of everyone online.

There was a healthy combination of those applauding her boldness and continuing to forge her own path as a style icon and those who were having fun finding some unexpected comparisons to other icons — like fast-food icon Wendy’s and Jennifer Garner’s Sidney Bristowe.

Sam Smith picked up the Best Duo/Group Performance trophy alongside Kim Petras for their collaboration “Unholy,” but they gave up their time at the mic to Kim as it was a bigger moment for her.

“Sam graciosuly wanted me to accept this award because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award,” she said, triggering a massive audience response. In truth, she’s the first known transgender woman to win any Grammy.

She went on to thank transgender artists who kicked the door open before her like Sophie, as well as Madonna for “fighting for LGBTQ rights; I don’t think I could be here without Madonna,”and her mother for accepting her gender identity.

The In Memoriam segment is always emotional, but this year’s segment had an extra poignancy when Quavo began performing “Without You,” his tribute to his nephew and Migos bandmate Takeoff, at one point holding up his chain.

It was just one portion of the longer In Memoriam, which also included Kacey Musgraves performing “Coal Miner’s Daughter” in honor of Loretta Lynn, and Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood honoring the late Christine McVie with a touching rendition of “Songbird.”