Queen Bey claimed a spot on the Grammys throne.
Beyoncé tied the all-time record with her 31st career Grammys win toward the beginning of Sunday’s ceremony at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena — but didn’t appear onstage to collect the trophy.
Her win came in the best R&B song category for “Cuff It.”
“The downside of hosting the Grammys in L.A. is the traffic,” host Trevor Noah said. “Beyoncé is on her way.”
The milestone honor tied Beyoncé with the late conductor Georg Solti, whose his 31st Grammy came in 1998.
It was the third trophy of the day for Beyoncé, who had two wins announced before the main ceremony. Those wins came for best dance-electronic music recording for “Break My Soul” and best traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa.”
Beyoncé entered the 2023 Grammys leading all artists with nine nominations, including for album, record and song of the year. Her 88 nominations are tied with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, for the most ever.
Bad Bunny got Sunday’s ceremony off to a hopping start. The record-setting reggaeton rapper energized the audience with an opening performance that had Taylor Swift and Jack Harlow out of their seats and dancing along.
The Puerto Rican-born artist and his dance crew weaved through the crowd and onto the stage during a performance featuring the hits “El Apagón” and “Después De La Playa.”
Bad Bunny, who was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in each of the last three years, was nominated for three Grammys, including album of the year for his chart-topping “Un Verano Sin Ti.” It marked the first time a Spanish-language album was nominated in the category.
Viola Davis won her first career Grammy during the livestreamed, non-televised portion of Sunday’s show, making her the 18th person to achieve EGOT status as the recipient of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
Her win came in the best audio book, narration and storytelling recording category for her 2022 memoir, “Finding Me.”
“I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, her life, her joy, her trauma, everything,” Davis said during an acceptance speech. “It has just been such a journey.”
Davis, 57, is the first person to reach the EGOT milestone since Jennifer Hudson in 2021. Rita Moreno, John Legend, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the other EGOT recipients.
Other early winners included Kendrick Lamar, who won best rap song and best rap performance for “The Heart Part 5.” His six wins in the best rap performance category are the most ever.
Like Beyoncé, Lamar was nominated for album, record and song of the year. Adele, Lizzo and Harry Styles also received nominations in all three categories.
Styles won best pop vocal album for “Harry’s House” toward the beginning of the main show, which aired on CBS and Paramount+.
Brandi Carlile — whose previous six Grammy wins came in country, American roots and Americana categories — won best rock song and best rock performance Sunday for “Broken Horses.”
“It’s rock ‘n’ roll, man,” said Carlile, who co-wrote the song with her bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth. “I cannot tell you how much this means to us. We’re born and raised in Seattle. When I met these guys 22 years ago we decided to get into a band.”
Carlile also won best Americana album for “In These Silent Days,” which was nominated as well for album of the year. She performed “Broken Horses” toward the beginning of the ceremony.
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