On “music’s biggest night,” Seattle musicians proved their mettle by winning a combined six golden gramophones at the 61st Grammy Awards.
Singer-songwriter extraordinaire Brandi Carlile led the way with three honors (out of six nominations). Considering they were the only entries up for the major awards in their genre, it came as no surprise that her she captured the Best American Album award for By the Way, I Forgive You, while the song “The Joke” earned two trophies for Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance. She was bested by Kacey Musgraves for Album of the Year and Childish Gambino for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, but it’s still quite the haul.
Carlile also played a live rendition of “The Joke” as part of the telecast on CBS. The vocally-soaring and emotive performance drew rave reviews on Twitter from everyone from Sheryl Crow to Anna Kendrick to Gov. Jay Inslee.
So.
I am changed.
My jaw is on the floor. Holy shit. #BrandiCarlile #GRAMMYs
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) February 11, 2019
Favorite performance of the whole night @brandicarlile! You killed it lady!!#grammys #BrandiCarlile
— Sheryl Crow (@SherylCrow) February 11, 2019
My friend and Washingtonian @brandicarlile and the twins just hit it out of the park at the #GRAMMYs
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) February 11, 2019
The Seattle Symphony also took home multiple awards during the night’s ceremonies. Kernis: Violin Concerto — in which the Symphony accompanied violinist James Ehnes to play Aaron Jay Kernis’s composition — won for both Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The Symphony now boasts five total Grammys.
Rounding out the celebrated Seattleites, Chris Cornell posthumously won Best Rock Performance for the song “When Bad Does Good” from the self-titled career retrospective box set put out last year. Cornell’s children — Toni and Christopher — accepted the award.
