The Grammys is the biggest awards show in the music industry, and this year there were several records and milestones to celebrate. Music fans went online during the broadcast to comment and praise their favorite musicians. 

In this blog, we look at the online conversations around the 65th Annual Grammy Awards and highlight the most discussed moments. 

With Brandwatch Consumer Research, we analyzed online conversations on Twitter during the Grammys 2023 live show between 8 PM and approximately 12:30 AM EST. All data comes from public Twitter mentions for each award category and associated nominees.

The broadcast conversations: A minute-by-minute breakdown

There were more than 1.8 million mentions of the event during the Grammys broadcast. Looking at the conversation on a minute-by-minute basis, we can see how the conversation grew over the course of the four-hour broadcast. We can see that the biggest spike in conversation happened when Harry Styles won Album of the Year. An astounding 19,006 mentions in a single minute at 11:45 PM.

The second most significant spike occurred at 8:23 PM when Harry Styles won Best Pop Vocal Album for his album Harry's House. The third largest spike was at 10:09 PM when Beyoncé officially became the most awarded artist in Grammy history.

More on this below. And, of course, congratulations to them both! 

Highlights from this year's Grammy Awards

What were the most popular topics of conversation online?

Beyoncé breaks the record

Beyoncé is now the record holder with a total of 32 Grammys. This year, she won Best Dance/Electronic Recording, Best Dance/Electronic Music Album, Best Traditional R&B Performance, and Best R&B Song. This record was one of the most talked-about moments this year. Not only did it cause the third-largest spike in online conversations, Beyoncé was also the artist with the most positive mentions. Fans of Beyoncé took to the internet to share their excitement at this milestone.

Fans rooted for Harry Styles

Unsurprisingly, the parts where the winners are announced generate the most conversation online.Viewers love to see their favorite artists on that stage being recognized for their musical achievements. As our minute-by-minute analysis above showed, Harry Styles generated huge conversation spikes during the show.

Song of the Year and Album of the Year were the two most talked-about awards at this year's Grammys, thanks to Harry Styles fans. The singer was nominated in both categories, and while he won Album of the Year for his album Harry's House, he didn't win Song of the Year. 

Fans went online during the show to cheer him on and show their disappointment that he did not win in this category as well. This led to many mentions and catapulted Song of the Year to the top of the most discussed awards.

Lizzo stole the show

One of the most anticipated moments of the Grammys is the performances, and this year was no exception. With the most-mentioned performance, Lizzo stole the show with over 82,310 mentions.

In second place we’ve got rapper Bad Bunny's performance, followed by Sam Smith and Kim Petras' joint performance. 

Lizzo had the highest conversation spike of all performers with over 2.8k mentions in a single minute at 11:21 PM. Looking at the share of voice of the conversation, we can see that Lizzo accounted for a whopping 29% of the celebrity-focused conversation. 

One topic of conversation – besides her epic performance – was her reaction when host Trevor Noah announced that Beyoncé was at the Grammys, which quickly went viral.

Her on-stage tribute to Beyoncé when she won Record of the Year for About Damn Time as the first Black woman was one of the most positively discussed moments in online conversations about Lizzo all night.

Viola Davis receives EGOT status

Actress Viola Davis was one of this year's Grammy Awards presenters. She was the most-mentioned presenter in online conversations, followed by Sza and Cardi B. Davis and Sza each generated 24% of all presenter conversations.

In addition to hosting, Viola Davis was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Audiobook, Narration and Storytelling category for the audiobook version of her memoir Finding Me. She now joins Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Hudson as the third Black woman in history to achieve EGOT status.

And if your award show abbreviations are a bit rusty; EGOT status means that she’s won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. Must be getting crowded on that mantelpiece.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of HipHop Performance

The Grammy Awards celebrated the 50th anniversary of the hip-hop genre, and many legends performed. The most-mentioned performance was by Queen Latifah, with more than 6.5k mentions commending the rapper's show. The second most-mentioned performance was that of new rapper Glorilla with nearly 3k mentions. 

Breaking down the online conversation around the hip-hop performances by minute, we see that the largest spike in conversation was around Queen Latifah's performance, occurring at 10:31 PM, with 253 mentions in a single minute.

Adele and The Rock get heart eyes

Now, let’s talk about emojis. The heart-eyed emoji “😍” was one of the top 10 most used emoji, appearing in more than 14k mentions. 

Fans of singer Adele and actor The Rock went wild when host Trevor Noah introduced the two of them at the show. Their cheerful encounter was loved by fans and resulted in a lot of heart eyes.

Round up

There was a lot to celebrate at this year's Grammy Awards. 

The music industry's biggest award show sparks many online conversations each year as fans root for their favorite artists, celebrate their wins, and discuss the performers and celebrities in attendance.