Did Adele break her Grammy award in half, to hand a piece over to her “idol” Beyonce?
Sort of.
Adele won five Grammy trophies at the Los Angeles ceremony on Sunday night, including three of the four top categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She spent her speeches for the first two paying tribute to Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” the album that Adele personally thought should’ve received the honors. And after giving an emotional speech, she pulled one of her trophies apart, seemingly to hand over to her fellow diva.
But it wasn’t quite a real Grammy.
“The Grammys used during the television broadcast are for show,” the New York Times. Billboard reports they’re recycled “stunt” Grammys, left blank unlike the real trophies.
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The real Grammy trophies are made by a man named John Billings, the mold maker who has been building the awards for decades from his Ridgway, Colorado studio, according to the Times profile. He and his workers made 350 this year. Building a Grammy award takes 15 hours and are made of a zinc alloy dubbed “grammium” before being plated in 24-karat gold.
They aren’t finalized until after the ceremony, when the winners’ names are engraved onto plates.
“I’ve always just hand-delivered them,” Billings told the Times. “I just think it would be a nightmare to try and ship these. In the old days, there weren’t so many Grammys, so I would put them in my truck and make several trips.”
So Adele’s five Grammys are just fine–she’ll have to ship that Album of the Year trophy over to the Knowles-Carter house, fully intact.
“I can’t possibly accept this award,” Adele said in her final speech, as Beyonce looked on and mouthed “Thank you.” “I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful… but my artist of my life is Beyonce and this album for me, the ‘Lemonade’ album is so monumental… and so well thought-out and so beautiful and soul-baring and we all got to see another side to you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. All us artists here adore you, you are our light. and the way you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my black friends feel is empowering and you make them stand up for themselves. I love you, I always have, and I always will.”
— David Greenwald
dgreenwald@oregonian.com
503-294-7625; @davidegreenwald
Instagram: Oregonianmusic
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