Taylor Swift Makes History as She Wins 4th Album of the Year at 2024 Grammys: 'Unbelievably Blown Away' (original) (raw)

The 2024 Grammy Awards have awarded the biggest prize of the night — and history was made.

Taylor Swift was awarded album of the year at Sunday's awards show in Los Angeles for her album Midnights, making her the only artist to ever win album of the year four times_._ Midnights, Fearless, 1989 and Folklore have all won the achievement.

Jon Batiste, boygenius, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe, Olivia Rodrigo, and SZA were the other nominees in the coveted category.

In her acceptance speech, Swift spoke of her love for the music industry.

"I would love to tell you that this is the best moment in my life. But I feel this happy when I've finished a song or when I've cracked the code to a bridge that I love or when I'm shot listing a music video, or when I'm rehearsing with my dancers or my band or getting ready to go to Tokyo to play a show," she said, teasing the 2024 start of The Eras Tour next week.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

"For me, the award is the work. All I want to do is keep being able to do this. I love it so much. It makes me so happy. It makes me unbelievably blown away that it makes some people happy who voted for this award too. All I want to do is keep doing this. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do what I love so much," Swift concluded.

The 14-time Grammy winner also took a moment to praise her friends Jack Antonoff and Lana Del Rey. "I get to work with one of my best friends who is not only one of my best friends but also a once-in-a-generation producer. That's Jack Antonoff. I'm so lucky," she began.

Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift pose on the 66th Annual Grammy Awards red carpet.

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Following the trend of thanking her co-writers, she added, "But I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren't for the work that [Lana has] done. I think she's a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now. I'm so lucky to know you and to be your friend."

Swift surprised fans with more than just history on Sunday night, too. During her first award of the evening for best pop vocal album category, Swift announced her 11th studio album is coming soon. Titled The Tortured Poets Department, the album will be available to stream on April 19.

Taylor Swift.

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As for the night's winning album, Swift released Midnights in October 2022 and it represents "the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life." She also revealed that the songs on Midnights were inspired by five different things, including self-loathing, fantasizing about revenge, wondering what might have been, falling in love and falling apart.

The pop star was also nominated for record of the year, song of the year, best pop solo performance, best pop duo/group performance and best pop vocal album.

Jon Batiste. Frazer Harrison/Getty

Other nominees have had similar successes in years past. Batiste took home the same award at the ceremony in 2022. This year, Batiste was up for six nominations total, including record of the year, song of the year, best pop duo/group performance and best American roots performance. But most of all, he was excited to have a do-over with his wife after she couldn't attend the 2022 Grammys due to her health.

“It’s our opportunity to have a do-over. In fact it’s very poetic because my song that’s nominated for song of the year, ‘Butterfly,’ started off as a lullaby that I wrote for Suleika in the hospital,” Batiste told PEOPLE in November.

boygenius.

Frazer Harrison/Variety via Getty

Trio boygenius features Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. Their first full-length album, the record, came five years after the soloists first united for 2018's Boygenius EP. Months after the release of the record, the trio dropped a four-song EP titled the rest.

In addition to album of the year, the trio won three awards: best alternative music album, and their song "Not Strong Enough" won best rock song and best rock performance.

Miley Cyrus.

Stefanie Keenan/Getty

Miley Cyrus finally earned her flowers for Endless Summer Vacation, which dropped in March of last year and featured her hit single "Flowers." She won her first-ever Grammy for best pop solo performance. The album in full is a "love letter to L.A.," and follows Cyrus as she confidently explores her journey toward building both physical and emotional strength.

Cyrus also received nominations for record of the year, song of the year, best pop duo/group performance and best pop vocal album.

Lana Del Rey.

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Lana Del Rey was nominated for her ninth studio album, Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. She released it in March of last year. The album featured artists like Jon Batiste, Father John Misty, Judah Smith, Tommy Genesis and SYML.

She also received nominations for song of the year, best pop duo/group performance, best alternative performance and best alternative album.

Janelle Monae.

Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images

Janelle Monáe, 38, was nominated for her fourth studio album Age of Pleasure, which follows 2019's Dirty Computer.

"All the songs were written from such an honest space," Monáe told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 in May, noting that making music still proves to be a challenge 15 years into her career. "Look, it never stops. Even with this album, this project. I'm just like, 'You know what? It takes work.' I have to learn things all over again. I have to practice. I have to... And thank God I love the songs. Yeah. So it's always a fun thing to do. It's like starting on a blank canvas."

Monáe was also nominated for best progressive R&B album.

Olivia Rodrigo.

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Olivia Rodrigo, 20, poured her guts into her second studio album, which received recognition . Rodrigo released Guts in September, following the 2021 release date of her award-winning debut SOUR.

“For the first few months of writing Guts I was dealing with a lot of noise in my head about whether it was going to be good enough or whether I could ever top what I did on Sour,” she told PEOPLE in September. “It definitely adds a lot of pressure.”

Rodrigo, who kicks off her Guts World Tour later this month, is also nominated for record of the year, song of the year, best pop solo performance, best pop vocal album and best rock song.

SZA.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

SOS, SZA's second studio album that came out in December 2022, continues to reach new heights on Sunday night with multiple nominations. The album featured hit songs like "Kill Bill" and "Snooze," and won best R&B song for the later, as well as pop duo/group performance for "Ghost in the Machine" featuring Bridgers.

One the one-year anniversary of its release, SZA — who has since announced a deluxe version of her SOS album called Lana — reflected on its impact on her career: “a day late but Happy 1 year anniversary to an album that is ACTIVELY CHANGING MY LIFE .. like rn currently changing my life,” she wrote on Instagram.

The "Conceited" singer led the nominations list at this year's award show with nine total.

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See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 66th annual Grammy Awards as they're broadcasting live on CBS from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.