Grammys 2025: Beyoncé (Finally) Wins Album Of The Year

Two years after making Grammys history by becoming the most-awarded artist with 32 wins, Beyoncé made history yet again Sunday night at the 67th Grammy Awards by becoming the first Black artist to ever win Best Country Album, and the first Black woman to win Album of the year since Lauryn Hill in 1999 with her album “Cowboy Carter.”

“It’s been many, many years,” Beyoncé said in her acceptance speech after hugging the Los Angeles firefighters who presented her with the trophy. “I just feel very full and very honored.”

In her speech, the singer also dedicated her win to Black country singer Linda Martell, who appears on “Cowboy Carter.”

Beyoncé is the most-nominated artist in Grammy history, with this year’s 11 nominations bringing her up to 99 career nominations, but until this year’s Grammys she had never won two of the top awards: Record of the Year and Album of the Year.

The cross-genre artist also won best country duo/group performance for her “II Most Wanted” featuring Miley Cyrus, a notable win following a 2024 snub by the Country Music Association, despite becoming the first Black female artist to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Beyoncé wasn’t the only artist to take home an award previously won by artist Lauryn Hill. Rapper Doechii won the award for best rap album for “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” becoming only the third woman to do so, following Lauryn Hill’s 1999 win and Cardi B’s 2019 win.

“I put my heart and my soul into this mixtape, I bared my life, I went through so much,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I dedicated myself to sobriety and God told me that I would be rewarded and that he would show me just how good it can get.”

In her speech, she appealed to Black girls and women to dream big, telling them, “anything is possible.”

“Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you that tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark or that you’re not smart enough or that you’re too dramatic or you’re too loud,” she said. “You are exactly who you need to be to be to be right where you are and I am a testimony [to that].”

Seventeen-time Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys was also honored at the ceremony, where she received the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, where she discussed the importance of acknowledging the creative power of women in the industry.

“I always had to fight for a certain level of respect as a songwriter, a composer, and especially a producer,” she said. “It’s strange that we don’t think of women as producers like Quincy, or Dre, or Swizzy, but female producers have always powered the industry.”

She went on to champion diversity initiatives in the industry.

“This is not the time to shut down the diversity of voices,” she said. “DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift, and the more voices, the more powerful the sound. When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all.”

See a full list of 2025 Grammy winners here.