Hollywood’s finest! Ellen DeGeneres LL Cool J are just a few of the notable stars who’ve hosted the Grammy Awards since they began in 1959.
Before the awards were telecast for the first time in 1971, the Recording Academy held dinners in multiple locations across the U.S. and aired a TV special called “The Best on Record” giving glimpses of the celebrations. The ceremonies were held in Los Angeles and Chicago between 1959 and 1970.
They became a hit with home audiences when the Grammys changed their format. To host some of the first awards shows, Kenny Rogers, Jerry Lewis, and Frank Sinatra were late great stars. As the years went on, movie stars and musicians alike tried their hand at hosting “music’s biggest night.”
Andy Williams, a late singer, holds the record as the most frequent host of the Grammys. He was the host from 1971 through 1977. LL Cool J is closely following, having hosted five ceremonies between 2012 and 2016. When James CordenThe following year, the incumbent took over the reins. NCISThe actor was at peace about the choice.
“They wanted to do something different, and I actually felt totally comfortable with that,” he told BillboardMagazine in February 2017. “I had an amazing run on the Grammys. I’m good. I made some great friends, I have friends at the Academy, friends on the production team, the executives.”
Though the awards often appear to be a well-oiled machine, sometimes things don’t always go as planned. In January 2020, she hosted Grammys 62 from Los Angeles. Alicia Keys was forced to make some quick changes to her routine in the wake of Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. She performed an a cappella version of “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” with Boyz II Men to pay tribute to the NBA player at the Staples Center, where he’d played as a Laker.
“I think that it was definitely a crazy feeling because, literally minutes before, we were going to do something else,” the “Underdog” singer said on The Ellen DeGeneres ShowDays after the Grammys were held. “And we had to really figure out how can we properly honor him in his house on this night [with] everybody who adores him and loves him so much and has been inspired by him and felt so devastated in that moment.”
Continue scrolling to see a list of some of the most memorable Grammys hosts over the years.
