The owner of the Troubadour, a historic Los Angeles venue, presented the award for Best Solo Pop Performance to Harry Styles at the 63rd Annual Grammys Celebration tonight. Styles was awarded for his song “Watermelon Sugar.”
The Troubadour’s owner presenting the Grammy award is meant to highlight the plight of all independent venues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees from New York’s Apollo Theater, Nashville’s Station Inn and Los Angeles’s Hotel Café are also set to present awards tonight.
A 2020 study stated that 90 percent of the U.S.’s independent venues are at risk of shutting down. Congress passed the Save Our Stages Act in response, but the situation hasn’t improved otherwise.
The Grammy’s Executive Producer Ben Winston stated about the decision to have independent venue representatives at the celebration, “It’s the people who make these places historic, and this allows us to highlight the great work that they do and the fact that they’ve been out of work for so long — and to show that we haven’t forgotten them on ‘Music’s Biggest Night,’ and remind our audience that when this is all over, to go back to their favorite venue.”
Styles had played his first-ever solo show at the Troubadour. “To everyone who made this record with me, thank you so much,” he said. “This is the first song we wrote after my first album came out during that day off in Nashville…” He went on to thank everyone involved with the record.
“Watermelon Sugar” came out in late 2019 for Styles’ sophomore album Fine Line. It was up for the award against Doja Cat’s “Say So,” Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now,” Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan” and Justin Bieber’s “Yummy.”
Photo credit: Stephen Hoffmeister
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