Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” Wins Record of the Year at 2019 Grammy Awards
Childish Gambino’s powerful single “This Is America” takes home the award for Record of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards.
On Sunday (Feb. 10), producer Ludwig Göransson and engineer MixedByAli accepted the award on the rapper's behalf. During his acceptance speech, Göransson wished that Gambino was with them on stage to claim the award.
The song, which also features vocals and ab-libs from Quavo, Young Thug, BlocBoy JB, Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd and 21 Savage, makes Glover’s fourth win of the night. "This Is America" also won awards for Song of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Music Video. He beat "I Like It" by Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin; "The Joke" by Brandi Carlile, "God's Plan" by Drake, "Shallow" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, "All The Stars" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, "Rockstar" by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage and "The Middle" by Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey in the Record of the Year category.
After debuting the song on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in May of 2018, Childish Gambino dropped the full song a week later, and it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart shortly afterwards. Along with the aforementioned featured artists, other beatmakers and engineers like Ludwig Göransson, Alex Tumay, Riley Mackin, Kesha "K.Lee" Lee and MixedByAli also contributed to the song.
“This Is America” was the first-ever chart-topping song of Childish Gambino's music career. He made waves with the all-too-real lyrics about blatant racism, discrimination, gun violence, mass shootings and police brutality that was brought to life in his jaw-dropping video, which instantly went viral.
Gambino wasn't at the awards show to claim his fourth gramophone. Days before the show, The New York Times reported that Gambino was one of several artists who declined to perform at the Grammys. As of this report, the rapper has yet to respond to winning his fourth Grammy.
Congratulations to Childish Gambino.
See Photos of Your Favorite Rappers and Producers on the 2019 Grammy Awards Red Carpet