Trinidad and Tobago featured twice on the Grammy stage last night, with local talent recognised across music video and classical categories.
Trinbagonian producer Jolene Mendes was part of the production team behind hip hop star Doechii’s hit song Anxiety, which won the Grammy Award for best music video. The project beat out entries from Sabrina Carpenter, Sade, OK Go, and Clipse. Although Doechii is not Trinbagonian, Mendes is. With both Doechii and director James Mackel unavailable to accept the award, Mendes stepped forward to receive the Grammy and deliver the acceptance remarks.
Also representing the red, white and black was Trinidadian-Canadian conductor Kwame Ryan. Ryan, a 2017 ANSA Laureate and former director of the UTT Academy for the Performing Arts, won the Grammy Award for best opera recording for the Houston Grand Opera production of composer Jake Heggie’s Intelligence.
Known as music’s biggest night, the 68th annual Grammy Awards was held in Los Angeles. Billie Eilish won song of the year for Wildflower, Olivia Dean was named best new artist, Bad Bunny took album of the year, and Kendrick Lamar and SZA won record of the year for Luther.
