Taylor Swift made history at the 2024 Grammys on Sunday night (Feb. 4) by winning her fourth career album of the year award, for 2022’s blockbuster Midnights.
The award was presented by legendary pop singer Céline Dion in a surprise rare public appearance, following her being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2023. “When I say that I’m happy to be here, I really mean it from my heart,” Dion raved. “Those who have been blessed enough to be here on the Grammy awards must never take for granted the tremendous love and joy that music brings to our lives, and to people all around the world.”
Dion then announced Swift’s Midnights as the winner, with Swift taking the stage alongside go-to-producer Jack Antonoff and “Snow on the Beach” collaborator (and fellow 2024 album of the year nominee) Lana Del Rey. She thanked both of them in her speech, calling Antonoff one of her best friends and a “once-in-a-generation producer,” and referring to Del Rey as “a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now … I’m so lucky to know you and to be your friend.”
Swift also stipulated that as overwhelmed as she was with her Grammy triumph, it brought her no more happiness than it does “when I finish a song, or when I crack the code to a bridge that I love, or when I finish the shot list for a music video … for me the award is the work.” She then repeated her ultimate career-related wish: “All I wanna do is to be able to keep doing this.”
The album of the year win for Midnights follows previous Swift victories for Fearless (2010), 1989 (2016) and Folklore, moving her out of her tie with Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon, and making her the lone record-holder of most album of the year wins in Grammy history with her four. As she reminded audiences during her introduction of the category, Dion was also a winner herself in 1997, for her RIAA diamond-certified LP Falling Into You.
