The Grammys are celebrating 68 years of honoring and recognizing the musicians, artists, creatives, and educators who have made the masterpieces we’ve adored over the last year and years prior. Every ceremony is a new opportunity for a nominee to make history, like Bad Bunny, whose album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is up for Album of the Year and could become the first Spanish-language album to win.
Over the nearly 70 years since the inaugural event, there have been many firsts and history-making moments that helped change the landscape of the music industry and shift whose stories, experiences, and talent are broadcast to a global audience.
The following list is a look at 15 Grammy winners who made history. Some entries may be well known while others could surprise you, but they all were a step toward more inclusivity on music’s biggest night.
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Judy Garland
- Larry Ramos
- Wendy Carlos
- Stevie Wonder
- Eddie Palmieri
- Elizabeth Cotten
- LeAnn Rimes
- Carlos Santana
- Lauryn Hill
- Cardi B
- Billie Eilish
- Beyoncé
- Sam Smith
- Taylor Swift
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald | Bettmann/GettyImages
The Queen of Jazz won her first Grammy at the very first ceremony held on May 4, 1959. She went home with two awards—Best Individual Jazz Performance for Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Song Book and Best Female Vocal Performance for Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Irving Berlin Song Book.
Ella Fitzgerald’s wins were historic not only because they were the first awarded in those categories but also because she was the first Black woman to win a Grammy and the first woman to win multiple in the same night.
She was also the first woman to perform at the Grammys, taking the stage at the second ceremony, which was the first to be televised. The icon would go on to win 13 Grammys over the course of her career.
Judy Garland
Judy Garland | Silver Screen Collection/GettyImages
Acting legend and singer Judy Garland won two Grammys before she died in 1969. Both were awarded at the fourth annual ceremony held in 1962. She won Best Female Solo Vocal Performance and Album of the Year, Non-Classical for Judy at Carnegie Hall. The latter was historic as Garland was the first woman to win the category. Only 19 women have won the award in the ceremony’s history.
Larry Ramos
Larry Ramos of The Association | Bobby Bank/GettyImages
While Larry Ramos is best known for his Grammy-nominated music with The Association, a ‘60s pop band that he joined in 1967 and would later lead by the ‘80s, it was his time with The New Christy Minstrels that earned him a Grammy win four years prior. The American folk group won Best Performance by a Chorus for Presenting The New Christy Minstrels, on which he played banjo and provided vocals.
The 1963 ceremony marked not only Ramos’s first and only Grammy, but it also cemented the musician’s place in history as the first Asian-American artist to win the prestigious award.
Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos | Len DeLessio/GettyImages
Though pop singer-songwriter Kim Petras is credited as the first openly trans woman to win a Grammy—for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Sam Smith on the song “Unholy”—electronic composer and musician Wendy Carlos is the first trans woman to win.
Her album Switched on Bach won Album of the Year-Classical, Best Classical Performance-Instrumental Soloist or Soloists (with or without orchestra), and Best Engineered Recording-Classical in 1970.
At the time, Carlos had accepted the award under her dead name and was performing disguised as a man to avoid harassment and attack. Carlos didn’t speak openly about her transition until 1979 in an interview for the May issue of Playboy.
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder | Amy Sussman/GettyImages
Before the masterful Stevie Wonder won Album of the Year in 1974 for Innervisions, the Grammys had yet to award an artist in that category who wasn’t white. That changed at the 16th ceremony, where Wonder took home five Grammys. He would go on to win the award again in the following year for Fulfillingness’ First Finale and walk away with two more awards.
Wonder is tied with Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon for the most Album of the Year wins by a male artist. They’ve each won three times. He is the only artist of color to have achieved this feat.
Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Pamieri | Paul Natkin/GettyImages
It took the Recording Academy 16 years to award a Latin artist, but it finally happened when they introduced the Best Latin Recording category in 1975. Eddie Palmieri, a pioneer of salsa and Latin jazz, won for his album, Sun of Latin Music. He was the first Latino to win a Grammy and was also the first artist to receive one for Latin music.
Palmieri won the award again at the 19th ceremony for Unfinished Masterpiece and would go on to win eight in total over the course of his career. He also won a Latin Grammy for his salsa album, Masterpiece, with Tito Puente.
Elizabeth Cotten
At the age of 90, nearly eight years after she started composing her own music, folk and blues musician Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten won the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording for her album, Elizabeth Cotten Live! The achievement made her the oldest person to have been awarded a Grammy at the time (President Jimmy Carter now holds the title; he won posthumously at 100). This was in 1985. She remains the oldest woman to receive the award.
Though Cotten had taught herself at a young age how to play the guitar and the banjo left-handed on an instrument meant to be played right-handed, she didn’t make her first record until she was 62. She’s credited for being a major influence on generations of musicians due to her unique style of playing dubbed the “Cotten style.”
LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes | Kevin Mazur/GettyImages
In 1997, when LeAnn Rimes was just 14 years old, she won two Grammys. She is the youngest overall recipient of the award, walking away with Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her song, “Blue,” off the album of the same name.
Rimes was also the first country singer to win Best New Artist, a feat that took nearly 40 years. Though the artist and actress has released music in other genres, such as pop and contemporary Christian, her Grammy nominations are all for her country music.
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana | Paras Griffin/GettyImages
Rock legend Carlos Santana won his first Grammy in 1988 as a solo artist, but it wouldn’t be until 2000 that he would make history with his band Santana. He became the first Latin artist to win Album of the Year with their eighteenth studio project, Supernatural.
The band went home with eight awards, including Best Rock Album, and tied Michael Jackson’s record for most awards won in a night. Supernatural also won three Latin Grammys at the inaugural ceremony.
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill | Pool/GettyImages
The rapper and hip-hop soul icon made Grammy history many times over. The first was as a member of The Fugees, where she became the first female rapper to win Rap Album of the Year for The Score. The group would go on to win another award that night at the 39th ceremony—Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Killing Me Softly With His Song” off the same album.
Hill made history again for her solo work, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She won five Grammys in 1999, including Album of the Year, which made her the first rap artist to win the award and the first woman to win five Grammys in one night. Her debut as a solo artist was also the first hip-hop album to be awarded in that category.
Cardi B
Cardi B | John Nacion/GettyImages
Known for her music as much as her genuine personality, Cardi B made history in 2019 when she became the first female rapper to win Best Rap Album as a solo artist with Invasion of Privacy. The feat was two decades in the making, considering the category was introduced in 1996.
In a 23-year span, the only solo female rappers who’d been nominated for Best Rap Album prior to Cardi B’s win were Missy Elliott, Eve, Nicki Minaj, and Iggy Azalea. It would take another six years, in 2025, for a woman to win again—Doechii for Alligator Bites Never Heal.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/GettyImages
At 18 years old, pop singer-songwriter Billie Eilish became the first woman to sweep the general field at the Grammys. The year was 2020, and she took home Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist—along with Best Pop Vocal Album—for her debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Eilish is the youngest artist to ever sweep the general field and only the second to do so. Christopher Cross had done the same 40 years prior in 1981 when he was 29.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé | CBS Photo Archive/GettyImages
With a staggering 99 nominations, Beyoncé is not only the most Grammy-nominated artist in the ceremony’s history, but she’s also the most awarded. The greatest pop star of the 21st century hit this milestone in 2023 when she won Best Dance/Electronic Album for RENAISSANCE, bringing her Grammy total to 32 that year.
Beyoncé added to her Grammy collection in 2025 and made history again when she was nominated for and won Best Country Album for COWBOY CARTER, making her the first Black artist to win the category. She also finally took home Album of the Year, a feat a Black female artist had not done since 1999 when Lauryn Hill won the award. Queen Bey has 35 Grammys (and counting).
Sam Smith
Sam Smith | Mike Coppola/MG25/GettyImages
Trailblazing English singer-songwriter Sam Smith made history twice in 2023 when they won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Kim Petras for their song, “Unholy.” The win made them the first non-binary artist to win an award in that category, and it also established Smith as the most awarded trans/non-binary artist in Grammy history. Smith has a total of five Grammys, including Best New Artist for the album The Lonely Hour.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift | NBC/GettyImages
In 2021, pop singer-songwriter and music maven Taylor Swift became the first woman to win Album of the Year three times. Folklore earned her a spot in an exclusive club that had only featured Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Frank Sinatra.
But in 2024, Swift entered a league of her own, winning the award again with Midnights, her 10th studio album. The win secured her spot as the artist with the most awards in the category, for a total of four.
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