Grammy viewership rose in US & Australia

This year’s Grammys pulled 26.05 million viewers in the US – up 4% (representing an extra 1 million) from the 24.95 million who tuned in to the annual music awards ceremony last year.

It had a 7.8 rating (up 1%) in its key 18—49 demographic. The Grammys ratings rise reflects similar viewer growth seen this year for the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In Australia, the live broadcast drew 42,000 on FOX8 – up from 37,895 last year, which was also a 144% leap from 2015.

However, it’s difficult to know exactly how many Australians actually viewed the event as the 42,000 figure does not include the delayed repeat, or how many accessed the web portal that was set up by American television network CBS.

This year’s Grammy awards had a sense of anticipation, not merely because of the star-studded bill. These included Adele, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Metallica, Lady Gaga (one fan tweeted, “Lady Gaga didn’t turn me gay in 2009 to make me listen to Metallica”), Chance The Rapper, The Weeknd & Daft Punk, John Legend, A Tribe Called Quest, Alicia Keys, Keith Urban, Sturgill Simpson, William Bell and Gary Clark Jr, Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood, among others.

Obviously, the night was heavily politicised, given the music community’s anger over President Trump’s arrival and subsequent actions.

Just weeks before, Kanye West had complained he only won in the past when he didn’t face white rivals. Sure enough, even Adele made it clear she was dumbfounded and embarrassed when she won Album of the Year, beating out one of her idols Beyoncé.

Adele might have scored the wins but it was Beyoncé who got 2.57 million tweets (the most amount for a single artist on the night) compared to 1.976 million tweets about Adele, according to marketing technology company Amobee.

In total, there were 17.3 million tweets about the Grammys between 5:00pm and 12:00am American EST).

Generating tweets were political movements as Busta Rhyme’s comment about President Agent Orange (85,000). ATCQ’s performance (82,200) and the Resist word on Katy Perry’s armband (11,600).

But Adele ruled the Facebook chatter, when she won the major album and record trophies.

In second place was Lady Gaga and Metallica’s rendition of Moth Into Flame. Third spot went to Beyoncé performing Love Drought and Sand Castles.

Adele’s tribute to George Michael (she stopped during the first chorus to Fastlove cursing “I f–ked up, I can’t do it again like last year” but nailed it on the second take) put her in 4th place. Bruno Mars’ performance of What I Like rounded off the Top 5.

Of course, the Grammys also translated into sales, to the tune of a 207% download sales spike for those involved in the event, Billboard reported. There were 178,000 downloads on February 12, up from 58,000 the previous day.

Adele’s Hello rose 255% to 6,000 downloads, while George Michael’s Fastlove was up 5,367% with 2,000 downloads.

Beyoncé’s album Lemonade and Adele’s 25 sold an extra 4,000 units each on the Sunday, while Beyoncé’s Love Drought and Sandcastles sold 2000 each, up 1,217% and 958% respectively.

Billboard also reported that other major moves were Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You (up 87% with 46,000 downloads), Bruno Mars’ That’s What I Like (354% with 23,000), The Weeknd’s I Feel It Coming ft. Daft Punk (154% with 15,000) and Keith Urban’s The Fighter ft. Carrie Underwood (896% to 12,000).