Grammy Justice As David Bowie Posthumously Wins All Five Nominated Awards

It may be just a little over a year since David Bowie died, but on Sunday, the artist finally received Grammy justice and posthumously won each of the five Grammy awards that he had been nominated for with his 25th and final album, Blackstar.

The categories that David Bowie won on Sunday’s Grammys included awards for best recording package, best alternative music album, best rock song, best rock performance, and best engineered album (non-classical). The best recording package award went to Jonathan Barnbrook, who was the art director for Blackstar and the best engineered album award was shared with Kevin Killen, Tony Visconti, and Tom Elmhirst, the co-engineers, and also Joe LaPorta, the mastering engineer.

David Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, posted a touching picture of him holding his father and congratulated him on the five Grammy awards that he picked up, saying how he proud he was of his dad.

So proud of you dad!
Would hold you up forever.
?? #grammys2017 pic.twitter.com/JHU2hveVwq

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) February 13, 2017

Before the release of Blackstar, Bowie had only ever picked up one Grammy award which was in the year 1985 and was for the best short-form video for “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean,” as USA Today reported, although he did receive 12 Grammy award nominations, not including those from Blackstar, over the course of his career.

Entertainment Weekly report that while David Bowie did win a lifetime achievement award in 2006, Sunday’s Grammys were the first time that an album of Bowie’s has been officially recognized by the Recording Academy.

Engineer Kevin Killen told reporters on Sunday that this was one of the few Grammy wins for David Bowie, despite his long and illustrious musical career.

“This is his first music Grammy of any of his projects, so it’s kind of shocking for someone who had such an amazing presence in the business. But these things happen and I’m sure most of us that work in the business don’t necessarily think about getting awards. It’s just about the joy of making music and I’m sure it was for him, too.”

Joe LaPorta, the mastering engineer, also added that while it had taken a long time to win so many Grammys, David Bowie had finally received the recognition that he had deserved for so many years, at least with regard to Grammy awards.

“It’s truly well-deserved and it has been such a long time for him to finally get this recognition.”

David Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016, at the age of 69, only days after Blackstar was released, shocked the world. However, those close to him were fully aware of his condition.

Kevin Killen spoke of how, despite Bowie’s cancer, the artist had boundless enthusiasm when he was writing and recording Blackstar.

“We were aware from Day 1 of the recording of David’s condition, but it did not impede. He was incredibly enthusiastic every day and really determined to make this record on his own terms, and hope that obviously, the outcome would be different. But it was an inspiration for all of us to see him do it.”

Donny McCaslin, David Bowie’s collaborator, spoke of how happy Bowie was to see Blackstar getting so much critical acclaim and says that he was personally surprised that David had only won one Grammy previously.

“I remember as the press was hearing Blackstar right before it came out, I know that it meant a lot to him to see the acclaim it was getting. I was very surprised to learn that he’d only won one Grammy. I’m just so happy for him and his family and his fans.”

What do you think about David Bowie’s Grammy sweep on Sunday and do you agree that he should have won a lot more awards for the music he made, which spanned five decades?

[Featured Image byLeon Neal/Getty Images]