Maryland had 11 chances to take home a Grammy Award on Sunday night. Local artists wound up winning three.
Rock band Turnstile, “KPop Demon Hunters” singer Rei Ami, country singer Maggie Rose, producer Dijon and spoken word poet Marc Marcel were nominated for Grammys, which celebrate the best music and recording of the year.
Here’s everything you need to know about Maryland representation at the 68th Grammy Awards.
A thwarted shot at album of the year
Dijon Duenas, a University of Maryland, College Park, alum from Ellicott City, held Maryland’s final chance to win at the end of the ceremony for his work on Justin Bieber’s album “SWAG.”
It was largely considered a long shot, with those in the industry predicting a win for Bad Bunny, next weekend’s Super Bowl Halftime Show performer, or Kendrick Lamar, last year’s Super Bowl performer.
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An emotional Bad Bunny won album of the year, the night’s biggest award and the final category, for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.“
Earlier in the day, Dijon lost producer of the year to Cirkut, a key collaborator of Lady Gaga.
Turnstile shouts out Baltimore in first career win
Baltimore band Turnstile — featuring frontman and producer Brendan Yates, guitarist Pat McCrory, bassist Franz Lyons, drummer Daniel Fang and guitarist Meg Mills — won best rock album for “Never Enough.”
“The community we found through punk and hard-core music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful,” said Yates, who produced the album. “So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers, Baltimore, thank you. We love you.”
Turnstile, which released “Never Enough” in June, also won best metal performance for the track “Birds.”
“Everyone we’ve ever met through this band, thank you,” said Fang, who wore an “ICE Out” pin, during the acceptance speech.
Earlier in the ceremony, Turnstile lost best rock performance to “Changes (Live From Villa Park) Back to the Beginning” — a song from the upcoming concert film “Back to the Beginning: Ozzy’s Final Bow” — by Yungblud and featuring Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman and II. “Alone” by veteran English rockers the Cure also beat out Turnstile’s “Seein’ Stars” in best alternative music performance.
Maggie Rose featured in pre-show opening number
Country singer Maggie Rose, who grew up in Potomac, helped kick off the festivities Sunday afternoon as part of the opening number for the Premiere Ceremony.
Singing Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star,” she was joined by reggae artist Lila Iké, musician Trombone Shorty, singer/songwriter Israel Houghton and multigenre singer/songwriter Grace Potter, who is also nominated with Rose in the best Americana performance category for “Poison in My Well.”
But that was the only time Rose hit the Grammys preshow stage — the singer lost best Americana performance to Mavis Staples for “Godspeed.”

No gold for Montgomery County’s ‘Golden’ singer
Rei Ami, who grew up in Germantown and attended the University of Maryland, made up a third of the trio of singers behind the “KPop Demon Hunters” mega-hit “Golden.” But it was “Defying Gravity” by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande from “Wicked” that took home the gold. The song did win best song written for visual media, though that award is given to the songwriters, not singers.
History made
Fyütch & Aura V, a father-daughter duo from Charles County, won best children’s music album for their lively duet album, “Harmony.” At age 8, Harold “Fyütch” Simmons’ daughter Aura V became the youngest Grammy winner ever. The duo recently told their story on the “Today” show.
Keeping it in the Mid-Atlantic region
Also during the preshow, Los Angeles-via-Baltimore poet Marc Marcel lost best spoken word poetry album to Virginia rapper Mad Skillz.
Every Maryland Grammy nomination
- Turnstile (from Baltimore): Best rock album for “Never Enough”— Won
- Turnstile: Best rock song for “Never Enough” — Lost
- Turnstile: Best rock performance for “Never Enough”
- Turnstile: Best metal performance for “Birds” — Won
- Turnstile: Best alternative music performance for “Seein’ Stars” — Lost
- Maggie Rose (from Potomac): Best Americana performance for “Poison in My Well” with Grace Potter — Lost
- Rei Ami (from Germantown): Best pop duo/group performance for “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” — Lost
- Dijon (from Baltimore): Producer of the year, non-classical — Lost
- Dijon: Album of the year for Justin Bieber’s “SWAG” — Lost
- Marc Marcel (from Baltimore): Best spoken word poetry album for “Black Shaman” — Lost
- Fyütch & Aura V (from Charles County): Best children’s album for “Harmony” — Won
This story has been updated to include Fyütch & Aura V’s win for best children’s album.



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