It may have been Benito’s night, but there was still some major diva energy at the 2026 Grammy Awards and it came courtesy of two of the greatest divas from differing generations.

Few pop artists had as fruitful a year in 2025 than Lady Gaga did with her platinum-selling album Mayhem. The ultimate Grammy diva, Gaga ran a serious campaign and it earned her a whopping seven nominations at this year’s ceremony, and resulted in two wins. One for Best Dance Pop Recording for “Abracadabra” and the other for Best Pop Vocal Album for Mayhem where Gaga took the stage to give a few words of encouragement to her Little Monsters to fight for their art, some of whom like Bad Bunny and Doechii, have gone on to become Grammy winners themselves. Artists like Gaga are not common, and it takes fierce belief in your work and ability in order to get to her level of prestige. Gaga also is one of the few celebrities who is a celebrity to the other celebs, with Tate McRae taking her opportunity to snap a selfie with her.

Gaga also shared a tender moment with Benito right before his big Album of the Year win and you can see him turn to Jell-O upon her tap on his shoulder.

The way that Gaga is always showing so much love and care to her fellow artists is a beautiful sight to see, especially in a business that can be so toxic and turn people into horrific caricatures of who they once were. In a world full of Nicki Minajs please be a Lady Gaga.

Dressed in head-to-toe Alexander McQueen, Gaga brought a new vision to life for her performance of “Abracadabra”, a song that she has now performed so many times that the choreography has quickly become a recognizable piece of iconography in her wheelhouse, a la “Bad Romance”. The performance was the exact type of avant-garde art pop that we have come to expect from Gaga – the lady always has a vision every time she puts on a headset microphone and this time it was giving Rock DJ Gaga. In the words of Chappell Roan in the audience, the performance was “f*cking awesome”

The true mother of all mothers however is freaking Cher who made her first Grammys appearance since 2008. Cher was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award and was also tasked with presenting the award for Record of the Year.

This of course was news to her since she all but walked off stage before actually presenting the award. Funny as it may have been, I don’t blame her for being confused since the whole thing was organized poorly. Because what do you mean that you’re giving Cher a Lifetime Achievement Award and there wasn’t so much as a highlight reel to introduce it, and then you’re going to have her introduce a whole other award? My girl was right to walk off!

The real gold occurred, however, when she did present the award and first said she was told it would be on the teleprompter before lovingly announcing “Luther Vandross” or “Luther Grandross” as the winner when it really was Kendrick Lamar and SZA for their track “luther”. If there’s one thing we all know and love about Cher, it’s that she really just doesn’t give a f*ck. I dare any critic or online troll to give her a hard time for that flub; with all that she’s given us over the years we should be grateful she’s still serving GOLDEN live TV moments like this. As she said when she accepted her award, she’s been in the business for “60 f*cking years”, if she says Luther Vandross is the winner, then I guess he’s the f*cking winner! And yes, there are a ton of f-bombs in this paragraph, it’s F*CKING CHER!!!

Rounding out the diva energy, Billie Eilish proves that she remains the Grammys’ most reliable darling and walked away with Song of the Year for “WILDFLOWER”. While the dominance does feel somewhat predictable, her speech calling out ICE was a sharp and timely reminder that she still knows how to use the spotlight for something bigger than the trophy. Still, the night wasn’t too fruitful for all divas. Sabrina Carpenter delivered one of the evening’s most electric performances but left completely empty-handed, while the ladies of HUNTR/X and the KPop Demon Hunters crew managed just a single win for Best Song Written for Visual Media, getting shut out in every other category, including Song of the Year. Better luck at the Oscars queens!

Cher and Lady Gaga at the 86th Annual Grammy Awards, February 1, 2026

Lady Gaga at the 86th Annual Grammy Awards, February 1, 2026

Photo credits: ZUMAPRESS.com/MEGA/WENN, David Fisher/John Salangsang/Shutterstock

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