It was a subtle start to a legendary streak. Since that ceremony, Beyoncé has won more Grammys than any other recording artist. But in 2001, there was only a hint of the career to come. Williams, who had recently joined the group, stayed silent during their acceptance speech, but looked exuberant. At the end of her thank yous, Beyoncé leaned into the mic, looked out into the crowd, and then looked back at her bandmates. “Thank you to Michelle, for blessing Destiny’s Child. And thank you, Kelly. I love you very much.” Williams and Rowlands replied, “We love you, Beyoncé!”
Destiny’s Child’s win was just an opening act. Throughout the ceremony, the audience was waiting for a highly touted—and, yes, instantly controversial—performance. Eminem was scheduled to perform his hit “Stan” with Elton John, in a duet that paired a gay icon with a rapper whose homophobic language was so extreme that his Grammy appearance was protested by GLAAD.
Inside the arena, things were also tense. When R&B singer Joe gave Eminem the Grammy for best rap album, he prefaced it with this: “It’s Mr. Controversy himself, Eminem.” Host Jon Stewart spent most of the evening teasing the performance; one joke about how Eminem “agreed to go to the bathroom with George Michael as well” reflects the era’s blasé homophobia as much as the rapper’s graphic lyrics did.
The staging of the performance—a bedroom set and a desk, with John off to the side, his piano on a platform—highlighted “Stan”’s conceit: a pair of dramatic monologues, one from an obsessed fan and the other from an artist who doesn’t notice him until it’s too late. When Eminem performed the verses ascribed to Stan, he skulked menacingly around the stage. When he started rapping the last verse, in character as Slim Shady, he sat behind a desk, finally relaxing. Though John was playing in the shadows, he bounced behind the piano, his energy and enjoyment obvious.
