Season 40
The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards), or "Grammys", are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the record industry.
The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on 4 May, 1959, and it was set up to honour musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958. The awards have been held annually ever since.
The Grammy Awards show is usually aired in February. In South Africa the awards air live on DStv's Channel O, and a delayed broadcast was traditionally shown on M-Net and M-Net HD the following day (this changed to DStv's Vuzu channel in 2012).
About the Grammys
The recording industry's most prestigious award, the Grammy, is presented annually by The Recording Academy. A Grammy is awarded by The Recording Academy's voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences.
It is truly a peer honour, awarded by and to artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievement, not sales or chart positions (Grammy Awards Voting Process).
The annual Grammy Awards presentation brings together thousands of creative and technical professionals in the recording industry from all over the world.
The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the more prominent Grammy Awards are presented in a widely-viewed televised ceremony.
The Grammys are considered the highest music honour, the U.S. record industry's equivalent to the Academy Awards (Oscars) for motion pictures.