GRAMMY SPIKES

After the Grammy Awards wrapped on 3/14, the next-day news cycle and social-media commentary focused on the wins of Taylor Swift and Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé’s new record of 28 trophies and the performance of “WAP,” which was alternately praised and pooh-poohed.

When all was said and done, though, there are a few other winners, specifically the artists whose fortunes rose in the immediate aftermath of the telecast.

Beyond Swift and the Cardi B/Megan bedroom romp, Harry Styles, BTS and Billie Eilish enjoyed Grammy-related bumps across multiple Internet platforms, while Dua Lipa—already the biggest female artist in the world on Spotify—had eyeballs popping on YouTube. Her medley of “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating,” which included a cameo from Da Baby, led the way in post-ceremony online viewing, being streamed 15m times on her official YouTube channel in the two days following the telecast.

While her Warner album Future Nostalgia has been a consistently strong performer over its 50 weeks of release, the songs Dua sang at the Grammys enjoyed lifts in the two days after the ceremony. “Levitating” registered 1.29m audio streams across Spotify and Apple Music on the Monday after the awards, an increase of 160k over Sunday’s count. “Don’t Start Now” was up 36% on Monday to 529k. And the songs sold nearly 3k downloads apiece at iTunes on the day of the ceremony.

Styles’ performance of “Watermelon Sugar” with a full band certainly raised the thirst level of anyone holding tickets for his world tour this year, which—fingers crossed—starts in mid-August in Washington. The performance was watched 1.4m times in its first two days on his YouTube channel; more impressively, his acceptance speech for Best Pop Solo Performance had 2.7m views. “Watermelon Sugar” (Columbia) was streamed 680k times on Spotify and Apple Music on 3/15.

Eilish’s Record of the Year winner, “everything I wanted,” had 5.3m YouTube views and registered 558k Spotify/Apple Music streams on 3/15. The win also revived interest in her Grammy-winning album from the previous year, pushing WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (Darkroom/Interscope) into the Top 10 at iTunes.

Not that Swift needed a boost from the Grammys, but her Album of the Year victory pushed folklore (Republic) back to #1 at iTunes for much of the three days after the ceremony. Her Grammy-telecast medley of “cardigan, “willow” and “august” received 3.3m YouTube views within 48 hours of the video being posted.

H.E.R.’s SOTY-winning “I Can’t Breathe” (RCA) increased by eight-fold on Spotify from Sunday to Monday, while her latest hit, “Damage,” got a lift from the halo effect of her appearance on the show, growing through the week on the streamery, as the breakthrough artist's trajectory toward stardom continued apace. With the long tail of streaming, H.E.R.'s lift could be the rare one that lasts.

Atlantic’s Bruno Mars and 12 Tone/Aftermath Grammy winner Anderson .Paak had an advantage on the other performers: Their song was brand new and already pulling in strong sales and streaming numbers for the week. Still, “Leave the Door Open” (Aftermath/Atlantic) was streamed more than 1.7m times the day after the ceremony, and their ’70s throwback visuals were viewed 2.3m times in two days.

Sales and streams of “WAP” didn’t see much of a change post-ceremony, but the salacious performance became one of the biggest online hits from the Ben Winston-produced show, pulling 6.4m views in its first two days on YouTube.

Streams of Black Pumas’ “Colors” tripled at the major DSPs to 149k on 3/15 and moved up the digital-retail charts on Grammy night thanks to nearly 3k download sales. The deluxe edition of their self-titled ATO album also hit the iTunes Top 10.

Among the less-established acts, Mickey Guyton stands out as a star who was born at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

CBS, which aired the Grammys, is betting on Guyton’s budding stardom, putting her in the co-host slot of the ACM Awards with Keith Urban. The universally positive reaction to the Capitol Nashville singer/songwriter’s stately and impassioned performance of “Black Like Me” showed there’s definitely interest in the Nashville breakout.

Percentage-wise, “Black Like Me” was the song that saw the biggest spike in streams, up nearly 190% on 82k plays. The track went from out of the Top 200 into the Top 30 at iTunes during the telecast, while Guyton’s EP, Bridges, and its title song were consistently in the Top 10 at Amazon in the days following the ceremony.