Host Trevor Noah poked fun at Harry Styles, Adele, and Beyoncé during his opening monologue at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Live from the Crypto.com Arena in LA, the 38-year-old South African comedian hyped Bad Bunny’s show-opening performance, adding that the Puerto Rican rapper is good enough to “make [Donald] Trump want to learn Spanish.”
Noah then made his way over to Styles, praising his gender-fluid style.
“Women throw their panties at this man when he puts them on and he looks better in them than they do,” he said. “Easily the World’s Sexiest Man. Are you kidding? There’s no competition sex symbol of the globe, especially now that they killed off the green M&M.”
Noah also declared that Lizzo will perform exactly at “bad bitch o’clock,” in reference to her nominated song “About Damn Time.”
He also confirmed that Beyoncé was in attendance after much speculation that she would attend music’s biggest night. The “Cuff It” singer won two Grammys before the 8 p.m. broadcast, which makes her only two awards away from being the most decorated Grammy-winning artist ever.
Finally, Grammy crews members pulled up a chair for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to get acquainted with Adele as the two have never met but have a mutual respect for one another.
Sunday night’s performers include Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Kim Petras and Sam Smith.
Past Grammy hosts James Corden and Billy Crystal, as well as Cardi B, Viola Davis, Shania Twain, Olivia Rodrigo, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are also in attendance to present awards.
First Lady Jill Biden is also slated to make an appearance.
Noah isn’t a rookie when it comes to hosting music’s biggest night. This is his third consecutive year helming the Grammys, and as he told Billboard in December, he’s learned to roll with whatever the live show throws at him.
“Sometimes [producers] don’t know where the artist is, or someone went to the bathroom at the wrong time,” he explained to the outlet. “It’s just the craziest, unluckiest thing that will happen to you, and 99 times out of 100, it doesn’t happen. But when it does, everybody needs to breathe and keep everything aimed in the right direction. We always plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
“Anyone who works with me knows I’m always going to go off the cuff,” he continued. “If something happens that wasn’t in the script and you want to comment or make a joke about it, we do, and it’s fun … We don’t know what anybody might do before or after their performance, so what’s great is to be able to respond to that … I’m enjoying the fact that we’re juggling flaming swords.”
Last year, Noah’s Grammys monologue featured his signature subtle punches, including a reference to Will Smith smacking Chris Rock across the face at the 2022 Oscars.
“We’re going to be keeping people’s names out of our mouths,” he quipped at the April show before poking fun at the “music royalty” in the room, including Justin Bieber.
“The best thing to happen to ‘Peaches’ since that Timothée Chalamet movie,” Noah noted, referring to The Biebs’ nominated tune, as well as Chalamet’s character masturbating with a peach in the 2017 drama “Call Me By Your Name.”
Noah bid farewell to “The Daily Show” on Dec. 8 after seven years as host. Producers have yet to declare a new permanent host, but Leslie Jones and D.L. Hughley have kicked off week-long guest hosting stints.
Al Franken, Chelsea Handler, John Leguizamo, Hasan Minhaj, Kal Penn, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes and Marlon Wayans are also slated to host the nighttime Comedy Central show for a week.
Meanwhile, Noah is staying busy on his “Off the Record” comedy tour, which includes three October dates at the Beacon Theatre. The 28-city endeavor started Jan. 20 and will take a hiatus from mid-June until October before wrapping up in San Francisco in December.
His other plans involve traveling and spending time with family in South Africa.
The funnyman is seemingly single, too, despite a date night with Dua Lipa at Miss Lily’s in the East Village in September. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter about his rumored relationship with the three-time Grammy-winning “Levitating” singer, Noah gave a coy response.
“It’s just amazing to me how powerful these things are,” he said in November, leaning back in his chair while admitting he doesn’t love his private life being in the tabloids.
Prior to Lipa, Noah dated Minka Kelly, 42. News broke in May 2022 they had split after almost two years together.