AWARDS 36 Things You Didn't See on TV at the 2020 Grammys

The 2020 Grammy Awards telecast started at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT -- but that's just part of the story.

Billboard has been on site in downtown Los Angeles since before noon PT Sunday, and it's been an eventful day, to say the very least, especially considering the news of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant's death coming less than an hour before the Grammy Premiere Ceremony was set to kick off at 12:30 p.m., where the bulk of the day's 84 awards were handed out.

Below, find out how Kobe's tragic death was remembered throughout the day, in addition to what went down backstage, inside Staples Center, on the red carpet and much more you didn't see on TV.

12:38 p.m. PT: Interim Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. asks the crowd to join him in a moment of silence for Kobe Bryant, with news of his death breaking just an hour before the Grammy Premiere Ceremony begins. "Since we are in his house, I would ask you to join me in a moment of silence," Mason urges the Microsoft Theater crowd, across the street from the Lakers' home arena of Staples Center, where the main show is set to kick off at 5 p.m. PT.

12:47 p.m.: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born soundtrack wins the first Grammy of the night, for best compilation soundtrack for visual media. That award is followed two later by a best song written for visual media win for Gaga's "I'll Never Love Again (Film Version)," co-written with Natalie Hemby, Hillary Lindsey and Aaron Raitiere.

1:02 p.m.: When Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? wins best engineered album, non-classical, Rob Kinelski says his co-engineer, Billie's brother Finneas, called on the way over to the Premiere Ceremony. "He just wanted to say how proud he was that an album recorded in a bedroom, then mixed in another bedroom, then mastered in [mastering engineer] John [Greenham]'s living room won this award."

1:04 p.m.: Tracy Young's Pride remix of Madonna's "I Rise" wins best remixed recording, prompting her to thank the Queen of Pop for all her support. "I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for you," Young says, adding to finish her speech: "I proudly accept this on behalf of all female producers who have been overlooked."

1:08 p.m.: Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" visual wins music video Grammy, accepted by director Calmatic, who urges young artists to "trust your creative ideas," and Nas X himself, who just chimes in with a simple "thank you."

1:10 p.m.: Following the moment of silence that kicked off the Premiere Ceremony, Steve Pamon -- co-producer of Beyoncé's Homecoming film -- is the first of the night to use his acceptance speech to pay tribute to Bryant. "Rest in peace, Kobe," he says after best music film win. "We love you."

1:20 p.m.: Does Gaga know that A Star Is Born has already nabbed two Grammys tonight? "I texted her," Paul Blair, aka DJ White Shadow, who co-produced the A Star Is Born soundtrack, tells reporters backstage. But he'd since ditched his phone to make the press rounds, so he's not sure if she's replied. (Hopefully she knows by now.)

1:42 p.m.: After winning best recording package for the retrospective project Chris Cornell, Jeff Ament -- one of a trio of art directors to win the award and Cornell's Temple of the Dog bandmate -- is asked what Chris might say about the prize. "I've had a lot of conversations with Chris in private, and I think I'll keep that in private and maybe do a champagne toast to him later on and to his kids and his wife and his friends."

2 p.m.: "After almost 50 years in this business, after many dreams, it's unbelievable to me that I would still have some firsts left," Tanya Tucker says as she accepts the prize for best country song, for "Bring My Flowers Now" -- her first-ever Grammy win after 14 nominations. And wouldn't you know it? She takes home the next prize too: best country album for While I'm Livin'.

2:14 p.m.: "Sending prayers to Kobe Bryant and his family," Kirk Franklin says after his gospel performance/song win for "Love Theory."

2:16 p.m.: Following their win for best contemporary Christian music performance/song for "God Only Knows," for King & Country's Joel Smallbone lets the crowd know that Sunday is Australia Day and urges anyone watching to visit the duo's home country now because the wildfires have taken a toll on the tourism industry. The brothers also take home best contemporary Christian music album for Burn the Ships.

2:33 p.m.: It's a tie! Both Marc Anthony's Opus and Aymée Nuviola's A Journey Through Cuban Music are both winners in the best tropical Latin album category.

2:36 p.m.: Nipsey Hussle wins his first Grammy: best rap performance for "Racks in the Middle," featuring Roddy Ricch and Hit-Boy. Lauren London, as well as Nipsey's grandmother and brother, speak on the late rapper's behalf.

3:02 p.m.: "I just feel like it's God's timing," Gloria Gaynor tells reporters backstage of winning best roots gospel album for Testimony -- her first Grammy win since "I Will Survive" won best disco recording in 1979. "He told me a long time ago: No one can stop you from getting what I have planned for you except you."

3:21 p.m.: After winning in three of his four categories during the Premiere Ceremony -- best contemporary blues album for This Land and best rock performance and rock song for the album's title track -- Gary Clark Jr. keeps it short to pick up his final prize: "I love Tupac. I'm out."

On the 2020 #GRAMMYs red carpet, @LewisCapaldi joked about his career "being in a tailspin" after the success of 'Someone You Loved." pic.twitter.com/msLBPQwDnX — billboard (@billboard) January 26, 2020

3:47 p.m.: "My heart is beating so fast right now," Finneas says as he accepts producer of the year, non-classical, adding later, "I absolutely did not think I was going to win this and none of the online polls did either, so I'm very glad they were wrong."

4:29 p.m.: Elvis Costello wants to make sure reporters in the press room ask not just him, but also his Imposters bandmates and producer questions too, after winning best traditional pop album for Look Now. So he decides to borrow the group-therapy idea of a "talking stick" and hands off his Golden Gramophone among the four of them. "It's the 'talking Grammy' now!" he quips.

.@ElvisCostello and The Imposters discussed receiving a nomination for their album and how young artists like @billieeilish are changing the musical landscape on the #GRAMMYs red carpet. pic.twitter.com/sdCOTD7hCG — billboard (@billboard) January 27, 2020

4:38 p.m.: What do Cage the Elephant -- winners of best rock album for Social Cues -- think of the state of rock 'n' roll in 2020? "I'm very pleased to be alive in a time where we're seeing genre disappear before our very eyes," frontman Matt Shultz tells reporters backstage.

4:53 p.m.: During his traditional audience warmup before showtime, producer Ken Ehrlich introduces his whole family -- wife, kids and three grandchildren -- as this is his last Grammys telecast. “This is my final show,” he tells the audience. “But,” he promises, “I’ll see you on a stage somewhere.”

On the #GRAMMYs red carpet, @BTS_twt discussed bumping into @ArianaGrande at rehearsals, teased the release of their upcoming album & more! pic.twitter.com/BSilILDxvw — billboard (@billboard) January 27, 2020

5:06 p.m.: Lil Nas X's hot-pink outfit is so fluorescent that it can be spotted from every angle of Staples Center. It makes it that much more obvious that the "Old Town Road" rapper is vibing hard to Lizzo's "Cuz I Love You" and "Truth Hurts" mash-up to kick off the show.

5:09 p.m.: After the press room erupts for Lizzo's joyful opening number, you can hear a pin drop during host Alicia Keys' tear-jerking a cappella performance of "Yesterday" with Boyz II Men in honor of Kobe Bryant and the other eight passengers who died in a fatal helicopter crash earlier Sunday.

We caught up with @rosaliavt on the #GRAMMYs red carpet to discuss winning her first Grammy for 'El Mal Querer', her bond with @billieeilish and more. pic.twitter.com/Id1DnitXy2 — billboard (@billboard) January 27, 2020

6:25 p.m.: After backing Usher for his Prince tribute, drummer Sheila E. chats with reporters backstage, including about the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. "They should just have fun," Sheila says when asked what advice she might give to this year's performers, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, following Prince's legendary 2007 gig. "I mean, you can't compare anyone to Prince. We should just do what we do, and they're going to do incredible," adding: "Two women encouraging each other to be on the same stage is a good thing."

6:41 p.m.: "Lizzo, I f---ing love you," Steven Tyler says (censored for the telecast, of course) as he passes the best new artist nominee in the aisle during Aerosmith's blockbuster performance with Run-DMC.

7:12 p.m.: Tyler, the Creator was obviously excited about his best rap album win for Igor, as evidenced by his jubilant acceptance speech on the Grammy telecast, but backstage with reporters, he admits that he doesn't love being relegated to only rap nominations. "It sucks that whenever we, and I mean guys that look like me, do anything that's genre-bending, they always put it in a rap or urban category. … I don't like that 'urban' word. To me, it's just a politically correct way to say the N-word. Why can't we just be in pop? Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment. Like, 'Oh, my little cousin wants to play the game, let's give him an unplugged controller so he can shut up and feel good about it.' That's what it felt like a bit. Another half of me is very grateful that my art can be acknowledged on a level like this when I don't do the radio stuff. I'm not played in Target. I'm in a whole different world than what a lot of people here listen to. I'm grateful and like 'eh.'"

We spoke to @billieeilish about her upcoming documentary, strategy for releasing new music and more at the 2020 #GRAMMYs. pic.twitter.com/BWhZUwaCjF — billboard (@billboard) January 27, 2020

8:32 p.m.: DJ Khaled, surrounded by Nipsey Hussle's family, explains to reporters backstage why his best rap/sung performance Grammy win for "Higher" is especially meaningful. "This my first Grammy. I won it with my brother Nipsey Hussle and we talked about it. The other ones when I got nominated, of course I wanted to win. But this one, we talked about it and we willed it into existence. This is for Nipsey's family. This is for hip-hop. … This is special on a whole 'nother level. God did this. This God."

9:04 p.m.: Celebrating her best Latin rock, urban or alternative album win for El Mal Querer, Rosalía talks to reporters about how much it means to her to bring flamenco to the Grammy stage for the first time since Alicia Keys' debut performance at the awards show 18 years ago. "Hopefully it won't be 18 more years until the next flamenco performance," Rosalía laughs.

9:09 p.m.: When three-time 2020 Grammy winner Gary Clark Jr. talks to reporters backstage, he makes it clear that he's not concerned about any alleged irregularities in the Grammy voting process. "I'm here for the music."

9:20 p.m.: If Billie Eilish and Finneas didn't know just how big an impact their music had made before Sunday night, they know now that they swept the Big Four categories at the 2020 Grammys. But when did they first know breakout song "Bad Guy" had made it big? "It was in a lot of memes, and I was like, 'Oh sh--,'" Eilish laughs to reporters backstage, cradling handfuls of Golden Gramophones.

--Additional reporting by Gail Mitchell