Harry Styles won the GRAMMY for Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs for his third LP, Harry's House.

Starting off his acceptance speech with some curse words of disbelief, Styles delivered a heartfelt speech that was as humble as his Redditch, UK beginnings. "I’ve been so so inspired by every artist in this category with me at a lot of different times in my life," he said. "I think on nights like tonight it’s obviously so important for us to remember that there is no such thing as 'best' in music… This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is so, so nice."

Styles gave his two main Harry's House collaborators, co-writers/producers Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon, a chance to say their own thank yous, which were just as sentimental. "It’s so hard to do anything in life without a good family," Johnson said before shouting out his parents and brother who were in attendance. "You can't do this without them."

Read More: Harry Styles' Sonic Evolution: How He Grew From Teen Pop Idol To Ever-Evolving Superstar

To add to the heartwarming moment, one of Styles' biggest fans, a 78-year-old woman named Reina from Sudbury, Ontario, got to present him with the award. He made sure to give her a massive hug upon arriving on stage, later giving her a fist bump after closing out his remarks.

ABBA, Adele, Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, and Lizzo were the other nominees in the prestigious category.

Watch Styles' earnest speech below.

Check out the complete list of winners and nominees at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

Looking at everything One Direction achieved in their time together, it's hard to believe that they were only active for six years. What's even harder to fathom is that they've now been on hiatus just as long — but luckily for fans, that time has proven fruitful for Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson.

Each member has released at least one studio album as a solo artist, and they have all dipped into several other ventures within fashion, producing, and mentoring rising stars. Horan is the latest to deliver more solo music, unveiling his third album, The Show, on June 9.

Through all those efforts, the quintet has kept One Direction's legacy not only alive, but thriving. While together, they were a pop phenomenon who sold an approximate 70 million records, but their solo careers have allowed them to showcase their true personalities. With that, lofty achievements came in tow — GRAMMY Awards, sold-out tours, and even more chart-topping hits — as well as the certainty that One Direction will never fully diminish (see Styles' roaring rendition of "What Makes You Beautiful" or Horan's sweet performance of "Story of My Life").

From Malik's introspective Mind of Mine to Horan's latest set, GRAMMY.com breaks down all of One Direction's solo endeavors.

Zayn Malik

Soon after his sudden departure from the group in 2015, Zayn Malik signed with RCA Records. His debut album, Mind of Mine, came out on March 25, 2016 — exactly one year after he left the band.

Mind of Mine sees Malik in a new musical direction, leaning into his R&B roots and soulful voice while also taking a more risqué approach in his songwriting. Despite the stark difference, the album topped several charts upon debut, including the U.S. and the U.K., even helping Malik become the first British male singer to top the Billboard 200 with his first album. (Lead single "Pillowtalk" also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first time a U.K. artist topped the chart with their first single.)

Malik quickly proved to be a sought-after collaborator, with Chris Brown, Snakehips and M.I.A. all recruiting him for singles in 2016. At the end of that year, he issued his biggest collab to date, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Taylor Swift for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The song scored Malik his second massive hit on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.

As fans eagerly awaited his second album, Malik delivered two more major collabs, "Still Got Time" featuring PartyNextDoor and "Dusk Till Dawn" with Sia. After facing several delays, Icarus Falls arrived in December 2018. Comprising 27 songs across two disks, the album featured six singles ("Let Me," "Entertainer," "Sour Diesel," "Too Much" featuring Timbaland, "Fingers," "No Candle No Light" featuring Nicki Minaj), though none had the impact of "Pillowtalk." 

After working on a few other collaborations — including a cover of "A Whole New World" with Zhavia Ward for 2019's Aladdin remake — Malik's third studio album, the utterly-personal Nobody Is Listening, came out in 2021. He teased the project through singles "Better" and "Vibez," and designed the album artwork himself. Later that year, he shared a now-deleted Dropbox link to Yellow Tape — a collection of three controversial hip-hop songs that showed another side of his musicality.

Malik has also been an influential name in fashion, modeling for brands like Versace and Penshoppe, and designing his own product lines for Giuseppe Zanotti and Versus (Versace). He also wrote an autobiography in 2016, Zayn. 

Though he has been fairly quiet in 2022 and 2023, Malik has shared photos from the studio, and hopped on a posthumous remix of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" last year. And while he's eight years removed from 1D, he hasn't completely forgotten his time in the band — even sharing an instantly viral clip of him singing his fan-favorite note from "You & I" in 2022. 

Niall Horan

Niall Horan signed with Capitol Records and released his first solo single, "This Town," in September 2016. Followed by "Slow Hands," and "Too Much to Ask," Horan released his debut LP, Flicker, in October 2017 — just as "Slow Hands" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. A mix of soft rock and straightforward pop, the album helped Horan become the third 1D member in a row to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (after Malik and Styles, more on the latter later).

In support of the release, Horan embarked on two world tours: Flicker Sessions, which started in August 2017 and was held in smaller, intimate venues, and 2018's Flicker World Tour, which featured 82 shows across North and Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.

Horan's second studio album, Heartbreak Weather, led by single "Nice to Meet Ya," came out in March 2020 and topped the charts in the U.K. and Ireland, while reaching number four in the U.S. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled his ambitious touring plans, and he decided to use his downtime for collaboration. He teamed up with Anne-Marie for two singles, "Our Song" and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere," and hopped on a version of Ashe's "Moral of the Story," But perhaps his most beloved collab is with his best friend Lewis Capaldi — a bromance that started with Horan's admiration for the singer and developed into live performances together, plenty of interactions on social media, and a Guinness-sponsored TV special, Homecoming: The Road to Mullingar, out in 2022.

In early 2023, Horan became a judge on NBC's "The Voice," and recently confirmed his return to the next season of the show this fall. Two weeks after wrapping his first "Voice" season, Horan released his third studio album, The Show, on June 9. A fruitful experimentation of folk melodies and modern synths, it showcases how much his songwriting has matured since Heartbreak Weather.

Horan will perform at festivals across Europe and Asia in 2023, including Lollapalooza Paris and Summer Sonic Tokyo. He'll kick off The Show: Live on Tour in his native Ireland in February 2024, and will hit cities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and North America through July 2024.

Louis Tomlinson

Louis Tomlinson was the biggest contributor to One Direction's songwriting, with credits on over 30 songs in their discography. His passion for music production extended to an auxiliary participation on 2015's "The X Factor," which in 2018 turned into a fixed position as a judge and winning mentor on the fifteenth series of the show.

As for Tomlinson's own solo music, he made his debut with the Steve Aoki-assisted single "Just Hold On" in December of 2016. Before releasing his debut LP, Walls, in January of 2020, the singer focused on collaborations and singles. Through a pop-punk verve, Tomlinson began to establish his own post-1D style with singles like 2017's "Just Like You" and the minimalistic "Back To You" with Bebe Rexha — his biggest hit to date, with more than 1 billion combined streams on Spotify and YouTube. Some other singles, like the touching tribute to his late mother, "Two of Us," and the rock-edged "Kill My Mind," were included in Walls.

In 2021, he created and curated The Away From Home Festival, a one-day festival first held in London that year and followed by a 2022 edition in Malaga. In 2023, the event will return for its third run in August at Lido di Camaiore, Italy. Among the lineup are UK rising indie names like Blossoms and The Cribs. 

Tomlinson's second album, Faith in The Future, was released at the end of 2022 and peaked at No. 1 in the U.K., marking his first top-charting album in the country as a soloist. Supported by singles "Bigger Than Me," "Out of My System," and "Silver Tongues," it furthered Tomlinson's explorations into indie rock and Britpop. 

In March of 2023, Tomlinson released All Of Those Voices, a soul-baring documentary where he talked about his fears upon One Direction's hiatus, grief, fatherhood, and the struggles of fame. Currently, Tomlinson is on a World Tour through North America, U.K., and Europe. 

Harry Styles

After signing with Columbia Records, Harry Styles made his solo debut in April 2017 with the power ballad "Sign of the Times." One month later, his eponymous debut album came to life. A commercial and critical success, it topped charts in several countries upon release, including the U.S. and the U.K album tallies.

From the get-go, Styles' solo appeal was apparent. After immediately selling out his first run of solo shows that fall, he plotted a world tour playing arenas in 2018 — all of which sold out. That success translated to the release of his second album, 2019's Fine Line. The album's first-week sales were the biggest ever for a British male soloist since 1991, when Nielsen began tracking sales electronically.

While singles "Adore You" and "Falling" had solid traction, it was "Watermelon Sugar" that solidified his place as a solo superstar. Not only did the track earn Styles his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, but it also won the singer his first GRAMMY in 2021 (for Best Pop Solo Performance).

Then came the lauded Harry's House, the album that cemented Styles as a vanguard artist and performer. Lead single "As It Was" foreshadowed the gargantuan success that was to come, topping the Hot 100 for 15 weeks — the longest-running U.S. No. 1 by a U.K. artist. Harry's House debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2022 with more than 2 million equivalent album units. The album also went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album and the coveted Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

Styles's ongoing sold-out Love On Tour, which started in 2021 in support of both Fine Line and Harry's House, has also set unprecedented records. Last year, he held mini-residencies in both Los Angeles's Kia Forum and New York's Madison Square Garden, and became the third musical artist to earn a MSG banner after selling out 15 consecutive nights at the venue. 

Styles has also made an impact through his daring fashion sense, modeling for brands like Gucci and becoming the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue in 2019. He has also ventured into acting, appearing in movies like 2017's Dunkirk and 2022's Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.

Liam Payne

Credited as one of One Direction's main songwriters, Liam Payne started to venture into his own musicality by remixing tracks back in 2014, under the aliases "Payno" and "Big Payno." He signed with Republic Records in October 2016, unveiling his debut solo single, "Strip That Down" (featuring Migos' Quavo) in May 2017. With lyrics that reinforced his new journey ("You know I used to be in 1D"), the track peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop Billboard's Pop Airplay chart.

Marked by collaborations with artists that range from Rita Ora ("For You", off of Fifty Shades Freed's soundtrack), to A Boogie wit da Hoodie ("Stack It Up"), to J Balvin ("Familiar"), Payne's solo career is one of 1D's most diverse, exploring genres that go from hip-hop to electronic music.

After a 2018 EP, First Time, Payne dropped his debut studio album, the long-awaited LP1, in December 2019. Including all of his previous singles, the record is a portrait of the singer's prolificness and versatility. 

While he has been less active musically in recent years, Payne delivered another dance collab in 2020 ( "Midnight" with Alesso), a couple of Christmas tracks (including the Dixie D'Amelio team-up "Naughty List,"), and a song for the 2021 animated movie Ron's Gone Wrong,  "Sunshine." Outside of music, Payne was also named the first global ambassador for fashion brand Hugo Boss, and designed two of their capsule collections. In a recent interview with iFL TV, Payne mentioned working on a new album for 2023.

It’s still unclear when the much-awaited One Direction reunion will happen, but the quintet's individual forays continue to bloom, and exciting opportunities lie ahead for each of the members. Through their diverse repertoire and newfound artistries — from Styles's buoyant strikes to Tomlinson's rock affinities — one thing is certain: the 1D members might follow multiple directions now, but they aren't stopping anytime soon. 

Harry Styles' Sonic Evolution: How He Grew From Teen Pop Idol To Ever-Evolving Superstar

The 2023 GRAMMYs may have come and gone — but you can now take home a one-of-a-kind piece of Music's Biggest Night for a good case!

This GRAMMY Museum's new online auction via Charitybuzz features items signed by artists, including guitars signed backstage at the 2023 GRAMMYs by Bad Bunny, Sheryl Crow, Dr. Dre, Mick Fleetwood, Lizzo, Bonnie Raitt, Smokey Robinson, and Harry Styles.

Plus, the auction contains more guitars and items signed by 21 Savage, Joe Bonamassa, Brandi Carlile, Luke Combs, Miley Cyrus, Luis Fonsi, Jonas Brothers, Steve Lacy, LL Cool J, Shawn Mendes, Miguel, Kacey Musgraves, Kim Petras, Lionel Richie, Nile Rodgers, Slash, Sam Smith, Chris Stapleton, Susan Tedeschi, and Meghan Trainor.

The GRAMMY Museum's online auction via Charitybuzz is live now and will run through Thursday, April 13.

GRAMMY Museum Presents Spectacular 'The Power Of Song: A Songwriters Hall Of Fame Exhibit' Paying Tribute To American Icons

There’s never been a better time to be a music-loving college student. 

Beginning in the mid to late aughts, an increasing number of academic institutions have begun offering courses dedicated to major music acts. In the late aughts, rap maverick Jay-Z made headlines after becoming the subject of a Georgetown University course taught by Michael Eric Dyson, a sociologist and best-selling author of Jay-Z: Made in America. In the Sociology of Hip Hop: Jay-Z, students analyzed Hova's life, socio-cultural significance and body of work. 

It's easy to see why students would be attracted to these courses — which fill up quickly and are often one-time-only offerings.  The intertwining of celebrity and sociology present such fertile grounds to explore, and often make for buzzy social media posts that can be a boon to enrollment numbers. For instance, Beyhivers attending the University of Texas at San Antonio were offered the opportunity to study the Black feminism foundations of Beyoncé's Lemonade in 2016. Meanwhile, Rutgers offered a course dedicated to dissecting the spiritual themes and imagery in Bruce Springsteen's catalog. 

Luckily for students clamoring to get a seat in these highly sought-after courses, institutions across the country are constantly launching new seminars and classes about famous pop stars and beloved musical genres. From Bad Bunny to Harry Styles, the following list of popular music courses features a little something for every college-going music fan. 

Bad Bunny's Impact On Media

From his chart-topping hits to his advocacy work, Bad Bunny has made waves on and off stage since rising to fame in 2016. Now graduate students at San Diego State University can explore the global superstar's cultural impact in an upcoming 2023 course.    

"He speaks out about Puerto Rico; he speaks out about the Uvalde shooting victims and uses his platform to raise money and help them," said Dr. Nate Rodriguez, SDSU Associate Professor of Digital Media Studies. "How does he speak out against transphobia? Support the LGBTQ community? How does all of that happen? So yes, it’s very much relevant to journalism and media studies and cultural studies. It’s all of that mixed into one." 

A Deep Dive Into Taylor Swift's Lyrics 

Analyzing Taylor Swift's lyrics is a favorite pastime among Swifties, so it's fitting that her work and its feminist themes have been the focus of a string of university courses over the years. 

In spring 2022, the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University launched an offering focused on the "Anti-Hero" singer's evolution as an entrepreneur, race and female adolescence. The waitlisted course — the first-ever for the institution — drew loads of media attention and Swift received an honorary degree from NYU in 2022. 

In spring 2023, honors students at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas can analyze the 12-time GRAMMY winner's music and career in a seminar titled Culture and Society- Taylor Swift.

Kendrick Lamar's Storytelling & The Power Of Hip-Hop

Since dropping good kid, m.A.A.d. City in 2012, Kendrick Lamar has inspired a slew of academics to develop classes and seminars around his lyrical content and storytelling, including an English class that juxtaposed his work with that of James Baldwin and James Joyce. 

More recently, Concordia University announced that the 16-time GRAMMY winner will be the focus of The Power of Hip Hop, It’s Bigger Than Us, a course examining the lyrical themes of Lamar’s works, such as loyalty, fatherhood, class and racial injustice.

"No artist speaks to this ethos louder and more intricately than King Kunta, the prince of Compton, Kendrick Lamar, 10 years after good kid, m.A.A.d. City dropped," said Yassin "Narcy" Alsalman, the Montreal hip-hop artist and Concordia Professor who developed the class which launches in winter 2023. “He showed us it was okay to work on yourself in front of the world and find yourself internally, that family always comes first, that community and collective missions are central to growth and that sometimes, you have to break free."

EDM Production, Techniques, and Applications

If you dream of hearing your own EDM tracks played at a massive music festival à la Marshmello, Steve Aoki and Skrillex, this all-in-one course at Boston's Berklee College of Music has you covered. Learn about the cultural origins of the various EDM styles — like techno, trance, drum and bass and more — and the techniques that artists use to achieve these sounds. 

In between thought-provoking cultural seminars, students will receive lessons on how to operate the technologies necessary to create their own EDM masterpieces, including synths, digital audio workstations (DAW) and samplers.  

Harry Styles And The Cult Of Celebrity  

While many celebrity-focused courses center around sociology, the Harry’s House singer/songwriter has inspired his own digital history course at Texas State University in San Marcos: Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet and European Pop Culture. 

Developed by Dr. Louie Dean Valencia during lockdown, the class will cover Styles’ music along with topics like gender, sexual identity and class — but the singer-songwriter’s personal life is off limits. Stylers who are lucky enough to grab a spot in this first-ever university course dedicated to their fave can expect to revisit One Direction’s catalog for homework. 

"I’ve always wanted to teach a history class that is both fun, but also covers a period that students have lived through and relate to," Dr. Valencia wrote in a Twitter post. "By studying the art, activism, consumerism and fandom around Harry Styles, I think we’ll be able to get to some very relevant contemporary issues. I think it’s so important for young people to see what is important to them reflected in their curriculum." 

Global Hip Hop Culture(s): Hip Hop, Race, and Social Justice from South Central to South Africa

Since its inception, hip-hop has left a lasting mark on the world, influencing language, fashion, storytelling and beyond. At the University of California Los Angeles, students can learn about how the art form has shaped young minds as they analyze the various hip-hop scenes worldwide. 

As part of a mission to establish the university as a leading center for hip-hop studies, UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies launched a hip-hop initiative featuring an artist-in-residence program, digital archives, and a series of postdoctoral fellowships. Chuck D, the founder of the barrier-breaking hip-hop group Public Enemy, was selected as the first artist-in-residence. 

"As we celebrate 50 years of hip-hop music and cultural history, the rigorous study of the culture offers us a wealth of intellectual insight into the massive social and political impact of Black music, Black history and Black people on global culture — from language, dance, visual art and fashion to electoral politics, political activism and more," said associate director H. Samy Alim, who is leading the initiative.

The Music Of The Beatles

With their catchy two-minute pop hits, artsy record covers, headline-making fashions and groundbreaking use of studio tech, the Fab Five are among the most influential acts in music history. It’s no surprise, then, that they are the subjects of courses in a number of colleges and universities. 

Boston’s Berklee College of Music offers The Music of Beatles, which digs into the group’s body of work as well as the music they penned for other acts. Alternatively, if you’re more interested in their post-breakup works, The Solo Careers of the Beatles dives into those efforts. Meanwhile, the University of Southern California takes a look at their music, careers and impact in The Beatles: Their Music and Their Times.

Symbolic Sisters: Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu

Whether you want to learn about craft, management, building a career, or marketing your work, the Clive Davis Institute at NYU offers an impressive curriculum for musicians and artists. With seminars focusing on the works of Prince, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and J. Dilla, a unique duo stands out: Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse. 

Framing the pair as "symbolic sisters," this two-credit seminar explores and compares how each songstress fused different genres and styles to forge a magnetic sound of their own. Winehouse rose to prominence for her retro spin on the sounds of Motown and Phil Spector and rebellious styling. A decade before "Back to Black" singer hit the mainstream, Badu — who is recognized as one of Winehouse's influences — rose to stardom thanks to her seamless blend of jazz, R&B, and hip-hop and captivating urban-bohemian style, creating a template for singers like SZA and Ari Lennox.

Selena: Music, Media and the Mexican American Experience

From ascending to the top of the male-dominated Tejano genre to helping introduce Latin music to the mainstream, Selena Quintanilla's impact continues to be felt decades after her untimely death. Artists including Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Victoria "La Mala" Ortiz, Becky G and Beyoncé cite the GRAMMY-winning "Queen of Tejano" as an influence. 

Throughout the years, her legacy and cultural impact have been the focus of dozens of college courses. In 2023, Duke University continues this tradition with Selena: Music, Media and the Mexican American Experience. The course will explore the life, career and cultural impact of the beloved Tejano singer.

The Art of Punk: Sound, Aesthetics and Performance

Since emerging in the 1970s, punk rock has been viewed as a divisive, politically charged music genre. Its unique visual style — which can include leather jackets, tattoos, chunky boots and colorful hair — was absorbed into the mainstream in the '90s, where it continues to thrive (to the chagrin of hardcore punks everywhere). Over the decades, dozens of subgenres have cropped up and taken the spotlight  — including riot grrrl and pop-punk — but very few have left the impact of the classic punk sound from the '70s and its anti-establishment themes.

If you're interested in learning more about the genre that inspired bands like Nirvana, check out Stanford University's The Art of Punk seminar, which explores the genre's visual and sonic origins, as well as its evolution and connections to race, class, and gender. 

Meet Me @ The Altar Reveal The 4 "Badass" Female Artists Who Inspired Their Debut Album, 'Past // Present // Future'

Tobias Jesso Jr. wanted to know how to write a hit song, so he read How to Write a Hit Song. Not that he needed to figure out how to break into the mainstream: he had already written a tune with Sia and Adele that cracked the Billboard Hot 100. But in an effort to take his young career seriously — that of writing behind the curtain for the stars — he cracked open the book at a café.

Just then, a voice: "What the hell are you doing?" He glanced up. It was Sia.

"She was like, 'Why are you reading that?' and I was like, 'I honestly don't know,'" Jesso remembers with a laugh. "I think I just put the book away from that point on and was like, OK, I don't need the books. And I just felt like there's been a different one of those lessons at every step of the way where I'm just like, Man, I think this is what I got to do, and then I just figure it out."

Since that exchange, Jesso has written with a litany of contemporary stars: John Legend, Shawn Mendes, Pink, Haim, Harry Styles — the list goes on. (As per the latter, he co-wrote "Boyfriends" on Harry's House, which was crowned Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs.) 

And at said ceremony, he received a historic honor — the first-ever golden gramophone for Songwriter Of The Year. As Evan Bogart, Chair of the Songwriters & Composers Wing, recently toldput it to GRAMMY.com: "We're looking for which songwriters have demonstrated, first and foremost, that they're considered a songwriter first by the music community. We want to recognize the professional, hardworking songwriters who do this for a living."

Read More: Why The New Songwriter Of The Year GRAMMY Category Matters For The Music Industry And Creator Community

Clearly, Jesso fits the mold, and possesses technical chops worthy of How to Write a Hit Song. But his realization — that he can literally throw out the rulebook — speaks volumes as to his flexible, collaborator-first and fun-first process. 

"I get into a room and I really want to enjoy the people, and the songs will come if we're all just being honest," he tells GRAMMY.com. "If you take a few days or weeks to get to know somebody, all of a sudden, your songs are deeper." 

And while working his interpersonal and collaborative magic, he keeps his ears and imagination open — a momentary trifle can become the heart of a song. It happened with Cautious Clay's "Whoa," which came from messing with some, well, whoas. 

"It was a little silly at first," says Jesso,the songwriter whose first output was "inappropriate" high-school joke songs. "But now it wasn't silly anymore."

GRAMMY.com sat down with Jesso about his creative beginnings, the experience of working alongside pop titans, and how his inaugural GRAMMY win for Songwriter Of The Year happened during the happiest, most creatively fruitful period of his burgeoning career.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

How did it feel to take home the golden gramophone — the first ever in this category?

It felt tremendous. It felt amazing. It's such an honor to have received it, and I felt the weight of what it meant. I get really stage frightened, and so I kept telling myself there's no way I was going to win, just so I wouldn't be nervous or anything like that. 

But weirdly, when I did win, I was very not nervous. I don't know how to put it, but it was the opposite of what I thought I would feel. I don't know if I've never been awarded something so prestigious. My elementary school did a piece on me after I won the GRAMMY, and it was sort of largely a "We didn't see any talent at all" kind of thing.

So, I'd say "tremendous" would be probably the one word I would feel most aptly describes it. I'm just really, really proud of the category and its creation, and super lucky to have been a part of it at all. Especially in the year that it comes out. I was baffled that I was nominated. 

I had already felt like that rush of whoa, this amazing thing happened when I was nominated. And then winning was the next level of completely beyond what I could have ever expected.

How does the win help chart the next stage of your career?

As a songwriter, your job is to serve the artist. Your job is to serve the artist — the person who the song's for. And I think because of that, most songwriters have a very serve mentality, which generally doesn't work out well on the business side of things for you. 

I think if you took all the producers in the world and took all the songwriters in the world and tried to look at which ones are more business savvy, I'd say nine times out of 10, it's probably the producers. 

I think a lot of people — artists or songwriters among them — have imposter syndrome, feeling like they don't really know whether they belong there or they're just lucky or they have what it takes for the next one, even. If they know they had a good run or whatever, they're always going back to the well and praying that there's something in there. 

And I think this GRAMMY is almost like having a symbol of a really good run — a really good, fertile time of creativity or something. TI think the way I see it is sort of a symbol of this period of time where I had a lot of ideas, and worked really hard, and managed to somehow win this thing, which is, for me, is huge. It means a lot. 

For the songwriting community to have the award to look forward to, to have this symbol of Hey, you can be creative as a songwriter and just be a songwriter who doesn't sing and doesn't produce, and [the fact] you can get this prestigious symbol of your gifts that the world will now recognize — I think that's a wonderful thing for songwriters to have.

Take me back to the beginning of your career writing songs, either for yourself or others. The first time you really embraced this magical act of creation.

I was such a lazy songwriter for so many years because I always loved writing songs, writing songs with my friends in high school and stuff like that. But I never really wanted to play an instrument, and I never really wanted to sing them myself. 

I think probably back in high school, in 1998 or '99, it was because they were joke songs. So I probably didn't want to sing them because they were inappropriate or something. I always wanted to. The beginning for me was definitely a sort of moment of hearing Tracy Chapman when I was like, Oh, this is what I'm going to do. Not be Tracy Chapman, but write songs.

From there I was really lazy and I just tried to do as little as possible, but I had this sort of confidence that I was somehow good at it. So, I would sometimes have my friends who played guitar or my friends who played piano, or whoever was around, do the music part for me, and I could just kind of pipe in and direct where I felt like my skillset was. 

I started writing on piano for the first time when I was 27. That was a big moment for me where I was. I feel like I finally figured it out. It took me a long time: I still don't know how to play the piano, but I know I'm going to figure this out now.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way with bands and with albums or whatever. Things that just didn't exactly go the way [I planned them]; my gut was eventually telling me it just wasn't right. And then, when I started playing piano, it just finally all felt right, and I didn't think too much about it. I just sort of started doing it. 

During that time, I unfortunately had to sing to get my album out, which was sort of a means to an end. But as soon as I was able to, I ducked away from that and started writing. Then I just had a new job. I was like I got promoted or something. 

As you honed your ability and developed your craft, how did you follow that chain of connections to be able to write for who you've written for?

It's funny because Adele was the first person I worked with — [but] not in a professional way where managers and stuff like that are involved, and it's not just a friend of mine from high school or something. She was sort of my blueprint for how those things went.

I couldn't have gotten any luckier than with Adele, because her blueprint for how to do a writing session is the most pure in the game. There's nothing to hide behind. There's no producer in the room. She came to my friend's grandparents' where there are no mics; there's no studio equipment at all. There's a piano. And she just goes, "Great, let's write a song."

I don't know that that even exists much anymore. There's not even a microphone to capture what's going on, let alone one of the biggest players in the entire world doing it — just showing up, being like, "Let's write a song." And there's nothing to record her. I thought that was really cool. I'm like, "That's how I write songs. I just sit in front of a piano and just do what I think I like." And she was like, "And me too."

So, that's how we got along real great off the bat. And then from there, I would say it was just the most epic amount of failures and trial and error to figure out what the hell I was doing in every different session. I mean, I was treading water at times, and I felt like I was smoking crack sometimes, because I was so creative in a certain scenario I didn't expect to be creative in or something like that.

I think it's just this kind of learning process. There are a lot of people who are typically geared towards one style of writing. You're the country guy or you're the pop guy, or you're the ballad guy. And I could see that I was getting typecast. I was starting to get typecast, especially early on in my career because ballads, that's just the tempo that's naturally within me. It's sort of my soul tempo to just slow things down. I can write much easier in that tempo. I'll always sort of naturally progress there.

But I wanted to push the limits of that, and I wanted to figure out a way to get out of that typecast. And so I tried as quickly as I could to pick people who would be like, "Please don't play a ballad."

And when I started doing that, it was, again, trial and error. I think Niall [Horan of One Direction] was the first person I worked with who was in the pop world, and he was very much an acoustic singer. So I think that I was going into that session thinking I wanted to do upbeat pop. So I don't know — you get in the door and then you just try to acclimate yourself to the environment and help out as much as you can.

I think that's the best way to put it, because you never know what you're going to be doing. You never know what the artist is going to want from you or not want from you. A lot of the job is just figuring all that stuff out and then trying to just have fun while you're doing it. I think it's just that good energy, good attitude, and good people tend to sort of gravitate together.

How would you characterize the state of your artistic journey at this point?

I would say it feels the richest, in the sense that I'm the happiest I've been working.

I've found my rhythm — my perfect work-life balance kind of thing — so I can spend time with my son. And I think because of all of the time I've spent writing songs and how many songs come out, which is not a lot compared to how much you spend writing, you kind of learn that the relationships you make in the room are really the things that you really take out of it. It can be a lot more than, "I'm just a songwriter here to serve this artist" or whatever.

Lately, probably because of all the time I've spent doing it, I get into a room and I really want to enjoy the people. And the songs will come if we're all just being honest. We all know why we're here. We don't need that pressure in the room, and we don't need the A&R sitting in the room. We can get a song, but let's just be honest and really enjoy each other's company for a while.

And I think once that starts happening, it's way, way more fruitful in the long run. Because if you take a few days or weeks to get to know somebody, all of a sudden, your songs are deeper.

As a songwriter, your job is to point out metaphors or parallels — and things that could spark some interest in an artist's mind. And the better you get to know somebody, the more amazing the writing process can be.

That's been happening a lot in my recent sessions with Dua [Lipa] and Harry, another just amazing person. He is a great guy, but we haven't done that much writing together, but we know each other mostly through Kid Harpoon — Tom [Hull], who's the best.

I'm getting to know the people, and that's the most important part for me — I'm working with the people I want to work with. That's my journey now. I'll always work with new people, but I don't need to work with people I don't really vibe with or listen to. That's not really my interest anymore, especially if I'm in it for the right reasons. I'd say it's just more intentional, and I'm being more honest.

When you walk into a room to write with somebody, what are the first steps, or operating principles?

My operating principle is: Do I want to get to know this person, and do they want to get to know me at all, or do they just want to write a song and not want to open up?

If it's somebody who seems very open to talk, that's usually a good sign. And if not, then you just do what they want. You start writing a song and that's fine too. Sometimes there's great, catchy stuff. It's not always the deepest stuff.

Maybe they're the ones writing the lyrics, so maybe it is. But my operating principle is kind of, if I'm having a good time and everyone's having a good time, we're doing something good. We're not writing a bad song. We're just not. If we were writing a bad song in this room of professionals, we wouldn't be having a good time.

And when you're having a good time, good ideas do come. Even if they are silly at first and they're more openly accepted, and everything in the room is flowing better when those channels of enjoyment are sort of open, and everyone's laughing and having fun and dancing and being silly, that's how you get creative.

I don't know of many songwriters who are just dead serious. I've maybe met a couple. So I think my operating principle is to have a good time. That's going to be the funnest day, no matter what. It's probably going to be a better song for it if you're having fun and you like the people and they like you, and everything's going well.

Why is it crucial that the Recording Academy honor not only public-facing creators, but those behind the curtain?

I won't speak for myself as much as just the amazing people who I've worked with. You can't understand what kind of work has to go into a song. It's so funny, because it's a three-minute thing that sounds like most people can do it in an hour or something, but some of these things take months of work to get right.

I think it's really important to acknowledge everyone involved in each of the processes, because to give credit to just producers and artists, and then it's like, "Yeah, but the storytellers aren't even in the room," is like the congratulating a director and an actor, and then being like, the writer is s—. It's like, what? The movie wouldn't exist without them!

That just wouldn't happen. So, it feels like the right thing. I'm a bit overwhelmed and still a bit in disbelief, but it's snowing in LA, so miracles do happen.

What would you tell a young songwriter who wants to roll up their sleeves and do this?

I would say just be a good person and keep learning. Everyone's not perfect at the start. But if I had to give one piece of advice that was super, super important to me, is the good guys are winning in the end sometimes.

Like I said, the friendships and the artists, you don't want to come in being a d—. And I don't mean that strictly for men. I just mean whoever's coming in, you want to be a nice person. I think there's a lot of good people, and there's a lot of bad people too. You find your crew — energy finds energy.

Meet Stephanie Economou, The First-Ever GRAMMY Winner For Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media