LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Trevor Noah once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the Grammy Awards, taking pokes at the stars while standing right next to them, but he saved his most pointed joke for someone who was absent.<\/b>
\nTrevor Noah once again roamed through the audience during his monologue to open the Grammy Awards, taking pokes at the stars while standing right next to them, but he saved his most pointed joke for someone who was absent.
\u201c Nicki Minaj is not here,\u201d Noah said, to big cheers from the audience at Crypto.com Arena. \u201cShe is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues.\u201d
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Minaj this week visited and praised the president, the culmination of a move toward MAGA that she’s made in recent months.
Noah broke into a Trump impression. \u201cActually Nicki, I have the biggest ass, everybody\u2019s saying it Nicki.\u201d
In his sixth time hosting the show \u2014 and what he says will be his last \u2014 Noah mostly played it safe, not delving into much politics or controversy. There was no mention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (on a night when many attendees were wearing \u201cICE OUT\u201d buttons), or Greenland, or the Epstein files, at least not directly.
He packed much of the politics into one joke, when he said Lauryn Hill was performing on the show for the first time since 1999.
\u201cDo you understand how long ago that is?\u201d he said. \u201cBack in 1999, the president had had a sex scandal, people thought computers were about to destroy the world, and Diddy was arrested.\u201d
He wandered to a table where Teddy Swims and Jelly Roll, both with well-tattooed faces, were sitting together, and suggested they try to use face ID to unlock each other’s phones.
Standing next to Olivia Dean, he praised her for fighting Ticketmaster. She won partial refunds for her fans last year after criticizing the ticket resale business for being exploitative.
\u201cBecause if the fans can\u2019t afford tickets, we can\u2019t have live music,\u201d Noah said, \u201cand without concerts, how would we find out which CEOs are having affairs on the Jumbotron?\u201d
Later in the show, Noah cozied up to the night’s biggest nominee, Kendrick Lamar, and only congratulated him.
\u201cI actually thought about writing a few jokes roasting you, but then I remembered what you can do to light-skinned dudes from other countries,\u201d Noah, who is from South Africa, said in a reference to Lamar’s beef with the Canadian rapper Drake that culminated in last year’s big Grammy winner \u201cNot Like Us.\u201d
\u201cHip-hop beef has gone to a new level,\u201d he said. \u201cRappers are doing full-on detective work on your life.\u201d He added, \u201cIt was so much simpler when all you had to worry about was being shot.\u201d
Later, he sat with Bad Bunny, and asked if he could come live with him in his native Puerto Rico if things got too bad in the U.S.
\u201cTrevor I have some news for you,\u201d Bad Bunny said. \u201cPuerto Rico is part of America.\u201d
The Recording Academy announced less than three weeks ago that Noah was returning \u201cone final time.\u201d
\u201cI believe in term limits,\u201d Noah said during the show.
Only singer Andy Williams, who hosted the Grammys seven times in the 1970s, has hosted more often.
Noah himself is a four-time Grammy nominee, and was up this year in the best audio book recording category for \u201cInto The Uncut Grass,\u201d a children’s story. He lost to the Dalai Lama.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nicki Minaj in several places.
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For more coverage of the 2026 Grammy Awards, visit: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/grammy-awards<\/p>\n