New Orleans’ own Jon Batiste walked away with five Grammy awards at the 2022 ceremony in Las Vegas, including wins for album of the year for We Are, best video for “Freedom,” best American roots song and best American roots performance for “Cry.” Batiste’s score for the animated feature Soul tied with The Queen’s Gambit tied in the category of best score for soundtrack for visual media. Batiste was nominated for 11 awards, the most for any recording artist this year.

In his acceptance speech , Batiste said “I believe this to my core—best musician, best artist, best dancer, best actor…. The creative arts are subjective and they reach people at a point in their lives when they need it most. It’s like a song or an album is made and it almost has a radar to find the person when they need it the most.” He concluded by saying, “Let’s just keep going. Be you! That’s it. I love ya, even if I don’t know ya!”

Earlier in the day, on the CBS Sunday Morning news program, Batiste revealed that he had secretly married writer Suleika Jaouad mere hours prior to her second round of treatments for a recurrence of leukemia. Jaoudad was admitted to a hospital for a bone marrow transplant the day after the couple exchanged wedding vows.

Batiste is a graduate of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and St. Augustine High School, whose marching band was prominently featured in the video for “Freedom,” filmed on location in New Orleans in April 2021. Batiste also acknowledged at the Grammy ceremony that his father, grandfather and many nieces and nephews appeared in the video. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, PJ Morton, the Hot 8 Brass Band and the Gospel Soul Children also joined the cast.

Though not from Louisiana, Ricky Riccardi, a popular speaker at the Satchmo Summerfest held annually at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, won a Grammy for best liner notes for The Complete Louis Armstrong Columbia and RCA Victor Studio Sessions 1946-1966, issued by Mosaic. Riccardi is director of research collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York.

Many other Louisiana-based acts were nominated in other categories. The field of best regional roots album was dominated by Louisiana artists, including Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Cha Wa, Sean Ardoin and Kreole Rock and Soul and Corey Ledet, but a Hawaiian, Kalani Pe’a, won the Grammy for the album Kau Ka Pe’a.