The two Michigan-bred artists representing different genres — bluegrass and gospel — added to their Grammy arsenals on Sunday, and both have upcoming West Michigan tour stops.

Grammy Winners: CeCe Winans, at left, and Billy Strings won their awards during the Grammy’s Premiere Ceremony. (Billy Photo by Jesse Faatz)
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS OF THE WINNING ARTISTS/MUSIC
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
For Ionia County’s favorite bluegrass son and guitar powerhouse Billy Strings, it was Grammy Award No. 2, this time winning on Sunday for best bluegrass album of the year for “Live, Vol. 1.”
For Detroit native and gospel superstar CeCe Winans, the 67th annual Grammy Awards produced Grammy Awards No. 18 and 19, for her gospel album, “More Than This,” and the song, “That’s My King.”
Presented during the afternoon “pre-telecast,” prior to the national televised Grammy show on CBS, the awards may not have attracted the sort of buzz accorded the pop stars dominating the evening spectacle, but nominees and winners joined some of the most talented writers and performers in the music industry in jazz, country, gospel, roots music and beyond.

‘More Than This’: CeCe Winans’ winning album.
William Apostol, aka Billy Strings, won his first Grammy in 2021 for best bluegrass album for “Home,” and was nominated again in the same category in 2022 and 2024.
For his 2025 win, Apostol — who grew up in Muir — outpolled bluegrass recordings by several iconic artists: The Del McCoury Band, Dan Tyminski, Sister Sadie and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes. Indeed, Billy Strings had just offered best wishes to pal McCoury on his 86th birthday on Friday, writing on social media: “Happy birthday Del! Love you soo much.”
He later thanked the Recording Academy and insisted he was rooting for Keith-Hynes, a musician he called “a great player and even better person.”
“I was definitely not expecting to win and was in the middle of a good nap when my phone started ringing off the hook,” he wrote on Facebook. “I am so very grateful to be included in this community and so honored to be mentioned in the same breath as so many great artists. Congratulations to all the nominees. I’m just happy to be here.”
Check out the Local Spins review of Billy Strings, “Live, Vol. 1.”
Billy Strings plays a two-night homecoming stand at Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena on May 30-31. Get details and tickets online here.
Winans, who’s already the best-selling female gospel artist of all-time and the female gospel singer with the most Grammy Awards in history, won two more on Sunday.
She brings her international tour to Wyoming’s Grand Rapids First Assembly of God on Feb. 13. Get tickets and details online here. The church is located at 2100 44th St. SW in Wyoming.
On Facebook, Winans gave thanks to her “wonderful family” and her “incredible team” — including the writers, singers and band on her Grammy-winning album — along with “the entire body of Christ.”
Other Michigan artists/musicians nominated this year included rapper Eminem, rocker Jack White and drummer Evan Hyde (an East Kentwood High School grad who’s part of the New York band Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats, which was nominated for best children’s album).
Of course, most of the star-studded Grammy hoopla was reserved for the network TV spectacle, filled with elaborate performances and pleas for donations to aid Los Angeles-area fire victims (something in which you can participate by donating to MusiCares’ fire-relief efforts here).
The night’s biggest winners included Kendrick Lamar (who swept all of the categories in which he was nominated), Beyonce (who won album of the year), Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx, with The Beatles even snagging a Grammy for best rock performance for “Now and Then,” the single written by John Lennon and the last song recorded by all four Beatles (finished by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr). View the full list of winners at grammy.com.
VIDEO: Billy Strings, “Highway Hypnosis” (Live at Pine Knob)
VIDEO: CeCe Winans, “That’s My King”
Copyright 2025, Spins on Music LLC