As the GRAMMYs return tonight for their 68th celebration, we’re looking back at the iconic performances that defined the pop-culture zeitgeist and rewired our collective brains forever.

PRINCE

There’s no better way to kick off this throwback than with the master of mystery and reinvention himself: Prince. When he appeared on the cover of V’s Fall Preview issue in 2013, shot on tour by Inez and Vinoodh in one of the artist’s last ever portraits, Prince was deep into his latest transformation, as elusive and uncompromising as ever. 

After breaking free from major label control, Prince was now fully in charge of his output, releasing albums on his own terms, experimenting with distribution models, and playing intimate, guerrilla-style concerts that felt like personal sermons. Prince was a legend beyond time, an artist refusing to be tamed by trends or technology, always working, always reimagining what it meant to be truly free.

JUSTIN BIEBER

Justin Bieber returns to the GRAMMYs following the surprise release of his comeback album “Swag,” which dropped with little warning in the summer of 2025. One of the most nominated artists at the night, a distinction he’s achieved before, he’s set to take the GRAMMYs stage for the first time in four years.

Today, we’re reminiscing on an earlier moment in Bieber’s GRAMMYs history, when he delivered a stripped-down performance of “Love Yourself” in 2016—and looking back even further to his first V cover, shot in late 2011, when he was just 17 and on the brink of turning 18, ahead of its January 2012 release.

BILLIE EILISH

In 2019, as V celebrated our 20th anniversary, Billie Eilish was busy mounting a cultural revolution. Her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” had just been released a few months earlier, transforming Eilish from an under-ground phenomenon into a global icon. Appearing on our magazine’s cover, shot by Inez and Vinoodh, Eilish represented a fresh incarnation of the iconoclastic underground spirit that is at the heart of everything V does–the voice of restless youth yearning for self-expression. 

Three years later when she appeared on V’s cover again in 2022, Eilish had become a multi-Grammy winning, Oscar nominated, superstar at only 20 years old. As reflected in the moody, complex, absolutely stunning images captured by @hedislimane for the cover, keeping that commitment to self-love had become harder as Eilish confronted the conflict between her mega fame and her actual life. As she has continued to do throughout her astonishing career, Eilish hasn’t merely pushed boundaries, she has reshaped pop music’s psyche, asserting that fearless self-expression and a commitment to self-love is the path to power.

Today, as Eilish earns two GRAMMYs nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year for her song “Wildflower,” we’re looking back at the moment she took the stage in 2020 with a haunting performance of “when the party’s over.”

MILEY CYRUS

The summer of 2013, Miley Cyrus took a wrecking ball to her squeaky clean Disney persona. That same season, she starred on the cover of V83. Her story was appropriately titled: “The Emancipation of Miley,” and in it, Cyrus is at her boldest—the perfect time for a V cover—wearing barely anything except for briefs, studded cuffs, and the occasional leather jacket, sans bra. 

When she’s in pants, naturally, they’re unzipped or pulled down to her cheeks. It goes without saying, this is the salacious result of Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele and Mario Testino putting their heads together. A year later, the pop provocateur blessed our cover a second time, also styled by Cerf de Dudzeele, and shot and interviewed by none other than Karl Lagerfeld, one of V’s many godparents. Lagerfeld’s opener? “I think, in fact, you are a very decent girl and well educated, you just like to provoke. What is more fun than to shock the bourgeois anyway?”

Today, as Cyrus earns a GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album for Something Beautiful, we’re looking back to the moment she won her first GRAMMY—stealing the show with an unforgettable performance of her empowering anthem, “Flowers.”

LADY GAGA

Mother Monster, who has graced the covers of seven V issues—including V99, a publication with 16 individual covers entirely guest-edited by our art and fashion muse—is up for seven awards at today’s 68th GRAMMYs ceremony, including Record of the Year, Album of the Rear and Song of the Year. 

Gaga’s unequivocal genius is one we had to be first in line to explore in our fall fashion issue back in 2009, when “Just Dance” was all anyone could hum. V67 cast Gaga as Lady Liberty alongside Marc Jacobs for our New York Issue, spectacularly lensed by Mario Testino, the issue united art and fashion in a very V way! V71 captures a three-headed Gaga in conversation with Elton John, while V85 features Gaga salaciously captured by Inez & Vinoodh in her Artpop era. Our Fall 2017 music issue spotlights Gaga’s widespread talents, as commemorated with a V cover each step of the way. 

As one of our most loyal and inspiring collaborators, we’re honored to have played such a role in Gaga’s exploration of fashion and beyond.