The Cure finally did it. After 50 years of shaping alternative music, the band picked up the first Grammy Awards of their career, only to be hundreds of miles away at a funeral for a former bandmate when their names were called. It was a night that should have been a straightforward victory lap, and instead turned into a bittersweet snapshot of how grief and glory often arrive at the same time.
The group’s long overdue Grammys came for their album Songs of a Lost World and its single “Alone,” but the celebrations were muted as they mourned guitarist Perry Bamonte. Even as the trophies were handed out in Los Angeles, the band was focused on saying goodbye to a friend who had helped define their sound.
The night The Cure finally joined the Grammy club
For a band that has headlined festivals for decades, it is wild that The Cure’s first brush with Grammy glory only arrived at the 2026 ceremony. The Recording Academy had nominated them in the past, but the group’s official artist history shows a long gap between recognition and actual wins, with their name finally moving into the “winner” column this year on the Grammy site. That long wait is part of why the moment landed with such force for fans who have been living inside Robert Smith’s songs since the early eighties.
The breakthrough came in the alternative field, where the band’s latest record took home the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, a category that has become a kind of hall of fame for left-of-center rock and pop. The prize sits within a lineage detailed in the history of the Grammy Award for, which has previously gone to acts who built careers on the margins before being embraced by the mainstream. For The Cure, finally joining that list felt less like a coronation and more like the industry catching up.
‘Songs of a Lost World’ and the power of “Alone”
The Cure’s big night was not just about one trophy. Songs of a Lost World also delivered a win in the performance category, with the band taking Best Alternative Music Performance for the slow-burning single “Alone.” Earlier coverage of the ceremony noted that the track edged out a crowded field at the 2026 Grammys, underscoring how the band’s late-period work can still cut through a younger generation of nominees.
“Alone” itself has been framed as a centerpiece of The Songs of a Lost World era, a track that stretches out in classic Cure fashion while leaning into the reflective mood of a band looking back over half a century. Reporting on the win for Best Alternative Music Performance for “Alone” at the Grammys pointed out that the song comes from The Songs of a Lost World and sits alongside the band’s earlier nominated work, tying their current output back to the Bloodflowers era. It is the kind of slow, patient track that rewards listeners who have grown up with the band and are willing to sit with them in the long fadeout.
A 50 year wait, “Very Honored” at last
Part of what made the wins feel so seismic is the sheer length of the wait. Coverage of the rock categories emphasized that The Cure Win Their First Grammys 50 Years After Forming, spelling out that it took 50 years of existence for the Cure to finally win their first Grammy Years After Forming. Another account described how the band picked up the first GRAMMY Awards of their 50 years career, underlining that this was not just another trophy haul but the end of a very long, very specific drought for a group that helped define alternative music in the first place.
That sense of overdue recognition was echoed in the way the band reacted from afar. In one recap of the night, The Cure were quoted as saying they were “VERY HONOURED TO RECEIVE IT,” a sentiment relayed in a piece that noted how The Cure won two Grammy Awards during Songs of a Lost World’s run and highlighted the message shared By Adrian Garro alongside the band’s thanks By Adrian Garro. Another write up framed it as the first GRAMMY victories of their career, stressing that The Cure have picked up the first GRAMMY Awards of their 50 years career and that the band’s patience had finally been rewarded after a 50 year wait 50 year wait.
The heartbreaking reason they skipped the ceremony
For all the celebration, the image that stuck with many fans was the empty space where The Cure should have been at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. At the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, the band picked up two prizes, Best Alternative Music Albu and Best Alternative Music Performance, but they were not in the building when those categories were called At the arena. Longtime rockers the Cure finally won their very first Grammy Awards on Sunday, but they were instead at a funeral, a detail that was later confirmed when reports explained that the band were not on hand because they were attending services for a former member who had died in December, according to PEOPLE, a context laid out in a piece that described how Longtime Cure Grammy Awards Sunday turned into a day of mourning rather than red carpet photos Longtime.
When The Cure won their first Grammy Awards ever, they were not there to collect their trophies and give a speech. Sadly, there is a simple explanation: they chose to be at the funeral of Perry Bamonte, the guitarist who had been described as “quiet, intense, intuitive, constant and hugely creative” in tributes shared after his death, a detail captured in coverage that opened with the line When The Cure Grammy Awards Sadly to explain why the band skipped the show When The Cure. Another account of the night reiterated that The Cure Won Their First-Ever Grammys in 2026 but Missed Picking Up Award Due to Bandmate’s Funeral, quoting the band as saying they were “Very Honored” even as they prioritized the Bandmate Funeral over the televised moment Very Honored.
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