The 23rd Grammy Awards were held in 1981, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1980.

Children's

Classical

Comedy

Composing and arranging

Country

Folk

  • Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording
    • Norman Dayron (producer) for Rare Blues performed by various artists

Gospel

  • Best Gospel Performance, Contemporary or Inspirational
    • Andrae Crouch, the Archers, B.J. Thomas, Cynthia Clawson, Dony McGuire, Reba Rambo, Tramaine Hawkins & Walter Hawkins for The Lord's Prayer
  • Best Gospel Performance, Traditional
    • Blackwood Brothers for We Come to Worship
  • Best Soul Gospel Performance, Traditional
    • James Cleveland & the Charles Fold Singers for Lord, Let Me Be an Instrument
  • Best Soul Gospel Performance, Contemporary
    • Shirley Caesar for Rejoice
  • Best Inspirational Performance
    • Debby Boone for With My Song I Will Praise Him

Historical

  • Best Historical Reissue Album
    • Keith Hardwick (producer) for Segovia - The EMI Recordings 1927-39 performed by Andrés Segovia

Jazz

  • Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female
  • Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male
  • Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist
  • Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Group
  • Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Big Band
Latin

  • Best Latin Recording
Musical Show

Packaging and Notes

  • Best Album Package - Incl. Album Cover, Graphic Arts, Photography
    • Roy Kohara (art director) for Against the Wind performed by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
  • Best Album Notes
    • David McClintick (notes writer) for Trilogy: Past, Present and Future performed by Frank Sinatra

Pop

Production and engineering

  • Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical
    • James Guthrie (engineer) for The Wall performed by Pink Floyd
  • Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
    • Phil Ramone
  • Best Classical Engineered Recording
    • Karl-August Naegler (engineer), Pierre Boulez & the Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris for Berg: Lulu (Complete Version) conducted by Pierre Boulez
  • Classical Producer of the Year
    • Robert Woods

R&B

Rock

Spoken

  • Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama
    • Pat Carroll for Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein


Other Grammy Award Years

1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003