Female artists reigned supreme at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift at the front, leading the charge at last night’s ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Beyonce tallied the most awards, scooping up six trophies (the most ever for a female artist on a single Grammy night) most notably Song of the Year and Best R&B Song for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Halo.”
Teen sensation Taylor Swift took home the show’s biggest honor, however, nabbing Album of the Year for 2009’s best-selling LP, Fearless. At 20, Swift is now the youngest musician to win Album of the Year; she won four awards overall, including Best Country Album (also Fearless), Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance (both “White Horse”).
Lady Gaga, who opened the show with a powerhouse duet with Elton John, that brought the house down, won a pair of awards, Best Dance Album for The Fame and Best Electronica/Dance Song for “Poker Face” however, both were announced during a pre-telecast ceremony.
On the men's side Kings of Leon grabbed three awards, all revolving around their hit “Use Somebody,” Jay-Z scored three trophies for singles (his Blueprint 3 wasn’t eligible this year) and the Black Eyed Peas (we all know Will.I.Am is the driving force of the group) also won three Grammys, including Best Pop Vocal Album for The E.N.D.
Green Day followed up a memorable performance of “21 Guns” with the American Idiot musical cast by winning Best Rock Album for 21st Century Breakdown. In awards handed out before the broadcast, Bruce Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream” was named Best Solo Rock Performance, Jeff Beck took Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “A Day in the Life,” the Beatles scored Best Long Form Video and French electronic pop group Phoenix pulled out a surprise victory in the Best Alternative Album category with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.
The Grammys are known for its electrifying performances as much as their hardware, and last night’s show was packed with big-name team-ups. The aforementioned, Lady Gaga got the party started with “Poker Face” before taking a seat at her piano (adorned with mannequin limbs frozen into Gaga’s monster claw) and faced off against Elton John with her “Speechless” and his “Your Song.” Beyoncé and a SWAT team of dancers mashed up the I Am… Sasha Fierce hit “If I Were a Boy” with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Pink spun from the ceiling, soaking wet, during an acrobatic performance of “Glitter in the Air” (which was my favourite performance of the night and one of the best in Grammys history). The Black Eyed Peas then hit the stage, and performed “Imma Be,” and “I Gotta Feeling" to a robust round of applause.
Later on in the show Bon Jovi took to the stage with country star Jennifer Nettles and belted out three songs for all their fans. They sang, "We Weren’t Born to Follow,” “Who Says You Can’t Go Home,” and the classic “Livin’ on a Prayer.” After that, Mary J. Blige, David Foster, and Andrea Bocelli sang Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," dedicated to the people of Haiti. Maxwell (one of my favourite artists) then burned up the stage with his Grammy winning single "Pretty Wings" and was later joined by classic soul/jazz singer Roberta Flack to sing the classic song, ‘Where Is The Love” with him. The quartet of Lil Wayne, Eminem, Drake and Travis Barker kept the censors on their toes with a profanity-laced medley of Rebirth’s “Drop the World” and the hit “Forever.”
Notably absent from the "Forever" performance and the Grammys was Kanye West. Many speculate this was due to his infamous actions at the MTV VMA's last September. T-Dot's favourite son, Drake however, said the Louis Vuitton Don is apparently back in the lab. "I think 'Ye's in a good creative space right now," Drizzy said of his absence. "I think he's trying to create that next album the world needs. I know he's working very hard somewhere." Despite the comments from Drake, fans still believe Kanye's actions at the VMA's cost him an invite to the party.
The ceremony also included a 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson featuring Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Usher and Carrie Underwood singing along with the King of Pop’s “Earth Song.” Jackson’s two eldest children, Prince and Paris, accepted their father’s posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in one of the night’s most touching moments.
Jeff Beck led a special Les Paul tribute while Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” merged T-Pain, opera, Doug E Fresh and Slash performing the “November Rain” solo into one strange, yet compelling, performance. Stevie Nicks joined Taylor Swift to duet on “Rihannon” and “You Belong With Me” in one of the few performances that felt out-of-sync. And even though the Dave Matthews Band were shut out of any Grammy wins, the group broke out a full choir, horns and string section for a strong rendition of “You & Me.”
My favourite win was Stephen Colbert winning a Grammy for the Best Comedy Album for his A Colbert Christmas. He was also tasked with presenting this year’s ceremony and opened the awards with a brief comedy monologue where he poked fun at American Idol runner up Adam Lambert and the Jonas Brothers and also took a pop at Susan Boyle saying “Justin Timberlake may have brought the sexy back, but Susan Boyle sent it away again”. Colbert also created a buzz simply for producing an Apple iPad on stage. As he appeared to fumble for the list of nominees, he pulled out the device and teased: ‘Jay-Z did you not get one of these in your gift bag. Am I cooler than you?’ And as part of a running joke in which he was trying to win the respect of his daughter Madeline, sitting in the audience of the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, he said: ‘‘Honey, does this make me look cool?’
In the end the 52nd Grammys was a crazy party that just didn't stop since it started. I liked most of the wins, especially those of Swift ('cause she had a monster year). The only qualms I have is that Green Day should have been nominated for more than just 3 awards. I know 21st Century Breakdown was no American Idiot but it was still a great album. Other than that it was a great night for music and it was an awesome show.
*Note 1: all links are from YouTube and we don't own any of the videos, also if any of the links are down leave a comment about it and we will try to rectify the situation
*Note 2: all blue coloured links are non-Grammy links while the purple coloured links are all Grammy related
Peace and Much Love To Ya :)
No comments:
Post a Comment