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I must say, The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were somewhat of what I expected, as well as some things that no one could foresee. From the obvious awards choices we all saw coming, talking to our televisions, to the poor display of dance moves off stage we saw from Taylor Swift. The prestigious black-tie music event for artists from all ranges of the industry seems to recycle a lot of names year to year. Or is it possible that they truly are the best. From pop culture enthusiasts to professional critics, I think there may be some bias going on… But, who am I to say? Artists like Sam Smith, Beyoncé, and Pharrell all went home with at least two awards when all was said and done. The real winner by mass appeal for the evening was Sam Smith; who took home four achievements this past Sunday evening. Managing to brighten the evening, the performances exceeded my personal expectations.
One thing the Grammys always has excellence in, is putting together highly respected artists from different genres and recently of different generations making for amazing performances never thought possible. Kanye West for the first time in 6 years, returned to the Grammy Stage to have a solo tribute to his late mother, which took the audience to a more intimate level of prospective. The tribute gave way to some flows of the Kanye, “we once knew”, one might say. The song he performed, more conscious and lyrical; took me back to his first few albums, which I rehashed when the evening was over. That might have been my favorite part of the night, feeling the sincerity in his voice (although auto-tuned). Put a smile on my face. Madonna, another return artist, put on quite a unique show for the viewers. The choreography was very tribal in nature with designer Givenchy-masked minotaurs she brought to the Grammy stage for her single, “Living for Love”. I think Madonna needs to give it a rest on the elaborate dancing and costumes for herself. Let’s be honest, the woman IS 56 years of age. It almost looked like she was performing with an awful case of arthritis in her knees, while her dancers did most of the performing for her physically. But enough of that… Ed Sheeran performed, “Thinking Out Loud” with some of the most critically acclaimed artists from both today and years ago. The Pop artist’s performance was incredible thanks to band including names such as: Quest Love, John Mayor, and Herbie Hancock. This collaboration was amazing in dynamic and the song was executed beautifully. After “Thinking Out Loud”, Jeff Lynne came out to almost revive The Electric Light Orchestra and give an amazing performance of the hit song, “Evil Women” that had everyone, especially Paul McCartney, out of their seats and dancing. Lynne then directly lead into The ELO’s classic, “Mr. Blue Sky” in a duet fashion with Ed Sheeran; who came to the stage to give a once in a lifetime performance with the also British artist, that he later stated “he looked up to as a youth”. Jeff Lynne ripped up the acoustics as if the 30 years of not performing with The ELO had never happened. Ed Sheeran’s vocals and vowel color mixed in with Jeff’s very well. The entire set by Ed Sheeran, Quest Love, John Mayor, and Herbie Hancock, followed by Jeff Lynne; was definitely only one of many highlights to be remembered of the night. It was a great moment when Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani performed the Maroon 5 track, “My Heart Is Open”. They were very warm with each other on stage, all the while working with the live orchestra on the wings of the stage. The orchestra was conducted very thoroughly to be in sync with the lighting effects behind the two music legends. Gwen looked as beautiful as her voice sounded in her red Versace strapless dress. Andrew Hozier-Byrne, known mononymously as Hozier, graced the stage to sing a song off his 2013 EP, “Take Me To Church”. I hadn’t really even heard of Hozier prior to this, nonetheless I enjoyed his performance despite the fact that his genre and type of music isn’t my first pick to listen to. Hozier brought out 60 year old, Annie Lennox who sang her hit song, “I Put A Spell On You” while Hozier stayed on the strings. The Scottish singer-songwriter’s voice sounded beautiful as ever as well as her always amazing showmanship. She’s always been great with crowd involvement. Talking on crowd involvement, Pharrell performed his more ‘musical-esc’ hit of a song, “Happy” which won two awards of the three that The Academy awarded him. Performing in a bell-hop outfit; the ‘musical-esc’ intro definitely intensified the hype for when the beat finally dropped. The Choreography was insane; extras running throughout the crowd, dancers all over the stage… Pharrell put on a splendid performance that will be remembered for years to come, another obvious highlight of the night. Artist Katy Perry sang beautifully in her performance of, “By The Grace of God”. Not much to say about Katy Perry though, she has the industry on lock right now, and everyone knows it. A very interesting combination came to us when Lady Gaga came on the stage with Tony Bennett to perform the title track of their 2014 collaboration album, “Cheek to Cheek”. This was a new side for me to see of the wild and generally unruly, Lady Gaga. Gaga sounded beautiful with the bass in her voice, and looked even better. Seeming to have gotten in touch with her more elegant side, she performed the set in her second Brandon Maxwell dress of the evening. Included on the dress; the designer placed a feathery train to be used as a prop for Gaga. Seeming to have the best chemistry of the night; Tony Bennett and she, made my list as the best performance of the night. Usher poured the love from his heart when he performed Stevie Wonder’s, “If It’s Magic”. It wasn’t the typical show and dance performance we usually see from Usher, who typically has a whole squad with him to entertain the audience. He displayed how his vocals range and how capable he still is, as he comes into his prime. As Usher sings with a single harpist majority of the song; out of the darkness we find legend, Stevie Wonder with his harmonica as he finessed the hell out of everyone watching as the song closed with a very soft touch. Stevie Wonder is to host an All-Star Grammy Salute on the 16th of February. Eric Church, of the country world came to the stage and played a twang styled version of his song, “Give Me Back My Hometown” from his album The Outsiders for all the country fans out there. I don’t consider myself a fan of country but Eric Church did give me some (SOME) hope from his high quality performance. One of, if not the most looked forward to moments of the night didn’t disappoint. Kanye came back to the stage after returning to his luscious bride, Kim Kardashian, to join friends Rihanna and Paul McCartney for an amazing performance of Rhianna’s, “Four Five Seconds”. The acoustics from Paul paired amazingly with Kanye and Rihanna’s movement and vocal styling. The academy kept telling us that it would be “a performance everyone would be talking about tomorrow.” Well, it’s Tuesday and we’re still talking about it. You win. You could just see the fun and feel the energy from all three of the artists performing together as one. Man of the year, four award winner in 2015, Sam Smith came out to ‘wow’ the stage to sing his astronomical hit, “Stay With Me”. He was joined by legend Mary J. Blige half way through the song for what made to be an epic performance of the song. Sam sounded in touch with his music; as always. While Mary’s unique, soul filled voice, blended intricately into the acoustic artist’s already emphasized voice, with the only full, live orchestra we saw throughout the evening. Again, this was another one of my favorite moments of the night.
The Lackluster award winners were definitely made up for by the amazing performances throughout the night. With Beck winning Album of The Year for his album, Morning Phase, controversy began again with our favorite antagonist, Kanye West. Not only did we see Kanye try to step on stage from his front row seat (being reeled back in by his significant other Kim K); it is rumored that he later texted Beck, telling him to, “give the award up” to best friend: Jay-Z’s wife, Beyoncé for her self-titled album Beyoncé. Needless to say, Kanye West is still Kanye West, even though he seems to have settled down substantially since becoming part of a family. The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were an outstanding display of what artists are doing in today’s music industry and gave them the proper recognition that they all deserve. Thank you to The Recording Academy, The Grammy Foundation, and Musicares and all other sponsors for all they do and putting on such an amazing event for the industry this year. Now begins the race to see who will win for 2015… Who do you think will rise up and show out to the world? Only time will tell.
Key Performances:
Kanye West – Only One
Kanye West: A Grammy tribute to Donda West
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – Cheek to Cheek
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga perform at The 57th Annual Grammy Awards Live – 2015
