On Sunday, February 12, the music industry gathered in Los Angeles’s Staples Center for the presentation of the Grammy Awards. The night was a record-breaking success for Adele, who picked up six Grammys in all the categories she was nominated for, including Song, Record, and Album of the Year. 21’s overwhelming Grammy victory was no surprise since it was the top-selling album of year, loved by critics and fans alike, and nominated along with Rihanna and Bruno Mars. In my opinion, the only albums that could have stood a chance against 21 were Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, both of which were not even nominated in the category. Indie favorite Bon Iver beat out fan picks Nicki Minaj and the Band Perry in the coveted Best New Artist award, but the awards themselves resulted in no great controversy, unlike last year when Esperanza Spalding’s Best New Artist win made Justin Bieber fans have a heart attack.
Over the years, the Grammy Awards have evolved to incorporate more and more performances. In its present state, the show is more like a never-ending concert than an awards presentation. Some of the performances were great, while others were definitely not as enjoyable. Jennifer Hudson’s performance of “I Will Always Love You” was out of this world. Tributes to Glen Campbell and the Beach Boys were also fun, and, along with classic rockers Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, gave parents whose teenagers who were tuning in for Taylor Swift or Katy Perry a reason not to snatch the remote away. Speaking of Swift and Perry, both sounded a little pitchy but were very entertaining and were definitely enjoying themselves. However, the best performance of evening was Adele’s soulful rendition of “Rolling in the Deep.”
Unfortunately, even Adele’s soaring vocals couldn’t make up for the performances that weren’t as good. Nicki Minaj’s sacrilegious rendition of “Roman Holiday” was annoying, tasteless, and stupid. After a long, unnecessary video about exorcism, Minaj’s “Roman Holiday” was obviously a Lady Gaga knockoff and seemed like it lasted half the show. Since Gaga herself was not performing and dressed relatively normally (in comparison with some of her other ensembles, at least), Minaj took it upon herself to win the unofficial award for craziest performance of the evening. She succeeded, but would have been much better off performing her hit “Super Bass” or her new single “Starships.”
Another performance that seemed to drag on unnecessarily was Chris Brown’s “Turn Up the Music.” Sure, Brown’s dancing was great, but he should have followed his song’s advice and turned down the dancing. Lip-synching at an awards show for musicians seems unprofessional, but perhaps Chris Brown felt differently since his entire performance was lip-synched. Then, to the chagrin of many, Brown returned for a second performance with the Foo Fighters, Lil Wayne, David Guetta, and Deadmau5. My theory is that the Grammys ran out of booking options and decided everyone would love to see the Foo Fighters and Brown perform again, even though there were many other artists in attendance who would have loved the national spotlight.
The evening’s celebratory atmosphere was not as joyous as usual because of Whitney Houston’s death the night before. The superstar was represented meaningfully tributes, including a collective prayer from LL Cool J at the beginning and a performance of Houston’s classic “I Will Always Love You” by Jennifer Hudson. Despite this sad event, the evening was a grand celebration of this year’s musical triumphs, and was pretty enjoyable overall.
Usually, the performance-packed Grammy awards seems like it lasts about twelve hours long, but thankfully this year they only lasted eleven.