Here’s the thing about the Grammy’s: The performances make the event as entertaining as it is. Unfortunately it’s usually the abundance of performances that make the event ridiculously long and drawn out. For those of us on the east coast, this means staying up past 11:00 p.m. on a Sunday night if we want to catch the entire show.
The ceremony, which ran for more than three hours, was packed with award presentations, speeches, performances, presenters paying tribute to musical legends, and an “In Memoriam” video (not to mention a Beatles-themed Cique Du Soleil performance as well as an act which included a keytar). Amy Winehouse, who received a handful of awards tonight, delivered a fantastic performance via satellite. Among the other more memorable performances of the night were Carrie Underwood, Foo Fighters, Aretha Franklin and Alicia Keys (just to name a few of my favorites). There were a number of performances in which older artists were matched up with younger ones. Some of these acts felt a lot like filler (as though the ceremony needed to be longer than it already was), while other pairs rocked the stage. For example, is Tina Turner ever not amazing? Beyonce certainly held her own next to Turner as the two performed an appropriately energetic “Proud Mary.”
The acceptance speeches were all of the standard variety. When Kanye West accepted his award for Best Rap Album he made point in letting everyone know that he’s won grammys before and that he deserves to win them, saying “It definitely feels good to be home here at the Grammys. You know, we snuck in about four, five years ago, and now we basically made this our new place of residence.” The music started to play over his speech after he went on for a while but they were nice enough to fade it out when Kanye requested it so that he could talk about his mother, who died last year.
Vince Gill brought on some laughter when he accepted his award for Best Country Album. After shaking hands with presenter Ringo Starr, he began his speech by saying, “I just got an award given to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?” He laughed afterwards and when the camera cut over to West, he was smiling and laughing as well. I love the kind of rare, on-the-spot candidness at award ceremonies.
This year’s Grammy Awards ceremony did a fine job at paying homage to artists of the past while also acknowledging and celebrating many of the musicians of today. My only complaint was that there was way too much packed into the event and given the number of awards handed out, the whole thing could’ve been cut down to two hours max (leaving plenty of time for some performances between awards). I realize that the Grammys are a celebration of music but with so many performances one after another, it becomes hard to really soak in each of them individually.
For more coverage on this year’s Grammy awards, including the full list of winners, CLICK HERE.
