I debated whether or not it was worth typing something up about this year’s Grammy Awards for a number of reasons but, ultimately, I decided it was worth weighing in on. If you believe CBS’s promotional machine, then The Grammy’s are music biggest night. And while this may be truth, the Grammy’s are only a shell of what they once were. This year, the large majority of the awards were announced in a preshow that wasn’t even televised.
Among the earlier winners who didn’t get a chance to thank anyone was Jason Mraz. Those of you who know me also know how much I love Mraz and how upset I was when he was snubbed last year. His two wins this year are bittersweet mostly because he was never shown on the screen once during the 3 and a half hour telecast. When did Best Pop Vocal Male become a category so unimportant? If Justin Timberlake or John Mayer had been eligible for the award would we have seen it on the live show? At some point the Grammys became desperate for ratings at the expense of quality.
Thus, the majority of the night was consumed by performances. Said performances ranged from awful to interesting but none of them really blew me away. Pink performed a song called “Glitter in the Air” while spinning from a ribbon and getting pounded by water. It was like a Cirque de Soleil audition gone awry. The Black Eyed Peas, who’ve been no strangers to live TV this year, stumbled their way through “Imma Be” and “I Gotta Feeling.” Jamie Foxx and T-Pain brought out the incredibly relevant duo of Slash and Doug E. Fresh to help them perform “Blame It.” And Bon Jovi marked their first Grammy performance ever by singing a medley that included “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Then there was the Michael Jackson tribute that seemed like a hodgepodge thrown together by a hard core environmentalist.
Kings of Leon walked away with 3 awards for “Use Somebody” but only one, Record of the Year, was televised. Did the group perform their smash hit? No, in fact, they didn’t get to perform at all. Instead we received the “privilege” of seeing Green Day perform with the cast of their new Broadway musical. The group would go on to win Rock Album of Year, which is bewildering for two reasons. First, they weren’t nominated for Album of Year and Dave Matthews Band was; and secondly 21st Century Breakdown was a terrible album undeserving of a nomination let alone a win. Then again, Eminem won Rap Album of the Year for Relapse, an album I found equally bad. That award wasn’t shown on TV either by the way. Surprisingly only one Rap category made it to the telecast and that was Best Rap Collaboration. That award went to “Run This Town,” as did Best Rap Song. Unfortunately, Kanye West was banned from Sunday night’s event because of his previous indiscretions. West made “Run This Town” what it was and deserved those two Grammy’s more than Jay-Z or Rihanna, both of whom were on hand to accept. Later in the evening Drake, Lil Wayne and Eminem took the stage to perform “Forever” but West absence precluded him from taking part.
The night didn’t belong to West though; it belonged to three women who have dominated the charts this year. Lady Gaga opened the show with mash up of “Poker Face,” “Speechless,” and “Your Song.” She was joined by music legend Elton John for the latter half of her performance and walked away with two awards. Both of those wins came in the Dance category and went untelevised, something that surprised me. Beyonce also performed a mash up, and an odd one at that. She mixed her hit song “If I Were a Boy” with the Alanis Morrissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Unlike Gaga, Beyonce got to accept one of her record breaking 6 awards on the live show. The night’s most coveted award, Album of the Year, eluded Beyonce. That award went to Country Pop Princess Taylor Swift, who also collected awards for Best Female Country Vocal, Best Country Song, and Best Country Album. Swift was gracious as always but her performance may have spoiled some people’s opinions of her. Swift was joined by Stevie Nicks and rearranged “You Belong With Me” accordingly but she was out of tune throughout the song. As someone who’s come to accept Swift’s flaws it didn’t really bother me, but I can see how others might be perturbed. As least there was effort on her part, which is more than I can say for CBS or numerous other performers.
