Missed the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards? No worries, my recap of “the most wonderful night of the year” is here.
Five cross-genre females opened up the show with a tribute to the great Aretha Franklin: Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Whitney Houston, Florence Welch, and Christina Aguilera. It must have been a thrill for newcomer Florence (of Florence & The Machine) to sing with these powerhouses (although she turned out to be one of the best), and Christina redeemed herself after her Superbowl ‘forgetting the lyrics’ snafu. Also, it needs to be said: J-Hud is stunning.
Next up was Gaga, who might as well have been wearing a pointy-bra circa Madonna 1989 to go along with her high ponytail and her latest single, “Born This Way,” which just so happens to sound exactly like Madonna’s “Express Yourself” (with a rip of the bridge from “Vogue”). In true Gaga style, she arrived at the venue in a cocoon/egg-like structure, and hatched on stage into her “egg yolk” costume. But the most shocking part of her performance was actually the lack of shock–no blood spurting, no inappropriateness: the number was actually pretty tame. Ok.
Miranda Lambert was the third act of the evening, adding a little country and bringing the sweet factor to music’s wildest night. She later won the Grammy for Best Female Country Artist.
Muse livened things back up with their Grammy-performance debut and a ‘revolution’ inspired performance, chanting “they will not control us and we will be victorious,” as banks flashed behind them and ninjas with pyrotechniques danced on stage. They also later took home the Grammy for Best Rock Album, and frontman Matthew Bellamy thanked his beautiful, pregnant girlfriend, also known as: Kate Hudson.
One of my favorite collaborations of the night came from Bruno Mars, B.O.B. and Janelle Monae (although awesome trios remained a theme throughout the evening). The black & white effect that took over the tv screen during Bruno’s set was fun, B.O.B. is just solid, and Janelle really went for it by diving into the audience for some crowd-surfing. Not completely a household name just yet, Bill Werde, editor of Billboard Magazine, made a poignant comment on twitter, that with the right performance by Janelle – she would triple her album sales over the next 3 weeks due to the mass exposure.
Next was a heart-warming performance by Justin Beiber and his mentor Usher, kicking it off with a video clip of how they first met (and subsequently how The Beibs got discovered)–a nice little plug for his new documentary “Never Say Never” which just hit theaters on Feb 11th. Justin started out on guitar doing an acoustic version of “Baby,” proving that hey, the kid can sing live. Jaden Smith, Will & Jada’s 13 year-old prodigy, made a surprise appearance to ‘rap on the song.’ Quickly, the cameras panned to the nervous parents who had smiles from ear-to-ear and were cheering him on just like any proud parents would at a school recital : super, duper cute. Still, I’m not so sure how I feel about their kiddiwinks getting into show biz so young, but I guess if you’re those kids, how could you not!? Usher ended things with his club hit, “Oh My Gosh.”
A “thank you” speech highlight came when Lady Gaga won in a very star-studded category for Best Pop Vocal Album, touting Whitney Houston as her main inspiration. Supposedly, she didn’t have the courage to imagine herself singing “Born This Way,” so she pictured Whitney signing it when she was writing the new single (if by Whitney, you mean Madonna, then yah!). Implants were the theme: she wore butt implants, shoulder implants, and forehead temple implants to accept the award! I really do dig her whole “weird is beautiful” message.
Another trio of the evening featured: Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and the legendary Bob Dylan who emerged on stage to sing with all of them. I love Bob, but I felt bad, it sounded (and looked) like it was hurting him to sing. His voice was scratchy, but not in the ‘Bob Dylan scratchy-voice’ kind of way.
Lady Antebellum, a huge winner of the evening for “Need You Now” (congrats Paul Worley!!) performed their hit “American Honey” live. Their male and female harmony is just unbeatable. They can do no wrong.
Super Fun Duo Performance of the Evening Award easily goes to Ceelo Green & Gwenyth Paltrow. I loved it when Gwenyth sang his hit “Forget You” during her cameo on Glee–but this brought it to a whole new level. Ceelo was decked out in a peacock-looking costume, and had actual muppets (yes, muppets!) as back-up singers. To see Gwenyth bringing it live and putting on a show just as great as any other pop act could was really cool. I know she has released recordings over the years on soundtracks from her films (ie: “Cruisin”), but I foresee another album in her near future after this.
One of my all-time favs, Neil Patrick Harris (affectionately known as NPH) had the pleasure of introducing Katy Perry – who recently cameo’d on his TV show, “How I Met Your Mother,” and I was surprised to see her do a ballad. I liked the slower pace coming from her: no gimmicks or frills, just straight-up singing. Of course she had to throw in a little fun though, and did a medley with Teenage Dream.
Next, another trio joined the stage, including John Mayer, Norah Jones and Keith Urban, who collectively sang a cover of “Jolene,” in honor of Dolly Parton while presenting her with the Lifetime Achievement award. It was truly great (and not long enough). Hey John: Johnny Depp called, he want’s his look from “The Tourist” back.
Finally, my favorite collaboration of the evening hit the stage, a foursome: Eminem, Rihanna, Dr. Dre, and the lesser known Skylar Grey. I love Rihanna (I really do), but I can usually take or leave her live vocal performance. But Skylar Grey on “I need a Doctor,” *ohmigosh*. Keeping an eye on twitter, people quickly were tweeting things like “who is this!?” “Rihanna sounds great, wait… is that Rihanna?” etc, etc. It was indeed Skylar: although her face was hidden by the shadows. She also co-wrote Rihanna’s hook for “I love The Way You Lie.” *Obsessed*. And Eminem killed it, natch. He’s so angry, but so talented. And deservedly won a Grammy for his comeback album.
Shocker of the evening went to Esperanza Spalding who took home “Best New Artist,” begging the question… Who is Esperanza Spalding? That had to be among the top google searches in the 24-hours that followed the show. Brian Stelter of The New York Times offered to save people a step by tweeting a link to who she was (Thank you wikipedia). While Beiber fans were left in total outrage and devastation, I’m sure she must have deserved the accolade, and I look forward to checking out her stuff.
In other shocks, Mick Jagger took the stage for his DEBUT Grammy Performance. How was this his premiere Grammy performance!?! The man is 67 years-old and he worked that stage like no other. His energy and the way he moves his body is unreal. He had the entire room on their feet, everyone from Cyndi Lauper to Drake were shown going nuts during this sequence. I say, rock on Mick Jagger.
Barbara Streisand calmed things down a notch with her performance, which was mellow and sweet. She’s wonderful. ‘Nuff said.
Returning to the stage was Rihanna, who came back to perform “What’s My Name” with Drake. She was definitely channeling her inner Beyonce (by way of Tina Turner) with the long-legs and that choreography. And I love Drake, but I think I speak for all Canadians when I say: he will always be “Wheelchair Jimmy from Degrassi” to us.
Closing out the show was another Grammy-stage newbie: Arcade Fire. I have to be honest, I was a little surprised they were the closing act — although I was excited to support my fellow Canucks from Montreal. I was not that into the strobe lights and the Xgames-like entertainment though: meh.
And then all of the sudden, the final award of the evening is announced and “Album Of The Year” goes to…. : Arcade Fire. After a very brief thank you speech, they jump back up for an encore performance. Since the backing band was already in place for song #2: I’d have to assume this was pre-planned, which was a little, how to put it… lame? But still, so super cool to see an indie, talented, multi-instrument husband-wife duo and rock band pick up the most prestigious award of the night. It was one of those “maybe there is still hope” moments for the music industry today, and according to his twitter feed – Kanye West approved.
[Alyson Campbell for It's All Very PR]