Once again, music’s biggest night came and went. Even though only a few of my predications came true, the night was still a success. But not everything went off as planned and there were some controversial performances and winners.
The Issues
The night kicked off with British treasure James Corden trying to prove he could replace LL Cool J. Well, James certainly progressed throughout the night because the intro was a little rocky. I would have preferred singing to the rapping he did, which was a little awkward. Plus, the planned pauses to generate responses from the audience made everything more uncomfortable. But, being the genius that he is, James quickly turned things around by poking fun at Donald Trump in a segment that featured “fake tweets” and mocking Kanye for constantly saying he is above the Grammys. Plus, one of his best moments was the impromptu carpool karaoke that proved somehow Jason Derulo and John Legend do not know the words to “Sweet Caroline.”
One would think since this is the most anticipated music filled night of the year that the sound would work properly. Once again the Grammys were plagued with technical difficulties. Adele opened the show looking like a sparkly, kaleidoscope dream singing “Hello.” Although I wished she would have sang another song, the performance suffered because it was difficult to hear her over the music just like last year. Unfortunately, Adele’s performance issues didn’t stop there. During her beautiful tribute to George Michael, the British songstress had restart the live performance due to other sound problems. Being the professional she is, she pulled through it like and delivered a moving rendition of “Fastlove.” The performance most impacted by the sound issues was the Metallica and Lady Gaga collaboration. The lead singer and Gaga were forced to share one mic for the majority of the performance after only Gaga’s mic seemed to be turned on. This NEEDS to be fixed next year.
The Performances
Some people clearly were having off nights while others were spectacular and very political. The worst performance of the night would have to go to Kelsea Ballerini and Lukas Graham’s mashup of their songs “Peter Pan” and “7 Years.” Not sure who thought putting these two songs together was a good idea, but I’m willing to bet he now knows that was a terrible suggestion. Ballerini barely sang and the two melodies did not flow together.
Moving on, a collaboration that was unexpected but welcomed was Maren Morris and Alicia Keys singing the country star’s song “Once.” Morris really showed off her vocals and Keys reminded everyone that she is a legend. Ed Sheeran proved he only needs a guitar and a loop pedal to deliver a flawless version of his new song “Shape of You.” Katy Perry sang her new single “Chained to the Rhythm” for the first time while rocking a pant suit and using walls as a backdrop that turned into an image of the Constitution.
The two artists that seemed to gain the most Twitter attention were Bruno Mars and Beyoncé. Mars performed twice. First, he belted out “That’s What I Like” and the audience clearly loved it especially when he slowed it down. No other male artist brings energy and powerful vocals to the stage like Mars. He returned to pay tribute to Prince and actually transformed into the rock star by wearing a purple suit, eye liner and showing off his insane guitar skills as he sang “Let’s Go Crazy.” Since Queen B never fails to deliver an inspiring performance, she incorporated poetry, plenty of backup dancers and trippy visuals as she sang two songs from Lemonade.
The Winners
It was expected that Drake, Rihanna, and Beyoncé would accept most of the awards considering they had 25 nominations between them. In one of the biggest shocks of the night, Rihanna did not win ANY awards! Drake and Beyoncé only won two awards each. The biggest winners of the night were Chance the Rapper, Maren Morris, Twenty One Pilots, and Adele.
Chance the Rapper took home the gold awards for “Best New Artist,” “Best Rap Performance” and “Best Rap Album.” Since Drake didn’t bother to show up for the awards, it made sense for the young rapper to win a lot. Maren Morris might have lost the first award of the night to Chance but she did win “Best Country Solo Performance.” After this win and her breakout moment with Alicia Keys, I expect her to see on that stage in the future.
Twenty One Pilots won for “Best Pop Duo/Group Performance” which was great but the best part was the acceptance speech. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun decided to take off their pants and give a speech in their underwear. They explained that they watched the Grammys in their underwear and promised each other if they ever won then they would accept it in underwear. Well, they definitely stick to their word.
Adele won an award for every category she was nominated for. When accepting for “Album of the Year,” Adele mentioned the award should go to Beyoncé since Queen B is her idol and Lemonade was revolutionary. We all love Beyoncé too, Adele. But Adele deserved everything she won.
That’s it until next year, and I seriously hope I can actually hear all the performances then. Fingers crossed.