Monday, February 9, 2009
Well, the Grammys are in the books and in my first attempt to predict the outcomes, I learned a few things. 1. I have about a .500 batting average on these things. 2. In some cases, it turned out sometimes better/sometimes worse that my predictions were incorrect.
So from what I saw of the telecast, here are the best and worst moments and the things that make you go "wha?"
Best moments:
- Kings of Leon winning Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with vocals for "Sex On Fire." They definitely got that one right.
- Foo Fighters Dave Grohl drumming giddily along with Paul McCartney as he performed "I Saw Her Standing There." Do I really have to explain why this is cool?
- Adele beating out the Jonas Brothers for Best New Artist, proving that the applause of thousands of screaming teen girls can't drown out a true talent with a killer set of pipes.
- Al Green performing "Let's Stay Together" with Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban and Boyz II Men. It's only a surprise because Rihanna was supposed to perform and cancelled, which makes this thrown-together collaboration even more impressive by how well it was executed.
- Adele beating Leona Lewis for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It would have been just if either performer won the award considering their considerable talent, but "Chasing Pavement" is irresistable.
- The dream team collaboration of T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Kanye West winning Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Swagga Like Us." This shouldn't be a surprise since it, in fact, WAS the best rap collaboration all year. But Grammy has such a knack for getting these things wrong and going with the person with the most nominations, I'm glad they saw the truth.
- Radiohead performing "15 Step" with the help of the USC Marching Band. The best use of a Marching Band since Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk."
Weirdest moments:
- Coldplay winning Best Rock Album over bands like Metallica, Kings of Leon and The The Raconteurs, who with all due respect to Chris Martin and Co., rock significantly harder.
- John Mayer's apparent Grammy magnetism. Look, I'm a huge Mayer fan, but he won Grammys for a live version of a song he originally recorded three years ago and a middle-of-the-road track on "The Bucket List" soundtrack. Others nominees released better work and deserved it more.
- The Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder on stage together. Other than introducing a bunch of young JoBro fans to a soul music genius, this collaboration served no good purpose.
- Neil Diamond at the Grammys performing "Sweet Caroline," cementing the Grammys ability to remain painfully unhip.
- A nine-month pregnant M.I.A. performing in what looked like polka-dot Depends alongside Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West and Lil Wayne on "Swagga Like Us." Nothing more distracting than wondering if a performer's water will break on live television.
- The immediate segway of having performers announce nominees for awards categories at the end of their songs. What better encore to a performance than having artists read a teleprompter?
Worst moments:
- Katy Perry's set inspired by the Chiquita Banana girl's fruity headdress and a stiff performance of "I Kissed A Girl." She was nominated for a Grammy and has a couple of hits. Yeah, so did Ace of Base and where are they now? Just saying.
- The Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus duet on "Fifteen," which should have highlighted Swift's catchy songwriting skills but more than anything was a back-and-forth between two mediocre singers.
- Sugarland singing along with Adele during "Chasing Pavement." Some saw it as a collaboration between two different genres. I saw it as butting in, especially when singer Jennifer Nettles bowed at the end like it was her friggin' song.
- The Grammys continuing their trend of awarding elder statesman over a new generation by showering Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with awards for their homey collaboration "Raising Sand." I own this album and think it's great, but I thought they would give the award to someone like Coldplay or Lil Wayne and end the trend. I was wrong.