Electrifying performances however, the Recording Academy’s extremely anticipated telecast felt extra centered on making an attempt to reestablish relevancy than on highlighting artistry.
On the heels of final week’s memorable Academy Awards ceremony, the sixty fourth Grammy Awards had rather a lot to stay as much as — whether or not that conjures up dread or pleasure will depend on which of the numerous sides of The Slap you landed on. However the glittering occasion, rescheduled from Jan. 31 to April 3 due to the continuing pandemic, was in the end a tedious, pedestrian affair.
Like most mainstream honors, the Grammys appeared seeking that means. Apart from a couple of performances, the stay telecast felt like one other try on the onerous activity of re-establishing relevancy, an train that pulls the awards farther from its objective of highlighting recording artistry and towards a extra amorphous purpose of — what? Courting youthful generations? Capturing the zeitgeist? Proving the Recording Academy is listening and studying? It’s unclear. However the present’s selections revealed that its dedication to any subject past its continued existence is, at greatest, superficial. Trevor Noah, the night’s host, acknowledged this bleak actuality greatest in his opening monologue: “It is a live performance the place we give out awards.”
And the present did really feel like a live performance, albeit an uneven one. It started with a rousing efficiency by the night time’s most adorned act, Silk Sonic, performing “777.” Its members, Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars, wore white bejeweled classic outfits as they belted and grooved onstage. Their efficiency (one in every of many electrifying ones through the night) was adopted by Noah’s serviceable monologue. He tried to drum up pleasure within the crowd by itemizing the performances and, in fact, made a passing reference to final weekend’s occasions. “We're going to hold individuals’s names out of our mouth,” he stated earlier than the present moved on to Olivia Rodrigo’s moody association of her hit “Drivers License,” adopted by J Balvin and Maria Becerra’s kinetic medley.
Questlove, who on Sunday received an Oscar for his documentary Summer season of Soul, appeared subsequent to current the Track of 12 months award to Silk Sonic’s “Depart the Door Open.” He additionally took time to reference The Slap: “I belief that you'll keep 500 toes away from me.” I prayed it could be the final point out of the Oscars debacle.
BTS’s rendition of “Butter” and the medley that adopted from Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow, of “Useless Proper Now,” “Montero” and “Business Child,” supplied glimpses into the present’s alchemical potential. Harnessing the facility of erotic undertones, suggestion, exact choreography and sensible manufacturing, these acts momentarily loosened the occasion, liberating it from its air of rigidity. The seven members of BTS used all of Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Backyard Area as their stage, conscripting Rodrigo within the opening moments of their dazzling, James Bond-esque rendition: a figuring out look, a whispered message, a easy convening on the stage. Lil Nas X and Harlow maintained this power. The previous integrated the controversy round his music into the manufacturing and the latter cleverly circumvented tv censorship pointers.
However the magic of those and different performances have been no match for the Recording Academy’s low-cost and vampiric strategy to placing on a present. Take the choice to incorporate a prerecorded video from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which was an concept floated to and rejected by the producers of the Oscars. Simply why this was by no means an excellent suggestion grew to become obvious because the chief pleaded his case with a largely American viewers. Nothing could possibly be extra antithetical to the fun of music than the violence of battle, he intimated earlier than urging viewers to assist Ukrainian efforts. “Fill the silence together with your music. Fill it at present. To inform our story. Inform the reality about this battle in your social networks, on TV. Assist us in any method you'll be able to. Any — however not silence,” he stated within the solemn message. There was no time to digest it earlier than John Legend appeared onstage, parked in entrance of his piano singing the opening lyrics of a brand new music titled “Free.”
The irony of a Black man crooning about freedom in a rustic dedicated to denying its personal energetic efforts to curtail liberties was nearly an excessive amount of to bear. Concentrate on it too lengthy, although, and one risked lacking the Ukrainian artists — Siuzanna Iglidan, Mika Newton and Lyuba Yakimchuk — who carried out alongside Legend. As Yakimchuk supplied a spoken-word little bit of verse, her chyron learn “Fled Ukraine simply days in the past.” The be aware, coupled with the truth that this second was sandwiched between unrelated performances and jokes about The Slap and COVID, was an unsettling reminder of America’s selective software of sympathy and synthetic method of dealing with present affairs. If the Oscars needed to stay to escapism, the Grammys needed to lean into actuality, no matter whether or not the present’s strategy was logical or useful.
To focus on the significance of touring and the behind-the-scenes efforts required to stage concert events, the Grammys additionally highlighted choose tour managers. Awards weren't, to my data, introduced to them, although. As a substitute, these people acquired transient airtime to speak about how a lot they beloved their job and their bosses. However these shows shortly adopted a wierd tenor and the tour managers began to really feel like props as an alternative of individuals.
The Grammys have been at their greatest when the proceedings let the artists take the lead. Jazmine Sullivan, whose phenomenal Heaux Tales was named greatest R&B album, speaking about her undertaking’s inception and the group of Black girls she fostered by means of it. Doja Cat and SZA gushing at one another after their music “Kiss Me Extra” received for greatest pop duo/group efficiency. Cynthia Erivo, Ben Platt, Rachel Zegler and Leslie Odom Jr. performing a Stephen Sondheim medley through the in memoriam phase. Album of the yr winner Jon Batiste’s earnest and trustworthy speech about music as a mystic, subjective expertise that finds its viewers. These moments refocused the night, shifting it from a self-serving, half-baked try at relevancy to a tribute, albeit imperfect, to the shape.