Highlight and Lowlights: The 59th Grammy Awards

So...you know the drill by now.

Say it with me..."Thursday Post Day!!!!!"

Ok so, except you are unable to read a calendar, today is actually Friday. I couldn't complete the post yesterday because I had a boatload of things to do so I couldn't post as usual. I am sorry about that. But here's my offering; coming a day late.

So even though it is a bit lastma of me; seeing as the Grammy Awards held on the 12th of February, I only recently watched it and as such I am going to give you my highlights and low-lights on the Grammy's because it is when somebody wakes up that it is their morning. So...yeah.

I really enjoyed this year's Grammy awards. I usually can take or leave the Grammy's. It is not a big night for me. I don't throw Grammy award parties where I give out nonsense trophies to my "most congenial friend" or whatever..but if that is you...kudos. However, this year, I actually watched the Grammy's on a work night and watched it till the end.

So I'm going to share my highlights from this year's awards with you and some low-lights too.



HIGHLIGHTS.

1. The G in "Grammy's" stands for God.

Photo Credits: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Chance the Rapper brought God back into the Grammy Awards, men.  When he claimed the Grammy in the name of the Lord...chile...I hollered!!!! I was like:

"Glory!!!!! Preach Brother Chance the Rapper!!!!!! Amen!!!!!" 

In an industry riddled with all sorts; where there is a continued effort to deny God, it is not popular and is almost a shut door to claim your Christianity so openly so I  always love to see folks who unapologetically declare for the Lord even in the midst of the "Hollyweird" bs. It was telling how the crowd was cold when he shouted God out but began screaming when he shouted out Chicago. But whatever, we all know where Chance stands in his religious affiliations now.

Cut to his performance later in the night, he took us to CHURCH!!!! Tamela Mann. Kirk Franklin. A full gospel choir. It doesn't get more Jesus Crew than that.

Me again:

See, God WILL be glorified and He will use the foolish things of this world for His glory.

Chance is an unsigned, black christian in the rap industry. It is almost unheard of for someone like that to be nominated for, let alone win a Grammy (and the president of the recording academy said as much when he was responding to a racial backlash on Beyonce not winning album of the year). What was evident was God showing that your lips do not have to kiss baal to excel in any industry and He used an industry besieged and besmirched by "rumours" of occultism and evil practices to showcase His glory. Chance the Rapper won three Grammy awards and for each acceptance, he returned the glory to God. Hallelujah!

2. The Tributes
There were tributes to The Purple One; Prince, George Micheal and the BeeGees (well, the surviving member of the group).

Adele gave a tribute to George Micheal, messed it up in the beginning, swore on live TV, started all over again and killed! Her arrangement of the song Fast Love was sick!

25 June 1963 - 25 December 2016

I am a BeeGees fan and it is about time they got honoured. They've been in the business for about 50 years. Their songs were the major part of the soundtrack to the iconic 70's cult hit  "Saturday Night Fever" starring John Travolta.
Two of the members have since passed away, leaving the last brother. It was high time they honoured them before this one too goes the way of our ancestors. He (Barry Gibb) was so excited, singing along to their greatest hits and everyone that did the tribute absolutely killed; Demi Lovato, Little Big Town, Tori Kelly, Andra Day, all phenomenal singers.

Robin Gibb; 22 December, 1949 - 20 May 2012, Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb; 22 December, 1949 -12 January, 2003

The last but by far not the least was the Prince Tribute. Honey!!!!!!! THAT is how you honour someone! Morris Day & The Time sang Jungle Love. You could see the old heads getting it on: Jay Z was grooving, Stephen Hill of BET and two other guys broke into the Jungle Love dance. The song was performed in the Purple Rain movie. Little known fact, Morris Day was Prince's childhood friend and the two remained close friends. So it was great that he was allowed to perform in a tribute to him. 

Then the grand finale came with Bruno Mars channelling the spirit of Prince in that iconic period costume. He performed a most sickening guitar solo in the end!!!!! Come through Bruno!!!! That guy is mad talented and thank God the organisers had the good sense to tap him to do the tribute. It was truly befitting.

L- R: Prince; 7 June 1958 - 21 April, 2016, Morris Day & Bruno Mars

3. A Tribe Called Quest.

Need I say more???? They had a whole message about resisting and they brought people from various parts of the world out on stage in a show of unity and solidarity as they wrapped up their performance. Highly politically charged and really great. 

But what touched me was seeing all the guys together. Buster Rhymes, who has been a long time collaborator with the group, also appeared on stage with them...that was a great moment. As if that was not enough, they set up a mic for Phife Dawg. I almost started crying when, during their performance, Phife's voice came through the speakers. The voice from beyond. It really touched me.

4.The Pantsing of Twenty One Pilots

This was a really cute moment. When it was announced that Twenty One Pilots had won an award, the front men took off their tuxedo pants and went to the stage in their underpants! They then gave a speech about how a year ago they were watching the awards in their underpants and vowed that if they ever won a Grammy, they would accept their award in their underpants too. It was quite moving and extremely cute.






5. Bruno Mars is Midas

It seems that everything Bruno Mars touches these days becomes gold! Dude is smmmooooottttthhhhh! He has been giving me serious 70's vibes lately and I am here for it. I loved his performance of his song 24K Magic. BUT above all that, I'm glad he brought back the "Slide Out".



What's the slide out? See here for yourself:

This is the move that characterised old skool R'n'B. Glad to see it making a comeback.

6. Born Under A Bad Sign

L-R: William Bell and Gary Clark Jr
Image courtesy: RollingStone

I first came across Gary Clark Jr. in the movie 'Chef'  and I just fell in love; a black blues/country/rock singer...what's not to love? Then he performed at the Grammy's with the legendary William Bell. That was music for the soul. Two men. Two mics. One guitar. One amp. Magic was made. This performance truly cemented the diverse nature of the recording academy awards and was my second favourite performance of the night.


7. Teenage Dreams by Little Big Town

These guys did an arrangement of Katy Perry's Teenage Dreams and made it sound like actual music. Yeah sue me...I can't stand candyfloss pop music. But I really loved their version of this song in a way I never thought I could ever like any Katy Perry song..ever.






8. Persist !!!! 
Still speaking of Katy Perry, she was totally girl power kick ass on the night.

I loved that she had on a blinged out "Persist" arm band in support of Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren. I mean, a little bling ain't never hurt nobody...even while protesting.

She also had a very interesting set. She had some moving panels in her performance and I kept wondering what they were for, in the end, the panels were flipped over and you saw the first page of the US Constitution and I thought that was too kick ass.

Her song choice was also quite unexpected for the type of artiste she is, usually. I'm used to the colourful, frothy, cutesy songs she sings and I've never really taken her seriously as an artiste. This had a serious political message and made me realise that artistes are a reflection of the times. Right now, she has to take her situation and the country's more seriously and her music is reflecting that decision. Her set really kicked major ass.

9. Staging

The Grammy Awards are known for and set the standard in staging. No surprises there. But nevertheless, the staging for the individual performances were so amazingly good. I think the staging plays a huge part in what makes the Grammy's such a successful show and the 59th was no exception.





10. She told them!

Adele was not amused when the sound engineers cut off the mic of her co-writer on 25; Greg Kurstin and when she got up to receive her next award, she (rightly) told them off.
See, I think Adele and I could hang. I absolutely love her straight talking, shooting from the hip personality. I laughed out loud when she called those guys out and I thought that it was sweet of her to give him (Greg) airtime to shout out the people that meant a lot to him and were instrumental to his success. Good girl yourself, Adele!



LOWLIGHTS

i. Lady gaga performing with Metallica
I'm not a fan of metal and hard rock but I know and respect Metallica for their body of work in the genre. But Lady Gaga was doing the absolute MOSTEST. That woman...she wearies me...sigh!
I think Lady Gaga is a brilliant student of anthropology. She studies up when she has to do a tribute (see her tribute to David Bowie) or collaborate with someone. She does her best to embody that person. But you really can't BE the person/artiste/genre. Therein lies her problem. She actually wants to BE the people like some kind of method actor. But she's just not that good of an actress, if you ask me (nobody did, but still!)
Rock stars have an innate cool and swagger that you can't really imitate...hence innate. You could see how the Metallica guys who have been doing this for years, just basically fell into their on-stage personas and you could see LG attempting to be rockstar like them, doing the very most and being quite irritating. I'm like:

ii. Yonce

It is not popular to say, but imma say it at the risk of being stung by the hive: I did not like Bey's performance. 

Ok bye!!!!!!

No but for real. The chair thing was legit bad ass! I'm not pregnant but I'm not letting anybody tip me back at a 150 degree angle on some chair. No sir! But everything else was bleh to me. I also didn't understand the ridiculous Madonna costume she had on during the show. I just wasn't checking for her on the night but kudos to her for still being on her grind while pregnant.

iii. James Corden as a host

See this example of a dry joke now, ehn!

It could have been nerves on his part or because I am used to more polished hosts like Neil Patrick Harris or seriously funny hosts like Chris Rock, I found James Corden a bit bland and I don't think he added much to the show. I usually go hard for English comics because I think they are uproariously funny but they get overshadowed by their American counterparts but he didn't cover the Union Jack in glory with this outing. 

iv. The cross-carpeting incident

While I wasn't fond of Beyonce's performance on the night, that woman is a musical beast and she can slay any genre of music she chooses. She proved this by debuting a country song at the Country Music Awards last year. But you see, there are levels to this thing. Not everyone can do that...amean, they can try, but not everyone can be succesful at it. Sadly, this was the case when Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban performed a pop number at the Grammy's. I thought it was flat out terrible. 

I was like: 

You tried it, babe! You tried it!!

You just can't cross carpet willy-nilly, fam. You. Just. Can't. Do. It. 

iv. Casual Grammy's?

The award is the biggest night in music and is synonymous with high fashion and style. People dress their best to go and receive the accolades of their industry peers. I was sickened...SICKENED I tell you, by the nonchalance of the attendees this year. OK, it is not even that serious. But I wondered why so many people dressed down. They've started disrespecting the Grammy's the way they have taken to disrespecting the BET Awards! I spotted several black t-shirts...black t-shirts for heaven's sake!...at the Grammy's! The Weeknd was performing and he featured Daft Punk. He looked like their bag boy! At least those ones got the memo on the importance of the night and were looking uber flamboyant in capes, no less, in addition to their trademark gleaming helmets. Also, Jason Derulo gave me serious "a pimp named Slickback" vibes with his mid length chinchilla looking fur robe/coat. Please, what's the Grammy's without some whimsy?

Did you watch the 2017 Grammy's? What do you think?

Bon weekend a tout!