Bruno Mars swept the major categories at the 60th Grammy Awards, claiming the trifecta of song, record and album of the year categories. Many expected Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z — each heavily nominated acts — to take home the top prize. Lamar, who opened the ceremony with a fiery performance, cleaned up in five categories, including rap/sung performance and rap album. Other highlights during the telecast included Janelle Monáe’s impassioned call to action when introducing Kesha’s performance and Hillary Clinton’s surprise appearance in one of host James Corden’s prerecorded segments to read a portion of the Trump book “Fire and Fury.”
- Complete list of winners and nominees
- PHOTOS: Red carpet | Show highlights | Kendrick Lamar’s performance | Kesha’s performance
- The Grammys’ complicated relationship with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements
- The Grammys were set for change, but that’s not what happened
- The Grammys and the age of hip-hop: a special series
Barbara Hannigan leads list of Grammy Awards’ classical winners
Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan won the Grammy for classical solo vocal album Sunday for “Crazy Girl Crazy.”
Hannigan’s star has been rising with performances such as her role in the L.A. Phil New Music Group’s world premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall of Gerald Barry’s opera “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.” She will serve as music director of the Ojai Music Festival in 2019.
The 6 must-see moments from the Grammy Awards
The 60th Grammy Awards took place in New York on Sunday and were filled with several water-cooler moments, and, as always, even more head-scratching ones.
The ceremony was poised to make Grammy history, with a promising and diverse crop of nominees up for awards in the top categories, but it was Bruno Mars’ funk/pop homage that swept the show.
Attendees wore white roses to show solidarity with the Time’s Up movement, Miley Cyrus and Elton John sang a duet, Childish Gambino wooed the audience and country stars paid tribute to the Las Vegas shooting victims.
The Grammys were set for change, but that’s not what happened
The Grammy Awards giveth, and the Grammy Awards taketh away.
When the Recording Academy announced nominations in November for music’s most prestigious prizes, the notoriously fusty industry group raised the tantalizing prospect that its members finally got it.
With multiple nods for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z and the Puerto Rican duo of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee (whose song “Despacito” was 2017’s biggest hit), the academy seemed to be acknowledging that, in a rapidly changing world, great pop should strive to embody new values instead of merely upholding the old ones.
Well, maybe next time.
At Sunday night’s 60th Grammys, broadcast live on CBS from New York’s Madison Square Garden, the major winners — and many of the performances — largely reflected a reversion to type.
The Grammys’ complicated relationship with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements
For two full hours, it was as if 2017 never happened. The first half of the 60th Grammy Awards was filled with the usual fare of booty-shaking performances, sleepy ballads and sleepier acceptance speeches.
And then singer Kesha stepped onstage to remind everyone that the last year had been anything but business as usual.
The pop singer turned social warrior was nearly destroyed, professionally and personally, when she leveled sexual assault accusations against her powerful producer in 2014. The case dragged on in court through 2017. But when she performed her redemptive hit “Praying” during Sunday’s live telecast from New York’s Madison Square Garden, it sent a clear message to an audience who had been waiting for an acknowledgment of the #MeToo moment beyond white roses worn on the red carpet, and to an industry that’s hardly begun to deal with its own demons.
Read MoreSEE MORE PHOTOS FROM KESHA’S PERFORMANCE »
ALSO: The inside story behind Kesha’s emotional Grammy moment »
James Corden picks his spots as Grammy host, but scores a tweet from an angry politician
Unlike his fellow late-night hosts who have spun topical humor into ratings jumps during the Trump administration, James Corden and his “Late Late Show” isn’t known for political material.
Celebrated instead for his show’s star-courting musical segments and spinoffs (“Carpool Karaoke” and “Drop the Mic”), Corden is a genial and reliably inoffensive choice for the Grammys, which turned to him last year to take over for LL Cool J, directing traffic between awards and performances.
Last year, for the first awards show in the Trump era, Corden stuck to his usual script with self-deprecating one-liners and energetic musical segments. This year, he received what counts as a comedy seal of approval in 2018 — an angry tweet from a political figure.
Corden’s most successful bit was a play on the Grammys’ spoken-word category with celebrities, including Hillary Clinton, reading select passages from Michael Wolff’s inside-the-White House bestseller “Fire and Fury.” Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley responded moments after the bit, writing, “Don’t ruin great music with trash. Some of us love music without the politics thrown in it.”
The inside story behind Kesha’s emotional Grammy moment
Kesha’s emotional performance at this year’s Grammys was in the works long ahead of Sunday’s ceremony, with its origins tracing back to late last year when the pop singer-songwriter played to a sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Palladium.
It was the final stop of her Rainbow tour — a trek that for the singer and her fans seemed improbable after a tumultuous legal battle with her onetime mentor and collaborator Dr. Luke stalled her career for a number of years.
In the audience was Ken Ehrlich, the Grammy telecast’s longtime executive producer. Ehrlich had watched Kesha rise to pop stardom with boozy party anthems such as “Tik Tok,” “Your Love Is My Drug” and “Die Young,” and was never sold on the singer — until that night in November at the Palladium.
“I’d seen her years ago and I was impressed, but thought she had some growing to do. When I saw her at the Palladium, she was at the top of her game,” he recalled. “She was strong, humble and a great showman. That’s what got me.”
Ehrlich wanted the singer on this year’s telecast, especially after hearing the Grammy-nominated “Rainbow,” the first body of work she released since stunning the pop world in 2014 by alleging a decade of sexual, physical and mental abuse at the hands of Luke. He vehemently denied the claims.
Read MoreSEE MORE PHOTOS FROM KESHA’S PERFORMANCE »
ALSO: The Grammys’ complicated relationship with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements »
Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar the big winners at Grammy Awards
It was supposed to be a night when political and social issues took center stage and the music industry fully embraced hip-hop. But when the 60th Grammy Awards were given out Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York, it was a different tune.
The Recording Academy gave three of its top trophies — album, record and song of the year — to R&B/pop star Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” album and hit single “That’s What I Like,” an escapist ode to sex by the fire, international travel and other stereotypical “finer things in life” such as Cadillacs, strawberry Champagne, cool jewelry and silk sheets. In all, Mars took home six Grammys.
That left the year’s most nominated artists — rappers Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar — and hip-hop once again shut out of recognition in the Grammys’ most prestigious categories.
Still, Lamar picked up five of the seven awards for which he was nominated, his song “Humble” winning for music video as well as rap song and performance, while “Loyalty,” his track featuring Rihanna, won the rap/sung performance category and “Damn” collected the rap album award. Jay-Z did not win any awards after receiving the most nominations, with eight.
Lamar said that along with his Grammy statuettes came a shift in perspective on what making music means to him.
“I thought it was about the accolades and the cars and the clothes,” Lamar said on accepting the rap album Grammy, “but it’s really about expressing yourself and putting that paint on the canvas for the world to evolve for the next listener, for the next generation.”
Read MorePHOTOS: GRAMMYS SHOW HIGHLIGHTS »
ALSO: The Grammys were set for change, but that’s not what happened
Kesha wears Johnny Cash’s favorite designer to the Grammys
For the 60th Grammy Awards on Sunday, it seemed only fitting that someone would wear something by a designer who’s outfitted some of the most iconic musicians of all time. Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Cher and Elton John have each worn an elaborately rhinestone-studded suit by Nudie Cohn, the iconic country-music clothier who began operating out of a North Hollywood shop in the early 1950s. Now Kesha can add herself to the late tailor’s client list.
The singer and performer walked the red carpet in a blue vintage Nudie suit with cream-colored embellishments and rose embroidery, which dovetailed nicely into the evening’s white rose trend representing the Time’s Up movement.
Kesha asked her stylist, Samantha Burkhart, to pull a Nudie suit for the Grammys “since Kesha loves my grandfather’s work,” says Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors owner Jamie Nudie, who relaunched her family’s business a few years ago after the North Hollywood store closed in 1994. Nudie now runs the company with partner Mary Lynn Cabrall, according to Billboard.
Seven things we know about Jennifer Lopez’s iconic Versace dress from the 2000 Grammys
When we hear “never forget” these days — or, more accurately, see the hashtag — it’s usually in reference to a horrific tragedy. But on Sunday night during the Grammy Awards, fans used it in reference to Jennifer Lopez’s iconic Versace dress from 2000. It was the dress heard ’round the world, shocking for its sheerness and plunging neckline that revealed not just cleavage but the singer’s belly button and slit-up-to-there silhouette. But actually the tropical-print gown — styled by Andrea Lieberman who went on to found the Los Angeles-based ready-to-wear line ALC in 2009 — inspired more than 18 years of revealing Grammys fashion that has followed in its wake.
Here are seven things you should know about the J.Lo/Versace dress.
Grammy president and producer talk Lorde controversy: ‘We can’t have every nominee perform’
Backstage at the Grammys on Sunday, the show’s producers were pressed about the lack of Lorde during the telecast.
As one of the five nominees for album of the year – and the only woman to land in the category – her absence from the stage as a performer didn’t go unnoticed.
In fact, it spurred an online furor that grew louder on Sunday after two of the night’s most nominated women, R&B singer Sza and Kesha — the latter of whom led a performance of her song “Praying” that provided the show with a powerful #TimesUp moment — walked home empty-handed.
Backstage, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow and the show’s longtime executive producer, Ken Ehrlich, were pressed about the perceived snub.
“It’s hard to have a balanced year and have everyone perform,” Portnow said. “We can’t have every nominee perform.”
Added Ehrlich, “These shows are always a matter of choices. She had a great album, but there’s no way we can deal with everybody. Maybe people get left out who shouldn’t, but we do the best we can to make sure it’s a fair and balanced show.”
It was reported on Saturday that Lorde declined an invitation to perform after producers approached her about being part of a group tribute to Tom Petty involving his song “American Girl” instead of her own solo slot, which has been customary for artists in the biggest race. Lorde was on hand to cover Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs” at Friday night’s MusiCares Person of the Year benefit, the annual Grammy-weekend event that this year was honoring the band.
Emmylou Harris and Chris Stapleton pay tribute to Tom Petty
Sunday’s Grammys featured a subtle example of the so-called six degrees of separation when lifetime achievement award recipient Emmylou Harris and Grammy darling Chris Stapleton teamed up to honor the late Tom Petty.
They sang Petty’s “Wildflowers,” the title track from his 1994 solo album, his second effort away from the Heartbreakers after going solo five years earlier with “Full Moon Fever.”
It was a sweet choice on a couple of fronts. Besides being one of Petty’s most country-influenced songs, a rumination on parting ways with a loved one, “Wildflowers” also closed out last year’s well-regarded album from Chris Hillman, “Bidin’ My Time,” which Petty co-produced and played on.
In addition to being a founding member of the Byrds, one of Petty’s biggest influences, and later the Flying Burrito Brothers, Hillman introduced his Byrds and Burrito Brothers bandmate Gram Parsons to Harris after hearing her in a Washington, D.C., folk club.
“Chris Hillman was so enthusiastic when he told me about Emmylou that I just had to go and see her,” Parsons once told an interviewer, “and I was knocked out by her singing. I wanted to see just how good she was, how well she picked up country phrasing and feeling, so after her set... I introduced myself, and we sang one of the hardest country duets I know — ‘That’s All It Took.’ Emmy sang it like she was falling off a log.”
Petty had also planned to revisit “Wildflowers” and release an expanded double-album edition, which is what he originally envisioned before scaling it back for commercial release. He said he wanted to do a tour focusing on the “Wildflowers” material, which was especially close to his heart.
“It’s what I would bet we do next,” he told The Times in his final interview, just five days before he died at 66 on Oct. 2.
“A lot of it would probably be fresh to the older fans, because there will be some songs they haven’t heard,” he added. “And there’s enough music to where you could do the whole night — you could make a whole concert out of it.”
READ MORE: Tom Petty’s final interview: There was supposed to have been so much more
Grammys opt for feel-good pop in giving Bruno Mars album of the year
Bruno Mars completed his sweep of the three major Grammy categories in which he was nominated with his win for album of the year for “24k Magic.”
Mars’ buoyant and hit-packed funk-pop album split the difference between the hip-hop-heavy album of the year nominees, which included Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar alongside Childish Gambino and Lorde.
The album spawned a bevy of hits, including “That’s What I Like” and “Finesse,” which he performed tonight with Cardi B.
Many expected Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z — each heavily-nominated acts — to take home the top prize. In a year when several high-profile rappers split the vote, Mars’ ebullient, populist LP proved to be the voters’ safe bet.
The album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, but Mars led one of the year’s most intense and successful tours, landing at the fourth most-profitable slot of the year’s ledger of touring acts.
Mars also took home song and record of the year, capping the most significant awards night of his career.
Madonna who? Patti LuPone slays ‘Evita’ song at the Grammys
Patti LuPone brought the house down Sunday night at the Grammys with her performance of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita.”
The diva originated the namesake role when Lloyd Webber’s musical debuted on Broadway in 1979.
It’s no small achievement that the Grammys scored LuPone for its Lloyd Webber tribute. Earlier this week the actress and composer ended a feud that spanned more than two decades.
Their beef began in 1995 when Lloyd Webber fired LuPone from the Norma Desmond role in “Sunset Boulevard” and replaced her with Glenn Close.
LuPone made the most of her return to the limelight; just watch the GIF below.
All hail, Patti!
Bruno Mars’ ‘24K Magic’ wins album of the year Grammy
Bruno Mars’ album “24K Magic” won the 2018 Grammy Award for album of the year.
The other nominees were:
“Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino
“4:44” — Jay-Z
“Damn.” — Kendrick Lamar
“Melodrama” — Lorde
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Some of the best looks on the red carpet
There was a lot to like on the 2018 Grammy Awards arrivals red carpet. Here’s a gallery of some of our favorite looks:
Lady Gaga cut a dramatic figure in a custom Armani Privé high-necked lace bodysuit and a billowy detachable skirt, complete with train and high-leg slit. The performer and nominee topped off the dramatic look with Lorraine Schwartz chandelier earrings embellished with more than 300 carats of black diamonds.
Camila Cabello hit the carpet in a figure-hugging, strapless silk satin Vivienne Westwood couture gown in fire-engine red, teamed with a disco ball-esque Judith Leiber sphere bag. (“I try to channel the flamenco emoji for as many events as possible,” quipped the former Fifth Harmony star on Instagram.)
Janelle Monáe was suited and booted in an ultra feminine floral take on the tuxedo from Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2018 collection.
James Corden Grammy gag - auditioning stars to read ‘Fire and Fury’ - earns cheers for Hillary Clinton but criticism too
In his second go-round as Grammys emcee, “Late Late Show” host James Corden hasn’t been asked to call on his comic chops often, and the results have been uneven when he has (“Subway Car Karaoke,” anyone?). But he hit a bull’s eye at one target with a taped segment inspired by the Grammys’ audiobook category on Sunday.
With the conceit of Corden trying to book a famous voice to read Michael Wolff’s bestselling tell-all about the Trump administration “Fire and Fury,” Corden called upon a host of Grammy luminaries to try their level best. John Legend dryly read an excerpt about Trump appearing bored in meetings (“I think it’s too smooth,” Corden said, ushering him away, while Cher focused on a few lines about presidential hair care regimen.)
Snoop Dogg read about stars snubbing the inauguration (“I definitely wasn’t there,” he interjected before Corden ushered him away). And Cardi B seemed mystified by the stories the book held. “Why am I even reading this . . .. I can’t believe this,” she said. “This is how he lives his life?”
But Corden saved the biggest cameo for last. Briefly hidden behind the book’s cover, Hillary Clinton earned a cheer from the Madison Square Garden crowd as she read about Trump’s fear of being poisoned. “That’s it, we’ve got it,” Corden said. “You think so? The Grammy’s in the bag?” she replied, grinning.
Not everyone was amused, however. Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., tweeted her annoyance with the show injecting politics into the evening.
Logic’s Grammy-nominated ‘1-800-273-8255’ is a suicide prevention video with a mission
Filmed in three days in Los Angeles last summer, the Grammy-nominated music video for rapper Logic’s new single, “1-800-273-8255,” like the song itself, had a mission: To tell a story that could reach people in need and let them know they weren’t alone.
Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle came on board, as did Luis Guzmán, Matthew Modine and filmmaker Andy Hines, to help tell a poignant story of an African American teenager struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. New artist Grammy nominees Alessia Cara and Khalid also appear in the video. The hit’s title is the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The day it was released in April, the hotline received 4,573 calls, its second-highest at the time. The line logged a new record in August the day after Logic, Cara and Khalid performed the song on the MTV Video Music Awards.
The video, written and directed by Hines, is anchored by a moving turn by young actor Coy Stewart (“Are We There Yet?”). Filmed at James Marshall High in Los Feliz, it debuted in August and quickly went viral. It has since been viewed more than 194 million times alone on Logic’s YouTube channel.
According to John Draper, director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, calls have increased by 30% to 50% thanks to the increased awareness spread by the video, which prominently features the lifeline’s number.
Elton John and Miley Cyrus together at the Grammys?! Meh.
In a strange year when Elton John has been in the news more than Miley Cyrus so far, the two Technicolor pop stars teamed up Sunday night.
A match made in Grammy heaven? Not so much: Both Cyrus and John were on their absolute best behavior. Or, put less charitably, their performance of John’s “Tiny Dancer” was straight down the middle of the road and never captured what makes them both so magnetic.
He ceded most of his 1971 classic to Cyrus, who took lead on the verses as John tickled the ivories. In a bit of comic relief, Cyrus, who recently debated Stephen Colbert over who’s the bigger Elton John fan, looked like she was on the verge of crawling atop his piano.
If only. Instead, it was another reminder that Cyrus’ wild-woman antics are in the rearview mirror as she continues to rehab her image.
John’s collaboration with Lady Gaga at the 2010 Grammys ceremony at least showcased the fireworks that make them true kindred spirits.
Bruno Mars’ ‘24K Magic’ wins record of the year Grammy
Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” won the 2018 Grammy Award for record of the year.
The other nominees were:
“Redbone” — Childish Gambino
“Despacito” — Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber
“The Story of O.J.” — Jay-Z
“Humble.” — Kendrick Lamar
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Kesha delivers a devastating ‘Praying’ in the tumult of #TimesUp
Kesha wore country-tinged suffragette white when she took the stage at the 60th Grammy Awards. So did all of the women around her – Camila Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels, Andra Day and members of the Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of women who come together to sing protest songs – who all joined her onstage for what was nothing less than a show of force.
The performance served as a vulnerable, triumphant indictment of her years being disbelieved, left in the wilderness and unable to do the thing she was born to: sing on a stage like this.
If there was a dry eye in Madison Square Garden when she hit the quivering high notes of “Praying,” I defy you to find them in there. After Janelle Monae’s assertive, insistent Time’s Up speech, Kesha finally got the forum she was due.
After years of battling her former producer and alleged abuser Dr. Luke, she finally got the chance to stare this music industry in the eye and remind them, through sheer force of will and persistence, what their silence took from her and what she had to fight to gain back.
The tension was palpable – no one could watch that performance and not feel at least somewhat indicted for not defending her sooner.
But the performance was beautiful.
It was human and humane, a stellar rendition of perhaps last year’s most cutting, necessary pop single that will outlast the wounds she’s suffered. Her alleged abuser went unmentioned during the show, but that was proof enough. Like she said, when she’s finished, they won’t even know his name.
Song of the year Grammy goes to ‘That’s What I Like,’ yet another win for Bruno Mars & Co.
It’s turning into a Bruno Mars kind of evening — unless Kendrick Lamar has anything to say about it. In the song of the year category, the Mars single “That’s What I Like” took down the mighty “Despacito,” which ruled the charts across 2017, and furthered Jay-Z’s losing streak.
Jay-Z was nominated for “The Story of O.J.,” one of his night-leading eight nominations, but he once again came up short. Also on the losing end were Julia Michaels’ “Issues” and “1-800-273-8255,” by Logic with Alessia Cara and Khalid.
“That’s What I Like” was written by Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus and Jonathan Yip.
That win is Mars’ fourth Grammy of the day, and he’s undefeated. It’s his sixth Grammy overall. He’s been nominated 27 times.
Miley Cyrus adds to Elton John’s long Grammy history
In performing “Tiny Dancer,” Elton John and Miley Cyrus opted for a song that, while now a certified classic, never earned John or his co-writer Bernie Taupin Grammy recognition.
Released as part of John’s 1971 album, “Madman Across the Water,” the song was issued as a single in early 1972, but neither the album nor the song passed muster during their eligibility periods in the eyes of the Recording Academy.
Eligible for the 14th Grammys, “Madman …” had some tough competition. Carole King’s “Tapestry” won album of the year, her “You’ve Got a Friend” won song of the year and “It’s Too Late” snagged record of the year. A year later when “Tiny Dancer” was eligible – but snubbed – Roberta Flack’s soul ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won both song and record of the year.
John was 23 when he won best new artist in 1970. Over the decades he’s earned a total of 35 nods and won five. As for Cyrus, her sole Grammy nomination so far came in 2015, when, at 21, she was recognized in the pop vocal album category for “Bangerz.” She’s got some catching up to do – but nearly 50 more years to pull it off.
‘That’s What I Like’ wins song of the year Grammy
“That’s What I Like” songwriters Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus and Jonathan Yip won the 2018 Grammy Award for song of the year.
The other nominees were:
“Despacito” — Ramón Ayala Rodriguez, Justin Bieber, Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd, Erika Ender, Luis Fonsi & Marty James Garton, songwriters (Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber)
“4:44” — Shawn Carter & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Jay-Z)
“Issues” — Benny Blanco, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Julia Michaels & Justin Drew Tranter, songwriters (Julia Michaels)
“1-800-273-8255” — Alessia Caracciolo, Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, Arjun Ivatury, Khalid Robinson and Andrew Taggart, songwriters (Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid)
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
We’re halfway through the Grammys. Here are some puppies
Watching the Grammys? Feeling underwhelmed? Or perhaps overwhelmed at the prospect of another 90 minutes of the Grammys?
CBS has got you covered.
If you blinked, you may have missed it, but in the aftermath of Dave Chappelle’s win for comedy album, Grammys host James Corden passed out consolation puppies to the comedy category losers.
Jim Gaffigan, Sarah Silverman and even Jerry Seinfeld were handed an adorable puppy to ease their sorrows after being bested by Chappelle’s album “The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas.”
Where did the puppies come from? Will they actually be given loving homes with comedy superstars? Were they from a private breeder or a shelter? Who can say?
Please enjoy these problematic puppies.
Maren Morris, Eric Church and the Brothers Osborne perform ‘Tears in Heaven’ for victims of Las Vegas massacre
In one of the most emotional performances of the night, country artists Maren Morris, the Brothers Osborne and Eric Church sang “Tears in Heaven” in honor of the victims of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas.
Each of the performers onstage was on the roster of the festival, which was interrupted by gunfire on Oct. 1. Fifty-seven people and the gunman died in the shooting.
The four singers performed the Eric Clapton weeper “Tears in Heaven,” written by the artist after the death of his son. Before doing so, they acknowledged the tragedy -- but sound issues garbled some of the comments.
Morris dedicated the song to music fans who lost their lives in Las Vegas, and added that “a continent away, the same was true in Manchester, England.”
She said, “The painful truth is that this year, in just those two events, 81 music lovers, just like us, went out to enjoy a night of music and never came back home … So tonight, for those we lost, Eric, Brothers Osborne and I, who all performed in Las Vegas that tragic weekend, wanted to come together and honor the memory of the beautiful, music-loving souls so cruelly taken from us.”
Watch Janelle Monáe’s powerful Time’s Up Grammys speech
Janelle Monáe addressed the crowd at the Grammys on Sunday night with a speech about the #TimesUp movement. “We come in peace, but we mean business,” she said. “And to those who would dare try to silence us, we offer you two words: Time’s up.”
Janelle Monáe opened a poignant Time’s Up segment on Sunday’s Grammys with an impassioned call to action.
We say Time’s Up for pay inequality, discrimination or harassment of any kind and the abuse of power. Just as we have the power to shape culture, we also have the power to undo the culture that does not serve us well… We come in peace, but we mean business.
Watch Monáe’s full speech above.
Sting and Shaggy perform at the Grammys, for some reason
The Grammys are all about “moments,” and one that maybe stood out for the wrong reasons was Sting performing his 1987 hit “Englishman in New York” onstage at Sunday’s awards show.
The performance was fine, if missing the loping bounce provided by its original band, which included saxophonist Branford Marsalis and drummer Manu Katché on Sting’s second solo album “...Nothing Like the Sun,” which was, as mentioned, released 30 years ago.
Sting wore a striped shirt and blazer getup that looked very early Police, and then pop-reggae artist Shaggy showed up to lead a watery dancehall breakdown before the song settled back into its pleasant mid-tempo home. Oh, and Shaggy’s biggest song, “It Wasn’t Me,” was the big punchline on the Grammys’ earlier sketch, “Subway Carpool Karaoke,” which was previously filmed with James Corden. That song was released only 18 years ago.
And sure, the Newcastle-on-Tyne-born Sting is English, and the Grammys were broadcast in New York this year. Apart from a never articulated sort of look back in accordance with the Grammys’ 60th broadcast, any connection the song and its performance had to the year in music of 2017 remains a mystery.
By the way, Lorde — whose 2017 record “Melodrama” is nominated for album of the year — was not scheduled to perform during Sunday’s telecast.
Chris Stapleton’s ‘From a Room: Volume 1’ wins country album Grammy
Chris Stapleton’s album “From a Room: Volume 1” won the 2018 Grammy Award for country album. Stapleton also won Grammys on Sunday for country solo performance and country song.
The other nominees were:
“Cosmic Hallelujah” — Kenny Chesney
“Heart Break” — Lady Antebellum
“The Breaker” — Little Big Town
“Life Changes” — Thomas Rhett
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Who was that kid with Childish Gambino at the Grammys?
That wasn’t just any kid joining Childish Gambino during his Grammy Awards performance of “Terrified” on Sunday night. It was 10-year-old JD McCrary, the kid who’s featured on the album version of the song.
JD was only 9 when he recorded “Terrified” for Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” album, which is up for album of the year. “Redbone,” another cut from “Awaken,” already won for traditional R&B song, was nominated for R&B song and is up for record of the year.
He should hit it big in 2019 with the release of the new movie version of “The Lion King” — he’s voicing Young Simba.
And who’s voicing Simba as a grownup? That would be Donald Glover — a.k.a. Childish Gambino.
Looks like JD is a pro already. In his first Instagram post after the performance, he thanked God, Glover, two clothing designers, a jewelry designer and his stylist.
The dresses, the poses: Here’s what it looked like on the Grammys red carpet
Cardi B and Hennessy Carolina
Kesha
Lady Gaga
Cardi B brings a new zest to Bruno Mars’ ‘Finesse’
Cardi B made a rousing Grammy debut with her guest verse on Bruno Mars’ “Finesse.”
The song was a pitch-perfect ode to ‘80s funk with a ’90s New Jack Swing vocal, and Bruno Mars — a longtime Grammy stalwart — played it as a charming ode to classic hip-hop (complete with Cross Colors paneling on the outfits).
But everyone was waiting for Cardi B.
Despite having one of the year’s biggest hits in “Bodak Yellow,” her turn was short but memorable. She burst in for the final verse with an insouciance and swagger that made a clear case for her star power.
There might not be an artist who’s more fun to watch in pop music right now, and even though her catalog is short, after tonight she obviously has the skill and presence to keep this hot streak alive for a long time.
No need to ask — Childish Gambino is a smooth operator at the Grammys
He’s an Emmy-winning TV creator, writer and actor who has also picked up Golden Globes for his work on FX’s “Atlanta.” He’ll soon be seen in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and heard as the voice of Simba in Disney’s reimagining of “The Lion King.”
But Donald Glover, smooth operator? Yep. As Childish Gambino, his stage name as a rapper with machine-gun flow, Glover downright smoldered in his Grammy performance of “Terrified” Sunday night.
The third single from 2016’s “Awaken, My Love!” reveals more soulful shades of Gambino’s music. And he even got an assist from pint-sized singer JD McCrary, 10, who reprised his cameo from the album version.
The lyrics, however, weren’t exactly kid-friendly:
I’m going to eat you alive
Please don’t find me rude
But I don’t eat fast food
So don’t run to me, baby
Cover your ears, JD.
Kendrick Lamar just unofficially nominated Jay-Z for president
Move over, Oprah Winfrey. Kendrick Lamar just nominated Jay-Z for president.
Hours after President Trump directed a disparaging tweet at Jay-Z, Lamar cast an unofficial vote for his fellow rap-album nominee.
“Jay for president!” he said as a coda to his acceptance speech. But not before giving shout-outs to hip-hop and his idols in the room.
“I got a lot of guys in this building that I idolize to this day: Jay-Z, Nas, Puff,” Lamar said. “These guys showed me the game through their lyrics from close and from afar.”
Grammys 2018: This is who wore white roses to the Grammys
Hot on the heels of the red-carpet blackout at the 2018 Golden Globes, Grammy nominees, performers and attendees made an equally powerful show of solidarity with the Time’s Up movement by donning white roses on the red carpet.
While lapel pins were de rigeur for men and women including James Corden, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga, stars such as Lana Del Rey and Janelle Monáe put a creative spin on the fashion statement — with musician Ava Max going as far as donning a painted rose on her chest.
“I understand the message behind the white rose, but as a stylist, it can sometimes be challenging to be told that we have to incorporate something into our look,” says stylist Micah Schifman, who dressed Sarah Silverman for the annual event. “In the end, we decided not to overthink it, have fun and simply hold the rose on the red carpet.”
Dave Chappelle’s ‘The Age of Spin’ wins comedy album Grammy
Dave Chappelle’s “The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas” won the 2018 Grammy Award for comedy album.
The other nominees were:
“Cinco” — Jim Gaffigan
“Jerry Before Seinfeld” — Jerry Seinfeld
“A Speck of Dust” — Sarah Silverman
“What Now?” — Kevin Hart
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Alessia Cara will be the latest to try and fend off the best new artist curse
In a parallel universe, the 60th Grammy Awards are currently celebrating the lifetime achievements of former best new artist nominees the Neon Philharmonic (1970), and the Starland Vocal Band (1977) has reunited for a surprise performance with Eumir Deodato (1974). Meanwhile, Timbuk 3 (1987) is teaming with this year’s best new artist nominees Lil Uzi Vert and SZA for a medley.
That’s another way of saying that pop music is a fickle animal. For every Mariah Carey (1991), there are a dozen Corey Hart-style (1985) asterisks.
Even rarer is the best new artist winner who goes on to earn a lifetime achievement award. Only two have accomplished it: Bobby Darin, who won the first-ever new artist award in 1959 and got a lifetime award in 2010; and 1965 new artists the Beatles, which earned their late-period honor in 2014.
Best comedy album (and Netflix) gets its prime-time Grammy moment: Five jokes from the nominees
Of the 84 categories that make up the Grammy Awards, only a few focus on nonmusical art forms. In the past, these categories have been relatively low-profile, but on tonight’s telecast, comedy album received a rare moment in the spotlight..
This year’s nominees represent some of the biggest names in the genre — and all five are nominated for recordings based on Netflix productions: Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Jim Gaffigan and Kevin Hart. Chappelle took home the prize. “I am honored to win an award, finally,” he said.
Below: Jokes from the five nominated comedy albums.
Chappelle, on almost quitting the comedy business, from “The Age of Spin: Live at the Hollywood Palladium.” “I almost did give up one time, but right before I gave up, I decided not to. But I made the call, I made the call. They answered the phone: “Hello, ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I said … ‘Not yet.’”
Jim Gaffigan from “Cinco.” “I wish I liked fish. I wish I was the person in the restaurant who was like, ‘You know, I don’t get to go out to dinner very often, but instead of getting a delicious steak, I’ll get the fish because I like disgusting food. … How bored are you with eating if you’re ordering the fish? ‘You know, just bring me something gross. I like to waste money.’”
Kevin Hart on living near woods: “I’m sitting in the living room, I can see into my backyard through the glass doors. Out of nowhere, a raccoon walks up to the glass doors, but not like a raccoon should. Not on all fours. Raccoon’s on two feet… This is what scared [me]: To get a better look in my house, he put his hand on the glass and started looking in the window. I see him, he sees me. He starts … with the locks. [Makes animal noises]. When he couldn’t get in, he got mad and fake-shot at me twice. Bang bang!”
Jerry Seinfeld on his mom’s way with redecorating, from “Jerry Before Seinfeld.” “My mother would say, ‘You know, if you make one wall of a room a mirror, people think you have an entire other room.’ They believed this. What kind of an idiot walks up to a mirror and goes, ‘Hey, look, there’s a whole ‘nother room in there -- and there’s a guy in there that looks just like me!’”
Sarah Silverman from “A Speck of Dust.” I had a dog for many, many years, and he was my best friend. And I was always talking to him. Whenever I was home, I was talking to him. And then he died and I stopped talking to him – makes sense. Or does it? I don’t know. Does that really make sense? He’s just as much a part of the conversation now, in a box on my desk.”
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Damn’ wins Grammy for rap album -- is it too early to crown him King of New York?
Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar continues to earn the Recording Academy love with his win for best rap album. With his “Damn” besting work by Jay-Z (“4:44”), Atlanta trio Migos’ “Culture,” “Laila’s Wisdom” by North Carolina rapper Rapsody, and Tyler, the Creator’s “Flower Boy,” Lamar has banked his fifth trophy of the day.
He’d already won for rap/sung collaboration (with Rihanna), rap performance (“Humble”), rap song (“Humble”) and music video (ditto).
Before announcing the winner, presenter Dave Chappelle took a moment to go off script and shout out A Tribe Called Quest. Members of the group, whose co-founder Phife Dawg passed away in 2016, performed at the 59th awards ceremony, but was snubbed in the rap album category for its “We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service.”
Lamar is used to the Grammy love. He’s earned 29 nominations overall in his career, and won 12 (including the five he’s won today). In earning another victory, he’s also continuing his shut-out of King of New York hip-hop, Jay-Z.
Right about now would be a good time to reprint his boast in Big Sean’s track “Control,” one in which he staked claim to being the ruler of both coasts:
I’m important like the Pope, I’m a Muslim on pork
I’m Makaveli’s offspring, I’m the King of New York
King of the Coast; one hand, I juggle ‘em both.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee perform a festive yet low-key ‘Despacito’ at the Grammys
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s performance of “Despacito” at the Grammys stayed clear of any urgent reference to Puerto Rico’s ongoing post-hurricane crisis.
Maybe that was for the sake of the show.
But it was still a little striking that the singers behind the biggest single of the year (and maybe the greatest pan-Latin smash of all time) played it close to the vest at the most prominent showcase for their single in the music business.
The song could make history if it pulls down one of the top Grammy awards — it could be only the second non-English song of the year in Grammy history, and it’s also up for record of the year.
But still, at a show where the volatile and explosive are encouraged — and when the urgency of the occasion is ongoing — it was perhaps a missed opportunity for the most influential song across Latin America.
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Damn.’ wins rap album Grammy
“Damn.” by Kendrick Lamar won the 2018 Grammy Award for rap album.
The other nominees were:
“4:44” — Jay-Z
“Culture” — Migos
“Laila’s Wisdom” — Rapsody
“Flower Boy” — Tyler, the Creator
Chuck Berry-Fats Domino tribute at the Grammys misses the boat
On the surface, it must have seemed logical to the Grammy show producers to serve up a combined posthumous salute to early rockers Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.
But the minimalist segment with guitarist-singer Gary Clark Jr. and New Orleans pianist and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” bandleader Jon Batiste missed a golden opportunity by a country mile.
Their medley of Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame” and Berry’s “Maybellene” settled for simple nostalgia. This should have — and could have — been an unforgettable and relevant collaboration akin to the Eminem-Elton John Grammy performance of “Stan” in 2001.
The focus should have been squarely on Berry — no disrespect to Domino intended, but his feel-good million-selling hits pale next to the colossal genius of Berry’s music. As a singer, songwriter and guitarist, Berry created the template for the rock star that’s still used today.
His astounding gift for wordplay and creative rhyming also set the stage for the ensuing decades of rap. That point might have been made with Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino reimagining Berry’s proto-rap hit “Too Much Monkey Business,” which itself was a foundational influence on Bob Dylan’s similarly dazzling “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
Lurking below the surface of the lighthearted-sounding song, Berry touches on African Americans’ struggles in the white-dominated society surrounding them:
“Runnin’ to-and-fro, hard workin’ at the mill/Never fail in the mail, yeah, come a rotten bill.”
Or they might have picked “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” or “Thirty Days,” other sharply observed songs in which Berry sang about the same kinds of issues rappers are addressing today.
The Grammy show’s pro forma constituted, as Berry himself put it, “too much monkey business … don’t want your botheration, get away, leave me.”
Alessia Cara’s powerhouse voice propelled her to Grammys’ best new artist prize
Alessia Cara took home the Grammy for best new artist, beating out a strong slate of newcomers to claim the oft-embattled title.
Cara’s zesty pop single “Stay” as well as her memorable appearance on Logic’s single “1-800-273-8255” helped cement her breakout year, which locked down Grammy’s most welcome (if mixed) prize for newcomers.
She beat out a robust field of competitors, including streaming giant Lil Uzi Vert, her Logic collaborator and R&B breakout Khalid, songwriting sensation Julia Michaels and fast-rising chanteuse SZA.
Cara was perhaps an underdog in this category, which this year rewarded her versatility and strong pop presence in a field of genre titans. A powerhouse vocalist and formidable guest act, she looks well to beat the new artist curse of this field’s crop.
Little Big Town performs their Taylor Swift-penned song ‘Better Man’
Alabama quartet Little Big Town imbued the 60th Grammy Awards with some harmony, taking the stage to perform their ode to less than ideal guys, “Better Man.” (No, not the Pearl Jam song.)
The quartet — Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook — is up for a country album Grammy for its 2017 release “The Breaker,” and has already won the country duo or group performance award for “Better Man.”
The group offered a defiant take on their Taylor Swift-penned song, which worked on a number of levels. Not only was it nominated, but since Swift is the music business’s most bankable star, but isn’t in the Grammy cycle this year, her presence was required in some capacity.
“Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can feel you again/But I just miss you, and I just wish you were a better man,” sang Fairchild and Schlapman as presumably better men Sweet and Westbrook harmonized behind them. “And I know why we had to say goodbye/Like the back of my hand/And I just miss you, and I just wish you were a better man.”
Sam Smith takes the Grammys to church with ‘Pray’
The more Sam Smith matures as an artist, the more he embodies the influences that molded his brand of blue-eyed soul.
The English hitmaker has long talked about his love of gospel, and at Sunday’s Grammy Awards it was clear the genre has seeped into his musical DNA.
Smith took the audience to church with a reverent take on “Pray,” a standout track from his latest album, “The Thrill of It All.”
Backed by a band and a mighty gospel choir that fanned out behind him, Smith kept the theatrics at bay, delivering his lines like a preacher at a tent revival.
Even his attire was decidedly solemn by Grammy standards. Not that everyone was a fan of Smith’s long white coat.
Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ wins pop solo performance Grammy
Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” won the 2018 Grammy Award for pop solo performance.
The other nominees were:
“Love So Soft” — Kelly Clarkson
“Praying” — Kesha
“Million Reasons” — Lady Gaga
“What About Us” — Pink
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Kendrick Lamar opens the Grammys with a searing ‘XXX’
And that is how you start an awards show.
Ripping through a medley centering on his song “XXX” with help from U2’s Bono and the Edge, not to mention Dave Chappelle, Kendrick Lamar opened the Grammys on Sunday with the type of live-wire intensity he’s well known for — but which rarely makes it onto network television.
The performance put Lamar — Sunday’s second-most-nominated artist behind Jay-Z — onstage amid a digitized American flag and a crew of dancers wearing combat fatigues and balaclavas. A screen read, “This is a satire.”
The music veered from psychedelic guitar rock to a kind of fuzzed-out prog-soul; a taiko drummer joined in at one point, just after Chappelle interrupted the song to tell the crowd that “the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America.”
The performance ended with the dancers, now in blood-red hoodies, miming being gunned down one by one as Lamar spit out words whose bitterness he was making you taste.
The display was tough and thoughtful and full of complicated ideas — and it’ll be hard to top in the next three hours.
Carrie Fisher wins posthumous Grammy Award for spoken word album
Princess, general and, now, Grammy winner.
Carrie Fisher, the late author and actress who portrayed Leia Organa, then Solo in the “Star Wars” saga, won a posthumous Grammy Sunday for her narration of “The Princess Diarist,” earning the award for spoken word album.
Fisher, who died Dec. 27, 2016, four days after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles, was previously nominated in the same category in 2009 for her book “Wishful Drinking.”
The Grammys are just the latest awards body to recognize Fisher’s work after her death. In July the Emmy Awards nominated Fisher in the guest actress in a comedy category for her performance on “Catastrophe.”
Reba McEntire on the #WhiteRose initiative
Reba McEntire is just one of many women who arrived to the Grammy awards at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday with a white rose pinned to her gown as a show of solidarity from the music industry to the Time’s Up movement.
Backstage, the country singer-songwriter – who won a trophy for roots gospel album – told reporters that to her, the #whiterose initiative symbolized a basic golden rule: Treat others how you want to be treated.
“Let’s treat people kindly. I feel like if we started there, we wouldn’t have these problems,” she said. “I’ve had great mentors and 99% were men. They steered me, and everybody was very encouraging in my career. I’ve been very blessed … I’ve never had a problem.”
Ahead of Sundays Grammys, hundreds of music industry stars and professionals signed a letter released by music business advocates Voices in Entertainment pledging to wear white roses to tonight’s awards in support of “workplaces free of sexual harassment.”
When asked about taking a stand for a cause in an industry that has largely been criticized for its reluctance to discuss such issues, McEntire pointed to her 1994 record, “She Thinks His Name Was John” – a song that was controversial at the time for addressing AIDS.
“At the time, I didn’t know anybody who dealt with AIDS/HIV. But I think any kind of communication is great,” she said, noting that this moment was no different. “If we get this out in the open, we can move forward. That’s where music comes in.”
Alessia Cara wins best new artist Grammy
Alessia Cara won the 2018 Grammy Award for best new artist.
The other nominees were:
Khalid
Lil Uzi Vert
Julia Michaels
SZA
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Dave Chappelle shares a few words at the Grammys about being a black man in America
Dave Chapelle shares a few words at the Grammys about being a black man in America.
I just wanted to remind the audience that the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America.
— Dave Chappelle during the Kendrick Lamar medley that opened the Grammys
Kendrick Lamar is 4-for-4 after ‘Loyalty’ wins the Grammy for rap/sung performance
Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna won the Grammy Award for rap/sung performance at the 60th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, besting “PRBLMS” by the Atlanta singer-rapper 6LACK and Jay-Z’s collaboration with his wife Beyoncé, “Family Feud,” among others.
After a serenade of Tony Bennett and John Legend singing “New York, New York,” Lamar accepted the Grammy with Rihanna at his side.
Lamar, who opened the show with a breathtaking medley featuring cameos by Dave Chappelle, Bono and the Edge, had an early edge. Going in to the telecast, he had run the boards in his seven nominations. At today’s afternoon ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Compton rapper won three, all for his track “Humble”: rap performance, rap song and music video.
The rapper is the also nominated for rap album, song of the year (for “Humble”) and album of the year, for “Damn.”
For his part Jay-Z had yet to score a trophy despite his field-leading tally of eight nominations, but the night is still young. Still on the slate are awards for rap album (he’s nominated for “4:44”), song of the year, record of the year — he earned the nod in both for “Story of O.J.” — and album of the year.
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Loyalty’ wins rap/sung performance Grammy
“Loyalty” by Kendrick Lamar featuring Rihanna won the first Grammy Award of the live telecast ceremony on Sunday night for rap/sung performance.
The other nominees were:
“Prblms” — 6lack
“Crew” — Goldlink featuring Brent Faiyaz & Shy Glizzy
“Family Feud” — Jay-Z featuring Beyoncé
“Love Galore” — SZA featuring Travis Scott
The complete list of 2018 Grammy Award nominees and winners »
Joy Villa tops her MAGA dress with a gown decorated with a fetus image
Joy Villa — she of the Make America Great Again dress at last year’s Grammys — has outdone herself on the red carpet this year with a hand-painted “Choose Life” purse and pure white bridal gown with a fetus surrounded by a rainbow in the shape of a womb.
And a sparkling crown.
Her message is once again one of love and hope, she says, and the design refers to the baby she gave up for adoption. And she might be running for Congress.
Portugal. The Man locks down pop/duo performance
Portugal. The Man cemented its unlikely ascent to alt-rock ultra-stardom with a Grammy win for pop/duo performance for “Feel It Still.”
The song – a lithe ode to ’80s synth-funk and falsetto earnestness – captured the Grammy due in part to the strength of its success on radio (it broke a record by spending 20-plus weeks on the upper reaches of the Alternative Songs Chart).
“It’s funny that’s its biggest song we’ve ever made,” singer John Gourley said on the red carpet of the Alaska-bred band’s slow-burn win. The song catapulted the act to much bigger pop success. Now the band will have to see if it can hold up into the wild future of rock radio.
Grammys get political, as Kendrick Lamar takes home three early awards
There were times early Sunday when the plethora of social and political issues on the minds of musicians at the 60th Grammy Awards were so strong that it was easy to forget the ceremony was also an awards show, one that this year will take the industry’s embrace of hip-hop to a new level.
Topics of sexual harassment, racism, gun violence, mental health and suicide prevention look to figure prominently in performances and speeches this evening from the participants in the music industry’s signature event, held at Madison Square Garden in New York for the first time in 15 years to mark the sixth decade of the Recording Academy’s big night.
In fact, the ceremony was upstaged to some degree even before it began, trumped by a presidential tweet Sunday morning that snapped back at leading Grammy nominee Jay-Z for an interview the veteran rapper gave the previous night, criticizing the chief executive for his reported slam at “shithole countries” in Africa during a recent meeting on immigration reform.
Jay-Z called President Trump’s comment “really hurtful because he’s looking down on a whole population of people and he’s so misinformed because these places have beautiful people,” he said to CNN interviewer Van Jones on Saturday.
The Grammys almost got Jay-Z to perform this year. Here’s why he declined.
With hip-hop dominating nominations for the 60th Grammys, all eyes will be on how the ceremony will showcase a genre that has historically been underrepresented. This year Jay-Z leads with eight nominations, followed by seven for Kendrick Lamar, and both emcees are front-runners for album of the year and landed in either record or song of the year.
It’s a rare feat for hip-hop acts. And while one of the night’s highlight performances will surely come from Lamar (he’s set to open the show with an explosive medley), the night’s leading man, Jay-Z, declined to perform anything from his incredibly personal “4:44,” show producers confirmed during rehearsals last week.
“We’ve been kind of quiet about that,” said Ken Ehrlich, the telecast’s longtime executive producer. “We had a conversation that we thought was going to lead to a performance and really only two weeks ago he basically said he’d rather not. He wanted to come and enjoy the show. And I understand. This is not a man who has been under-tributed. His life has been full of these moments; he’s given us a couple great ones too. But still, there was that conversation of, ‘Are you sure?’”
Grammy scorecard: Are Kendrick Lamar and Bruno Mars headed for an album of the year showdown?
With 75 trophies already given out, the Grammy picture is starting to come into shape, and two artists are dominating the proceedings: Kendrick Lamar and Bruno Mars.
Lamar is undefeated in the categories for which he’s nominated: rap song, music video and rap performance. The three remaining categories for which he’s nominated — including two of the four major awards — will be given out this evening.
Notably, Lamar has beaten Jay-Z in each of the categories where they’ve been in competition.
Mars has won four Grammys so far: for R&B performance and R&B song for “That’s What I Like.” The album from which it came, “24K Magic,” won R&B album and engineered album, non-classical.
The question is whether Lamar and Jay-Z split the rap voting block when it comes to album of the year. If that happens, Mars may thread the proverbial needle among Lamar, Jay-Z and Childish Gambino.
Or maybe the hip-hop and R&B competition will benefit the lone album of the year nominee who works in the pop field: Lorde.
Body Count provides an explosive, antagonistic performance during the pre-Grammy telecast
In a year when hip-hop was expected to dominate the Grammy Awards, a veteran of the genre shook up the ceremony’s afternoon pre-telecast with a blistering heavy metal performance.
For the rendition of “Black Hoodie,” Ice-T reverted to his antagonistic roots in Body Count, one of L.A.’s formative and most progressive metal bands, taunting police with a song that was nominated for best metal performance.
The churning, urgent original was an unexpected high point in the genre at the Grammys, where rock and roll is still fighting for relevance in a dominant year for hip-hop. Yet “Black Hoodie” zeroed in on police brutality and vulnerability as well as any punk song.
Ice-T deserved his gramophone for making a strong effort to bring these dormant issues back into the rock and roll spotlight during the Grammys this year, where everyone will be political as long as it’s salient to their streaming career. Good on him for trying to raise the bar early.
Local writer Lynell George wins Grammy for ‘Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go’
The L.A. connection is strong in the winner of the Grammy Award for album notes.
It was awarded to veteran music writer, and former Times staff writer, Lynell George, for her notes for the box set “Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings,” documenting the soul singer’s incendiary performances at the West Hollywood nightclub in 1966.
“For me the best part of this award is that it honors both Otis’ dream and his memory,” George told The Times after her win was announced. “L.A. was an integral spot on his path, it represented the next rung of fame -- going from star to superstar. Those Whisky shows proved that he was more than ready.”
It also was an important moment in the history of the vibrant Sunset Strip music scene of the mid-‘60s, which was dominated at the time by white rock groups such as the Byrds, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield and many others.
Redding’s appearance brought fiery soul and R&B into the mix, and had a huge impact on those who witnessed the shows, including Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Band’s Robbie Robertson, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger and future roots music guru Ry Cooder, whose band Rising Sons with blues musician Taj Mahal, opened for Redding.
Kendrick Lamar is running the table with Grammy trophies so far
Kendrick Lamar, who is nominated for seven Grammys for work from his album “Damn,” is having a good day, which might make being humble a difficult task.
A few hours before the televised ceremony is set to begin, Lamar has already won three trophies for his song “Humble”: music video, rap performance and rap song.
Which means the Compton rapper is three-for-three. The remaining four categories in which he’s nominated, album of the year, record of the year, rap album and rap/sung performance, will be broadcast during the main ceremony.
Neil Portnow on a political Grammy telecast: ‘We will speak through the music’
With awards season unfolding amid political turmoil and calls for social change, Hollywood has been grappling with how to celebrate its glitzy industries while acknowledging the issues dominating a 24/7 news cycle.
After a Golden Globes ceremony that was defined by actresses coming together against sexual misconduct with Time’s Up,, many have wondered how the music industry – still largely untouched by the recent reckoning in Hollywood, politics and the media — will address what’s going on in the world.
When asked about the potential for artist demonstrations, Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said that the night is all about freedom of expression and that performers or presenters are encouraged to use their platform how they see fit.
“It’s the artists, really, at the end of the day who make the statements. The academy as an institution, while we don’t necessarily take lots of [political] positions, the most important thing we can do is support the artist community to have the right to say what they want to say,” Portnow said on a break from rehearsals.
“There will be a lot of commentary about the issues that we’re all facing, but through music. Unlike the [Golden] Globes, SAG Awards, Critics’ Choice and so on, what we do is all about the music. And we will speak through the music.”
Leonard Cohen wins rock performance Grammy for ‘You Want It Darker’ and War on Drugs earns rock album trophy
The late Leonard Cohen, who died in 2016 at 82, won a rock album Grammy for his swan song, “You Want It Darker.”
Produced by his son Adam, the grim, restrained album by the longtime Angeleno won out over Chris Cornell’s “The Promise,” “Run” by Foo Fighters, “No Good” by Kaleo and Nothing More’s “Go to War.”
In the rock category, the Philadelphia rock band the War on Drugs earned its first Grammy Award for its album, “A Deeper Understanding.” Also nominated were Mastodon, Metallica, Nothing More and Queens of the Stone Age.
Aimee Mann wins folk album Grammy for ‘Mental Illness’
Sad songs or introspective songs or songs about emotionally complicated things? I just love that. I didn’t like anybody more than Elliott Smith, and that was some dark stuff.
— Aimee Mann, whose album “Mental Illness” won the Grammy for folk album
Randy Newman wins his seventh Grammy: best arrangement, instruments and vocals for his work on ‘Putin’
The Los Angeles songwriter and film composer Randy Newman won his seventh Grammy on Sunday for arranging the vocals and instruments of his biting satire, “Putin.” The musician, best known for “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” and “I Love L.A.,” went topical in 2017 on his “Dark Matter.”
In the winning song, Newman puts the Russian leader on such a pedestal that one might be mistaken for thinking it’s written from the perspective of President Trump:
He can drive his giant tractor
Across the Trans-Siberian plain
He can power a nuclear reactor
With the left side of his brain
And when he takes his shirt off
He drives the ladies crazy
When he takes his shirt off
Makes me wanna be a lady
Newman’s win came at the expense of fellow nominees: “Another Day Of Sun,” arranged by Justin Hurwitz; “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” Jorge Calandrelli, arranger; “I Like Myself,” Joel McNeely, arranger; and “I Loves You Porgy/There’s A Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon For New York,” Shelly Berg, Gregg Field, Gordon Goodwin and Clint Holmes, arrangers.
Look for Kesha’s Grammy performance of ‘Praying’ to be something of a protest
The late-breaking announcement of the white rose movement shook up the debate preceding the Grammys. Supporters will wear flowers to protest harassment and inequality in the music business,
Halsey, Fergie and Kelly Clarkson are among the stars signed on to support it. But Kesha’s performance of “Praying” might be the actual protest of the night.
The singer, who saw her career stalled for years after going public with allegations of abuse against her mentor, superstar producer Dr. Luke, returned in 2017 with a No. 1 album in “Rainbow.”
For her set, she’ll be joined by a powerhouse group of female artists: Cyndi Lauer, Camila Cabello, Julia Michaels, Andra Day and Bebe Rexha. The time will be ripe to make a statement, either implicit or explicit, about the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements that have roiled film and TV.
Maybe music is next.
White roses in support of #TimesUp start making their appearances at the Grammys
Hundreds of music industry stars and professionals have signed a letter released by music business advocates Voices of Entertainment pledging to wear white roses to tonight’s awards in support of “workplaces free of sexual harassment.”
Inspired by the sea of black at this year’s Golden Globes, the #whiterose initiative is meant to add “a heightened awareness of accountability that our sisters started on January 1st and continued through the Golden Globes and onward,” according to the letter.
Musicians including Pink, Cyndi Lauper, Slick Rick, Lil Uzi Vert, Zayn Malik, Meghan Trainor, Fat Joe, Fergie, Remy Ma, India.Arie, Carly Rae Jepson, Khalid, Kelly Clarkson, Halsey, Dua Lipa, and Rita Ora signed the official letter of support.
“Inspired by the #TimesUp campaign, tonight we stand with our brothers and sisters in music in support of equal representation in the workplace,” the letter began. White roses were chosen because they are symbolic of “hope, peace, sympathy and resistance.”
“Tonight is music’s biggest night,” the letter concluded. “The world is listening.”
‘La La Land’ gets some Grammy love, winning two awards
Those who may have assumed that Recording Academy members would be tired of “La La Land” at this point were wrong: the film, about living the Hollywood dream, earned two early Grammy Awards at Sunday’s ceremony.
In the category for score/soundtrack for visual media, the score’s composer, Justin Hurwitz, won out over the composers for “Dunkirk,” “Game of Thrones, Season 7,” “Hidden Figures” and “Arrival.”
Additionally, “La La Land” compilation producers Hurwitz and Marius de Vries won the compilation soundtrack award over fellow contenders “Baby Driver,” “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2,” “Hidden Figures: The Album” and “Moana: The Songs.”
Voters, however, skipped over the “La La Land” theme, “City of Stars,” in the song written for visual media category. It was bested by “How Far I’ll Go,” the Lin-Manuel Miranda-sung work from “Moana: The Songs.”
Logic’s Grammy performance will put a spotlight on an epidemic
Calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline went up between 30% and 50% after Logic released his hit song “1-800-273-8255.”
His Grammy performance will give the song – and the lifeline – its biggest stage yet. The tune was an unlikely hit, notching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and getting Logic a No. 1 album in “Everybody.”
Logic will perform it at the Grammys with collaborators Alessia Cara and Khalid, but just as important, the acts will be flanked by suicide attempt survivors and friends and relatives of suicide victims. In a time when musicians (and Americans generally) are struggling with an epidemic of addiction and depression, this performance will be living proof that there’s a way out.
‘He would have been happy,’ says Lou Reed biographer of the Velvet Underground receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Among numerous vital pop music figures the Grammy Awards originally overlooked was the Velvet Underground, the proto-punk New York quartet of which it’s been said its debut album sold only a few thousand copies, but everyone who bought one started a band of his or her own.
Grammys certainly weren’t on the mind of singer, guitarist and songwriter Lou Reed, according to his biographer, veteran Rolling Stone writer Anthony DeCurtis, a Grammy winner for his liner notes for the 1988 Eric Clapton box set “Crossroads.”
“He certainly never mentioned the Grammys to me, and the subject would have elicited eye-rolling on his part, I’m sure,” DeCurtis told The Times earlier this week. “He had grown used to feeling mistreated by the music industry and even seemed to relish the outsider status that conferred on him.”
During his life, Reed received just one Grammy—the 1998 award for long form music video for the “American Masters” documentary “Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart.” But as often has been the case throughout the Grammys’ 60-year history, the Recording Academy is making up for one of its past oversights by presenting the Velvets with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday.
“While he never would have admitted it,” DeCurtis said, “the Lifetime Achievement Award going to the Velvet Underground this year would have been meaningful to him, and I’m sure he would have shown up to accept it -- especially since the awards are in New York.
“He would have thought, ‘It’s about [expletive] time’,” he said, “but, secretly, he would have been happy.”
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Humble’ wins for music video
Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar, who’s nominated for seven Grammys for work from his album “Damn,” saw that album’s “Humble” snag the trophy for music video, besting nominees by Beck, Jay Z, Jain and Logic feat. Alessia Cara and Khalid.
The “Humble” video was directed by the Little Homies & Dave Meyers, and produced by Jason Baum, Dave Free, Jamie Rabineau, Nathan K. Scherrer & Anthony Tiffith.
Watch “Humble” above and read more about what Lamar says about rap in 2018.
Rising rapper Cardi B should be a Grammy highlight this evening
The rising rapper Cardi B had perhaps the biggest breakout year of anyone in 2017, thanks to an inescapable hit “Bodak Yellow” and a saucy social media presence.
Her performance at the ceremony will be a capstone in a short career. With just three proper singles released (on top of a few mixtapes and guest appearances), she had a short hop from reality star to Grammy performer.
How will a Grammy turn vault her into the next phase of hip-hop stardom?
For a ceremony whose nominees are dominated by rappers, she’s one of only a handful rappers performing on the bill, and her set will likely be a boisterous highlight of the show. Unlike Kendrick Lamar, there’s no U2 in tow for her, but all signs suggest she’ll be just fine on her own.
Grammy Awards open in New York with Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band
The 60th Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony kicked off at Madison Square Garden in New York, and for the first time since David Letterman’s departure from “The Late Show,” Paul Shaffer reconvened the World’s Most Dangerous Band.
The hard-working outfit worked with the bandleader and Letterman for decades, and for the daytime installment of the awards ceremony, it’s providing the score for Shaffer’s hosting. He’s handing out 75 trophies over the next few hours.
To open, Shaffer celebrated his city’s role in shaping the sound of American music: “From hip-hop to disco, punk rock to salsa, the whole world tunes in to the rhythms of New York City.”
And the first category given, for dance recording, bore that out. Archetypal New York band LCD Soundsystem earned the trophy for “Tonight,” from the band’s so-called reunion album, “American Dream.”
The second award was given to classic German electronic band Kraftwerk, for its “3-D, The Catalog.”
Stick around: The Times will be providing updates throughout the day.
The Grammys’ hip-hop game-changers Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z: An East Coast-West Coast contest
Both men have sold millions of albums. Both have headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. And both made former President Obama’s list of his favorite songs from 2017 — an especially meaningful achievement, perhaps, for two African American artists eager to share their political views (not to mention their scorn for the guy who now holds Obama’s old job).
So in a year when hip-hop might finally rule the Grammy Awards, it makes sense that Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar would be the rap kings closest to victory come Sunday night.
With eight nominations, Jay-Z, the assured veteran, leads the field of contenders for music’s most prestigious prize, followed closely by Lamar, the upstart phenom, who has seven.
All of Lamar’s nods put him in competition with Jay-Z in categories including album of the year, where his anthemic “Damn” is up against Jay-Z’s more intimate “4:44.” (They’ll also vie for record of the year, rap album, rap song, rap performance, rap/sung performance and music video.)
Clive Davis honored Jay-Z — and defied logic as usual — at his pre-Grammy gala
How to kick off a salute to Jay-Z on the eve of the Grammy Awards?
With a performance by Barry Manilow, of course.
That was the typically curious reasoning at work Saturday night in a glittering ballroom at the Sheraton New York Times Square, where the veteran music impresario Clive Davis gathered a crowd of show-biz insiders for his annual pre-Grammy gala.
Here’s the complete list of Grammy nominees
The Grammy Awards have embraced rap and hip-hop in the top categories this year, as nominations include several major nods each for Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino.
Jay-Z leads this year’s pack with eight nominations, while Lamar picked up seven, and pop singer-songwriter Bruno Mars earned six. Gambino, the alter ego of Emmy-winning actor-director Donald Glover, netted five nominations, along with singer Khalid and producer-songwriter No I.D.
One of the year’s biggest hits, the remix version of Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, has become the first non-English-language track to be nominated in both the song and record of the year categories. Album of the year nominees are Jay-Z’s “4:44,” Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” Lamar’s “Damn.,” Lorde’s “Melodrama” and Mars’ “24K Magic,” while the song of the year section includes “4:44,” Julia Michaels’ “Issues,” Logic with Alessia Cara and Khalid’s “1-800-273-8255,” Mars’ “That’s What I Like” and “Despacito.”
How Grammy-nominated Tyler, the Creator became Tyler, the entrepreneur
“Jellyfish are evil,” Tyler, the Creator, declares with absolute certainty.
We’re at Hollywood’s Chalice Recording Studios, where Tyler fidgets with a piece of studio equipment as he talks, his fingernails shiny under a coat of glittery silver polish.
“They’re smarter than us, almost,” he continues. “When they learn how to drive and use Google, we’re [screwed]. A lot of them don’t die, they split into two and then they’ve got homies.”
The Grammy-nominated rapper — he’s up for rap album with last year’s introspective “Flower Boy” — isn’t randomly discussing his strong disdain (OK, hatred) for the squishy, poisonous sea creature. The tentacled animal was part of the inspiration for “The Jellies,” the Adult Swim animated sitcom he co-created with Lionel Boyce. But that’s just one of many projects that keeps the 26-year-old busy.
Consider the particularly action-packed two weeks in October when Tyler premiered “The Jellies,” hosted his sixth-annual Camp Flog Gnaw music festival and carnival, launched a fall concert tour in promotion of “Flower Boy” and debuted the L.A. flagship store for his apparel line Golf Wang to the kind of fervor normally reserved for a Supreme launch. This month, he released a new design of Golf le Fleur sneakers and is starting another “Flower Boy” tour. With plans to expand into furniture and film in the near future, Tyler is just getting started.
The Grammy Awards at 60: What a long, strange trip it’s been
Since the very first ceremony on May 4, 1959, the Grammy Awards have been unflaggingly in tune with innovations in popular music, consistently singling out the most visionary artists, groundbreaking recordings and influential cultural trends.
With apologies to Stephen Colbert: Just kidding.
Looking back at the recipients of the initial awards handed out during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, you’d never know the big bang called rock ’n’ roll had just exploded.
The first album-of-the-year Grammy went to film composer Henry Mancini, for “The Music From Peter Gunn.”
Despite the recent arrivals of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and other groundbreaking rock artists, the first record- and song-of-the-year honors went to the suave Italian singer-actor-guitarist Domenico Modugno’s hit recording of the lounge-music standard “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare).”
Swing era icons Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Duke Ellington also took home Grammys that year. Had Twitter existed then, the Recording Academy would have been battling a #GrammysSoDad campaign.
That’s long made the academy a favorite target of musicians, music critics and cultural pundits. Yet many see progress in this year’s slate of nominations, arguing they better reflect what’s most relevant in pop music at the moment. This year’s ceremony is set for Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Grammys embrace hip-hop as young rappers get honest about depression, drug addiction and suicide
Back in December, in front of a sold-out audience at the Forum awaiting Grammy front-runner Jay-Z, opening act and rapper Vic Mensa vaulted onstage. Dressed in punky red leather, he was boisterous and triumphant, the show a crowning achievement in his career.
But underneath the bravado were lacerating lyrics about depression and drug addiction.
“In the cyclone of my own addiction,” he rapped on his song “Wings.”
“The voices in my head keep talking… / ‘You’ll never be good enough…you never was / …You hurt everyone around you, you’re impossible to love / …I wish you were never born, we would all be better for it / …You’re still a drug addict, you’re nothing without your medicine / Go and run to your sedative, you can’t run forever, Vic.’”
Hip-hop artists Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Logic will likely dominate the top Grammy categories, doing so in a year the genre went deep into issues of mental health, drug addiction and suicide — topics that have long been present below the surface. Some acts, such as Logic (with Khalid and Alessia Cara) will tackle those issues head on at the Grammy ceremony, where they’ll perform the smash “1-800-273-8255” (which directs fans to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) with a group of suicide loss survivors and people who have recovered from suicide attempts.
‘Despacito’ can make Grammy history
The last time a non-English-language composition won the Grammy for song of the year, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.
The song was “Volare,” a jaunty Italian crooner from singer Domenico Modugno and co-writer Franco Migliacci, and the Grammys in 1959 were a brand-new awards show. Now the Grammys have the strongest contender for a non-English-language winner for song of the year (and record of the year) since Ike was in office.
That song, of course, is “Despacito,” the consensus pick for “song of the summer” 2017. The tune — performed by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee, with a remix guest-verse boost from Justin Bieber — spent 34 weeks on the Hot 100 and tied for the longest stint atop that chart ever at 16 weeks.
Its video broke records to become the most viewed YouTube clip of all time (for a version without Bieber in it), and it dominated streaming services, which today can provide the sort of universal outlet previously unavailable to non-English songs.
The Grammy Awards deserve props for this year’s diversity, but there’s still work to be done
In the two months since the Recording Academy announced the nominations for the 60th Grammy Awards, the music industry has been roundly — and rightly — congratulated for providing some diversity among those in the running for pop’s most prestigious honor.
Rappers Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar lead the field heading into Sunday’s ceremony, and they’re joined in the major categories by Bruno Mars, Childish Gambino and the Puerto Rican duo of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, who teamed to create 2017’s biggest song, “Despacito.”
For an awards show notorious for privileging white guys with guitars — even (or especially) at moments when their work didn’t move the needle — this year’s nods represent a significant stride toward representation that accurately reflects music’s racial and cultural mix.
But let’s hold off on patting too many backs.
Even a casual look at the nominations reveals a woeful shortage of women up for the most coveted Grammys, which include album, record and song of the year.
Stevie Nicks remembers Tom Petty at the 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute. Read her speech
He was not only a good man to go down the river with, as Johnny Cash said, he was a great father and he was a great friend. He was one of my best friends. My heart will never get over this.
— Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks was at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Friday night to be honored as a member of her band, Fleetwood Mac, which was named 2018’s MusiCares Person of the Year, a tribute meant to recognize an artist’s work and philanthropy.
But in her acceptance speech, the singer ended up paying homage to the late Tom Petty, her longtime friend who died in October not long after he was feted at last year’s MusiCares gala in Los Angeles.
Here’s what Nicks said:
“The loss of Tom Petty has just about broken my heart. His daughter, Adria Petty, is here today. She came in yesterday. …
How the Grammys highlight hip-hop’s television takeover
The ceremony for the 60th Grammy Awards is still hours away, but music’s biggest TV night has already made history.
For the first time, hip-hop artists dominate the majority of nominees chosen in the academy’s top categories, including record, album and song of the year.
But that sound you’re hearing isn’t champagne corks popping in celebration. It’s exasperated sighs that the Recording Academy only just discovered what the rest of the entertainment industry noticed back in the flip-phone era: Hip-hop, once an outlier, is now the status quo.
From Broadway’s “Hamilton” to Hollywood’s “Straight Outta Compton” to television’s “Atlanta,” hip-hop’s broad influence on American pop culture has defied countless predictions that a nervous white mainstream would never fully embrace a trend born out of the urban, black experience.
Consider hip-hop’s television takeover. Today, rappers are not only backing films about the black experience, but also are creating, producing and starring in top-rated cable and network series and breaking out of music categories at film and television award shows.
“Atlanta” creator and star Donald Glover — who under his stage name, Childish Gambino, is up for five Grammys — made history when he won a directing Emmy in September for his breakthrough FX comedy, a cable ratings success, about the everyday trials and tribulations of an aspiring hip-hop entrepreneur. No other black director had ever won an Emmy in the comedy category, and Glover was the first director since Alan Alda in 1977 to win for a comedy in which he also starred.
Grammy rehearsals reveal its aim to be true to the political climate while celebrating music
We really do believe in artists’ rights. Everything comes from them. They are more than the sum of their lyrics and music.
— Ken Ehrlich, executive producer
“Can I have more [sound] in my ear?” Miley Cyrus asked as she went over notes with Elton John.
The two were prepping a take of John’s signature “Tiny Dancer” as rehearsals for Sunday’s 60th Grammy Awards kicked off at Madison Square Garden on Thursday afternoon.
It was the first day of the penultimate lap of the marathon that’s been underway since Grammy nominations were announced in November, and the well-orchestrated chorus of chaos that comes with mounting a live 3½-hour music spectacle was apparent before you walked into the cavernous venue.
A forklift carrying barricades held up a crowd of commuters rushing toward Penn Station as construction was underway in and around the arena prepping for music’s biggest night, which is returning to New York for the first time in 15 years.
“We love our home in L.A., but this offers us a chance to shake it up a little bit and message it a little differently to the audience,” said Jack Sussman, CBS’s vice president of live events and specials. “It’s the 60th anniversary and we haven’t been here in 15 years. This was an opportunity, for one year, to give [the show] a different spin.”
More than 90% of recent Grammy nominees are men, USC study finds
A new study on gender and racial figures in pop music proves the old James Brown refrain is still true: It’s a man’s man’s man’s world.
The study, in part, looked at the gender breakdown of Grammy Award nominees, and found a wide imbalance. A total of 90.7% of nominees between 2013 and 2018 were male, meaning just 9.3% were women.
Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti and Kate Pieper of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative tracked the gender and racial breakdown of performers, writers and producers across the top echelons of the pop charts and the Grammy Awards.
The full results of the work, titled “Inclusion in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers Across 600 Popular Songs from 2012‐2017,” was released Thursday, a few days before the 60th Grammy Awards.
Who is hosting the Grammy Awards?
CBS has tapped its late-night talent once again, choosing “The Late Late Show” host James Corden to emcee the Grammy Awards ceremony for the second year in a row.
“I certainly don’t feel like ‘I’ve got this’ in any way about any facet of my life, really,” Corden said on “CBS This Morning” earlier this week. “Look, I’m from High Wycombe, which is a town that none of you have heard of. That’s how small it is. And so to be hosting a show like the Grammys is so far beyond anything I ever thought I would ever do with my life.”
Corden said he was “going to try and not ruin” the show during his approximately 20 minutes of stage time but promised to arrive “with some little bits of fun.”
The host was generally well-received during the 2017 telecast, rapping during a segment and leading a special star-studded edition of “Carpool Karaoke” to the tune of “Sweet Caroline” that even Neil Diamond joined in on. (Diamond, who announced his retirement from touring earlier this month, will be presented with the lifetime achievement award on Sunday.)
Fleetwood Mac was the only act worth seeing at its grim Grammy weekend MusiCares tribute
Leave it to Fleetwood Mac to steal the show at its own tribute concert.
Performing last to close Friday night’s MusiCares Person of the Year benefit, the annual Grammy-weekend event meant to recognize an artist’s work and philanthropy, the veteran band long associated with Los Angeles played a thrilling five-song set that made clear how good — and weird — it can still be when the group’s members decide to care.
And thank heavens they cared Friday, because until they came onstage, this thing was grim.
Grammy Awards 2018: How the Recording Academy has evolved toward relevance
What a difference a decade makes.
Ten years ago, at the 50th Grammy Awards, Kanye West was the only hip-hop artist in the race for album of the year, pitted against English indie-rock chanteuse Amy Winehouse, perennially nominated rock band the Foo Fighters, country singer-songwriter Vince Gill and jazz veteran Herbie Hancock; Hancock won.
The 60th Grammy Awards will be a very different scene.
Everything you need to know about the Grammys
Another weekend, another awards show. The Recording Academy is holding its 60th Grammy Awards live at New York City’s Madison Square Garden this Sunday.
Though much of the awards season is focused on film and television, the Grammys recognize music, with a sprinkling of categories honoring sound in film and television.
Here are a few key facts to know before showtime.
What time does the show start? And on what channel?
As usual, there are actually two Grammy Awards ceremonies. The first is a more subdued pre-telecast ceremony that takes place in a separate venue prior to the main, performance-heavy broadcast.
The televised event will be broadcast live on CBS from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Pacific.
Since the ceremony has moved from Los Angeles to New York this year, the pre-telecast show — where the bulk of gilded gramophones will be handed out — will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden from 12 to 3 p.m. Pacific and will stream on the Grammys website.
L’Oréal delivers another cringe-worthy Elvive commercial, this time with Camila Cabello
As if that Winona Ryder commercial during the Golden Globes wasn’t enough, L’Oréal was back with another cringe-inducing Elvive commercial during the Grammys.
In the commercial, former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello practices dance moves on the stage of an empty auditorium, presumably in preparation for an upcoming performance. She decamps to her dressing room to twiddle with her (already flawlessly styled) hair — and to spotlight the Elvive bottle conveniently placed on her dressing room table.
As Cabello makes her way back to the stage, L’Oréal brings back its cheesy tagline:
“Everyone loves a comeback … dry hair can have one too.”