Candis R. McLean
The 59th Annual Grammy awards took over the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday night. The CBS telecast was hosted by popular late-night talk show host James Corden for the first time. The highly anticipated awards show continued its tradition of bridging musical acts through the tool of collaboration. The Lady Gaga and Metallica team up started in chaos when James Hetfield’s microphone gave off no sound. Adele had a literal show-stopping moment when technical difficulties made her halt her George Michael performance. The musical titan had to restart her solemn rendition of “Fastlove”. The night wasn’t a complete disaster as Beyoncé electrified the crowd with another iconic performance, Chance The Rapper “No Problems” was soulful and fearless, Katy Perry used her platform to deliver a message, and Bruno Mars rocked the stage twice..Many of the heavy-hitters in music showed up for the soiree that had few laughs, good performances, and which mainlined the mediocrity the the Grammys has grown accustomed to through the years. Here’s a list of the show’s winner and some top moments of the night.
Album of the Year
25 — Adele (Winner)
Lemonade — Beyoncé
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Views — Drake
A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson
Record of the Year
“Hello” — Adele (Winner)
“Formation” — Beyoncé
“7 Years” — Lukas Graham
“Work” — Rihanna Featuring Drake
“Stressed Out” — Twenty One Pilots
Song of the Year
“Formation” — Beyoncé
“Hello” — Adele (Winner)
“I Took A Pill In Ibiza” — Mike Posner
“Love Yourself” — Justin Bieber
“7 Years” — Lukas Graham
Best Alternative Music Album
22, A Million — Bon Iver
Blackstar — David Bowie (Winner)
The Hope Six Demolition Project — PJ Harvey
Post Pop Depression — Iggy Pop
A Moon Shaped Pool — Radiohead
Best Country Album
Big Day In A Small Town — Brandy Clark
Full Circle — Loretta Lynn
Hero — Maren Morris
A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson (Winner)
Ripcord — Keith Urban
Best New Artist
Kelsea Ballerini
The Chainsmokers
Chance The Rapper (Winner)
Maren Morris
Anderson .Paak
Best Pop Vocal Album
25 — Adele (Winner)
Purpose — Justin Bieber
Dangerous Woman — Ariana Grande
Confident — Demi Lovato
This Is Acting — Sia
Best Rap Album
Coloring Book — Chance The Rapper (Winner)
And the Anonymous Nobody — De La Soul
Major Key — DJ Khaled
Views — Drake
Blank Face LP — ScHoolboy Q
The Life of Pablo — Kanye West
Best Rock Album
California — Blink-182
Tell Me I’m Pretty — Cage The Elephant (Winner)
Magma — Gojira
Death Of A Bachelor — Panic! At The Disco
Weezer — Weezer
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Lemonade — Beyoncé (Winner)
Ology — Gallant
We Are King — KING
Malibu — Anderson .Paak
Anti — Rihanna
Commentary
“If The Grammy’s want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us … Because what happens is, when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in the face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration…They do this whole promotional event, and they’ll run the music over somebody’s speech, the artist, because they want a commercial advertising.” – Kanye West
The night marked the culmination of the tireless work these musicians put into their albums. From packaging, visuals, and performances, every crevice of their musical rendering was up for celebration. The broadcast as a whole will be remembered not for the great tributes, or ridiculously for Twenty One Pilots disrobing, but for its rigid inability to evolve. Two of the nights most nominated artists Kanye West (8) and Rihanna (8) left the arena without an award. The Grammy’s highest nominee, Beyoncé (9), received only two awards for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video. David Bowie, a man who the academy absurdly and horribly snubbed his entire career posthumously collected five awards, reflecting a sentiment that the Grammys either figure it out too late or seemingly not all. Saturday night, Grammy winner Frank Ocean took the awards show to task stating, “Believe the people. Believe the ones who’d rather watch select performances from your program on Youtube the day after the show because it puts them to sleep.”
The Grammys provide such an allure of celebrity, musical prestige, and dazzlingly powerhouse performances in an attempt to distract the audience from the blatant truth. The voters are out of touch. The show’s biggest winner, Adele, was wearily hesitant to accept the most prized award for Album of the Year. The Grammys have faced decades of criticism from musicians and fans from every genre. Many have challenged the Recording Academy’s lack of range and disconnect from the pulse of the evolving musical scene and the lack of acclaim bestowed on several deserving artists from around the world. Maybe with the night’s shimmering star seemingly saying, “No thanks, keep it,” the minds behind the outdated spectacle of an awards show might start to listen.
You can follow Candis McLean on Twitter (@CandisRMcLean) and e-mail her at [email protected]. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.