a head of my own: The 58th Annual Grammy Awards

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The 58th Annual Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards were handed out a few hours ago and it was another great night of entertainment.

Aside from the winners of the main awards, of course, what really matters at the Grammys ceremony are the performances, and this year there were many great ones.

Here's my quick recap:

Taylor Swift opened the show with one of her hits that, honestly, didn't impress me that much. The thing I did find annoying (and I'm sure plenty of people in attendance did too) is that she felt like it was perfectly OK to explode a couple tons of glitter over the entire audience within the first few minutes of the night, forcing all the biggest stars seated in front to either go clean up or look like a silly tween girl for the rest of the night.
Sam Hunt is one of the hottest man I've ever seen. Period. He performed with Carrie Underwood and he also happens to have a great voice! He was fully able to keep up with her impressive pipes, and even outshine them!! Underwood, beautiful as always, really needs to find herself a new stylist. I always see her wearing the most godawful dresses.
The Weeknd's performance was fantastic. He has a great voice, powerful and smooth, and the songs were beautiful too. He's not bad looking either, if you can get past the crazy hair...
Another pairing of unrelated artists, something the Grammys like to do a lot, was between Andra Day and Ellie Goulding. The latter can certainly sing, has a nice voice and a cute song, but Andra Day!! I was floored by the powerful perfection of her voice. One of the best I ever heard. She's definitely someone to watch. Alas, because of that powerful voice, the pairing didn't do Goulding any favors, as she was thoroughly and effortlessly eclipsed by Day's prowess, and she seemed to know it too. Oh well...
Lionel Richie's tribute was excellent, with Demi Lovato (gorgeous) towering over everyone else, although John Legend (so handsome) and Luke Bryan (sexy!!) were great too.
I really enjoyed Little Big Town's performance of their song Girl Crush, which stirred some controversy upon release with some of the more conservative country outlets because they thought it presented a positive message about same-sex relationships (gods forbid!!), even though in reality it has nothing to do with that at all. Anyway, it won Best Country Song, so there.
I was blown away by Pentatonix singing a cappella with Stevie Wonder in a tribute to the late Maurice White. A cappella performances are always impressive, and this one was no exception.
Next came Tori Kelly and James Bay. What an incredible pairing and what amazing voices. The songs were beautiful too!
Then we were treated to the opening number of Broadway's smash-hit Hamilton, which also won the Grammy later on in the evening.
Kendrick Lamar performed what I think was a mash-up of his hits and it was impressive, even though I didn't really understand anything he was saying...
During the following commercial break, we were shown the very first live music video, by Gwen Stefani. I liked both song and video, and knowing it was live made it all the more awesome (that must have been a really big sound stage, and I can only imagine the amount of rehearsals involved...)
After a very brief performance of Michael Jackson's She's Out of My Life by Miguel, who has a beautiful voice and seems very talented, on top of very attractive..., Bruno Mars finally introduced my beloved Adele, who sang the beautiful All I Ask, written in collaboration with Mars himself. Of course, sound problems had to happen at the time of the most anticipated performance of the night (at least on the part of yours truly...) but she was fantastic anyway.
Justin Bieber followed up solo and then accompanied by Jack Ü (known individually as Skrillex and Diplo), a moniker that to me brings to mind gay sex... Anyway, the songs were not that great, but at least Bieber can sing and has a decent voice.
Lady Gaga's tribute to the late David Bowie was high-tech, exhaustive, and very entertaining. She's so talented, and Bowie's multifaceted and chameleonlike style, persona, and character perfectly suit her. I cannot imagine anyone else giving a more fitting tribute.
The last tribute, to B.B. King by Chris Stapleton, Gary Clark Jr., and Bonnie Raitt, was one of the best numbers of the night. Professional, heartfelt, and perfectly executed.
Alabama Shakes performed their hit with gusto, and it was a very nice "Grammy Moment" that for me pretty much closed the show because what followed was pretty much atrocious. First, Alice Cooper performed some song that, being heavy metal, was so loud you could barely hear his voice, let alone what the lyrics were. Finally, Pitbull closed the show (with help from hottie Robin Thicke) but his also was neither a nice song nor a cool performance.

Following are the main award winners of the night, just the few top ones, because there are so many, but I need to congratulate Taylor Swift for using her speech for winning Album of the Year to finally stick it to that moron of Kanye West, who recently implied he's the one who made her famous... As if!

Record Of The Year

Uptown Funk
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars

Album Of The Year

1989
Taylor Swift

Song Of The Year

Thinking Out Loud
Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge, songwriters (Ed Sheeran)

Best New Artist

Meghan Trainor

Best Pop Solo Performance

Thinking Out Loud
Ed Sheeran

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance