Comments on The 46th Annual Grammy Awards

-Basically nothing controversial happened. The only things remotely controversial were Justin threatening some unknown person in the audience during his acceptance speech (“Don’t” he told him/her), Patti LaBelle actually mentioning Janet Jackson’s name during the Luther Vandross tribute, and 50 Cent sauntering onto the stage when Evanescence won Best New Artist. I guess a known five-minute delay would do that.

-There has never been a more succinct acceptance speech than the one Andre 3000 gave when OutKast won Best Rap Album: “Thank you.”

-Gotta love Coldplay. Even when accepting an award, their politics show: “...John Kerry, who I hope will be your next president.”

-That anti-downloading PSA was pretty stupid. They tried for a subtle message, but most people will probably be wondering how a girl shut down the power at a party because she downloaded a song. Are “illegal” downloads some new type of power succubus?

-It was great to actually see Luther Vandross in that taped message during his tribute. He definitely did not look quite like himself, but it’s good to know that he is recovering.

-There were some great performances. I enjoyed the opener with Prince and Beyonce teaming up. It was great to see Prince perform live again, as he puts on a great show. Christina Aguilera did a pretty good job with “Beautiful.” The White Stripes’ performance was also very good. Having never listened to a full White Stripes album, I had no idea that Jack White was that good a guitar player. Beyonce did a great (and understated) solo performance that seriously showed off her pipes. Sting was okay as part of the unusual Beatles tribute (which included Dave Matthews, Vince Gill, and Pharrell Williams), but the performance of “Roxanne” with Sean Paul was a bad idea. The funk performance that included Earth, Wind, & Fire, Big Boi w/Sleepy Brown, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic was great. Samuel L. Jackson screaming about “The Church of Funk” made it only better. The Black Eyed Peas put in a good performance of “Where is The Love?” (with a late appearance by Justin Timberlake) and Justin’s performance of “Senorita” wasn’t that bad (but I’ve seen him do better). However, in terms of sheer creativity, Andre 3000’s performance of “Hey Ya!” took the cake. Jack Black provided the silly opening narration and then the performance commenced with what can only be described as a “Native Americans from Space” vibe, complete with a Teepee-shaped spaceship. Add to that a college marching band, and you get another out-of-this-world performance by Andre 3000.


-As for the actual awards, well most of the people I wanted to win did. OutKast won Album of The Year, which I believe they deserved. “Clocks” got Record of The Year which was a surprise (I thought Beyond would get it for “Crazy in Love”), but then again “Clocks” is a wonderful song. The Neptunes got Producer of The Year, which given their run of good songs was overdue. Beyonce won a ton of Grammys, which solidifies her as a respected solo artist. She has come a long way since booting and replacing two members of Destiny’s Child.

-So, it was a good show that wasn’t boring and had some memorable performances. It had its problems (the messed up audio during the beginning of Celine Dion’s performance) but they weren’t too bad. I’d like to see them continue the trend of pairing artists that don’t usually go together (even the Foo Fighters/Chic Corea pairing worked) as it makes the performance interesting at least. Now with one major awards show down, bring on the Oscars!