In recent years, the Grammys have continuously proved to be a rapidly fading institution — one that’s struggling to not only connect with audiences, but also with the very artists it recognizes. … That three of the most powerful artists in music are refusing to play and possibly not even attend the show is a crippling blow to the Grammys.
(Esquire, February 8, 2019)
Let me state from the outset that Alicia Keys was the best host of any awards show since Billy Crystal hosted the Oscars in 2006. And I’m not even referring to that impressive medley of classic hits, which featured her playing two pianos at once.
So kudos to her!
That said, given Esquire’s preview, you have to wonder why anyone bothered to tune in, let alone attend. After all, it was so clear that this year’s show would be little more than a politically correct attempt to redress last year’s.
I duly commented back then in “Grammys Rapfest Snubs Jay-Z,” January 30, 2018, noting, among other things, the conspicuous absence of women winners:
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This, on a night when women were making quite a show of their newly realized empowerment with the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. …
The telecast featured many women as performers. But Alessia Cara, who won Best New Artist, was the only woman featured as a Grammy winner. …
For the record, hashtag protests like #OscarsSoWhite and #GrammysSoMale are becoming trite. Not least because results will continue to be thus, so long as members of the respective voting academies remain mostly white males. More diversity will preclude such sour-grapes protests.
Incidentally, I do not recall anyone protesting #GrammysSoFemale after Adele dominated in 2016. Not to mention that I had cause just last year to write “#OscarsSoDiverse…,” January 27, 2017. Just sayin’.
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Sure enough, women ruled. They took home 31 Grammys last night, winning many of the top awards. This, after they won only 17 last year. So, at long last, perhaps we can protest #GrammysSoFemale … too?
But, apropos of the irrelevance of this show, it speaks volumes that Michelle Obama delivered the best performance of the night:
[F]ormer First Lady Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at the Grammy Awards, standing on the stage with Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez and host Alicia Keys.
The audience lost their collective sh*t.
(MEDIAite, February 10, 2019)
She joined the other women to extol the communal power of music. Never mind that each woman seemed limited to 280 characters. But the greater irony is that, after that brief moment near the beginning of the show, Michelle’s celebrity made all the music that followed seem like background noise.
In any event, rap finally got its due with Childish Gambino becoming the first rapper to win both Song and Record of the Year for “This Is America”.
Still, one cannot overstate this show’s fading appeal. And it hardly helps that producers persist in making it three and a half hours when two hours would clearly do.
But you know this show has jumped the shark (or lost its way) when J-Lo is performing a tribute to Motown. What next, Cardi B performing a tribute to Nashville?
Truth be told, I have been watching the Grammys for years (for commenting purposes) more as rubbernecking fodder than A-list entertainment. After the show four years ago, I published “The Grammys: a Friggin’ Snoozefest!” February 15, 2015. What I wrote back then still obtains – not just for music awards shows but for the music industry as a whole:
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Most performers apparently think the key to success is looking and behaving in a way off stage that makes what they do on stage seem almost irrelevant: Exhibits A and B: [Cardi B] and Nicki Minaj.
By sterling contrast, Adele not only sings like an angel, she might just be the music industry’s saving grace. Unfortunately, this [industry has] so little to do with musical talent these days that Adele performing [on any music awards show is] rather like Andrea Bocelli performing on So You Think You Can Dance.
(“2011 MTV Video Music Awards,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 30, 2011)
But this is just the most glaring reason the Grammys show has finally jumped the shark.
Alas, in these days of Twitter and Instagram, [mostly female] singers seem more interested in attracting followers than in selling records. In this sense, they aspire to be more the queen of social media than the queen of pop, soul, or hip-hop. Imagine the fate of a culture that celebrates Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian above Aretha Franklin/Adele.
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This is why, with all due respect to Michelle Obama, Drake resonated most when he said the following upon accepting the Grammy for Best Rap Song:
Look, if there’s people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending money to buy tickets to your shows, you don’t need this right here.
(CNN, February 11, 2019)
Unfortunately, he reeked of hypocrisy not only for accepting an award he says is meaningless, but also for not standing in solidarity with Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and other A-list rappers in boycotting the Grammys for repeatedly snubbing rap artists.
Frankly, it served Drake right when producers cut off his mic in the midst of his grandstanding. Talk about a drop-the-mic moment. Ha!
Related commentaries:
friggin’ snoozefest…
Update
5:47 p.m. Later same day
Ratings “an all-time low”
The final numbers for the 61st annual Grammy Awards are in, and they include an all-time demo low for music’s biggest night.
(Deadline Hollywood, February 11, 2019)
Duh.
Bye, Alicia.