By Michael Traversa
The televised ceremony of the Grammys has really become all about the performances. The great majority of the awards are given off air and it seems like the ones shown on tv decrease as years go by. This time only the key ones were kept for airing (Song, Record, Album, and the main act for each genre of music) that left space for as many performances as possible.
The death of Whitney Houston the day before cast a cloud over the show, nevertheless there wasn’t enough time to scratch any plan and redo the whole show as a tribute. So things kicked off as planned with an energetic performance by Bruce Springsteen who with a rousing rendition of We Take Care of Our Own showed once more why he is The Boss. Some may consider it a little out of place given what had happened, maybe Jennifer Hudson should have opened instead; on the other hand Springsteen shook the arena as only he can do.
LL Cool J as host of the event took then a moment to remember Whitney asking to say a prayer, there could not have been a better way to acknowledge the passing of the Diva; sometimes less is more. In fact it was more effective than the tribute paid by Jennifer Hudson who in tears sang Whitney’s hit I will always love you.
The performances that followed continued in the tradition of duets on Grammy’s stage: pop idol Kelly Clarkson paired with Jason Aldean had the chance to embrace her Texan roots going country while Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys together paid tribute to Etta James. Foo Fighters, winners of Best Rock, kept their indie cred intact, to say it a la Jack Black who introduced them, performing in a tent outside the Staples Center. Accepting the award, Dave Grohl brought up “the human element in making music”; the band ditched computers and fancy studios during the making of the album in favor of Grohl’s garage. The rawness of the recording paid off.
What came as a partial disappointment was the long awaited performance of Coldplay and Rihanna. Their beautiful song Princess of China got sandwiched between their each massive hits, We found love for the barbadian beauty and Paradise for the British band. Somehow we had hoped to see a full band live rendition of the song. For Katy Perry the Grammys have become a memories scrapbook, last year she was celebrating her marriage playing pictures from her wedding on the giant screen behind her while she performed, this year she addressed her divorce with a new song that kept repeating “This is the part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me”. Nicki Minaj decided to go with the theatrics in her performance, something we become to expect from Gaga not Minaj, completed with a prerecorded mini film, fireworks and levitation (the theme was an exorcism).
As the night went by, it appeared evident that this was Adele’s year. Her voice was definitely back in the performance that triggered a long standing ovation and she swept the Grammys with a total of six awards, Someone like you Best Pop song, Rolling in the deep Song and Record of the year, 21 Album of the year, just to name the more important ones. The Album was clearly the one she wanted the most: while in previous acceptances she kept her cool she broke in tears to accept the final award. The best was saved for last: the best performance of the night was the conclusive act that brought together on stage Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl. At a certain point there were 6 guitars playing at the same time, pure joy for the ears.
Head over to Grammy.com for the list of all the winners.
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