TORONTO — Here are a few random observations about the 56th Grammy Awards, held Sunday in Los Angeles.
This is 2014, right?
If the Grammys were hoping to attract a younger audience, they failed (or #epicfail, as the kids say). Sunday’s winners included Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Paul McCartney (who looks more and more like everyone’s grammy). For every Hunter Hayes and Lorde there was a Ringo Starr and Smokey Robinson — not to mention Madonna, Carole King, Cyndi Lauper, Steven Tyler and Yoko Ono. During one performance — featuring Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Blake Shelton — the average age on stage was 67.5. No wonder there are rumours stars were spotted backstage popping Centrum Silver (no there aren’t – ed.).
Wait, he looks familiar
The audience — perhaps except for a few bitter rappers — gave Macklemore & Ryan Lewis a standing ovation following their performance of “Same Love.” The camera caught a familiar Canadian applauding wildly: Free The Children founder Craig Kielburger. Turns out Kielburger attended the Grammys as the guest of The Tenors manager Jeffrey Latimer because he’s putting together a WeDay in Oakland, California on March 26 and wanted to network.
WATCH: Is an awards show the right place to make a political statement?
Hats off to you
Many heads at the Grammys were covered with hats this year — from host L.L. Cool J to stars like Madonna, Yoko Ono, Nile Rodgers, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Ben Harper and Gavin DeGraw. But the topper (nice one – ed.) was Pharrell Williams’ oversized fedora, which sparked a social media frenzy. The Mountie-like hat got its own Twitter account, which — as of Monday morning — had more than 14,000 followers. Even fast food chain Arby’s capitalized on the attention:
Who was that little guy accepting for Daft Punk?
Speaking of P. Williams, when Random Access Memories won the Grammy for Album of the Year, Paul Williams spoke on behalf of French duo Daft Punk. Why? Williams, 72, wrote lyrics for two songs on the album and sang lead vocals on “Touch.” Who? Williams is a longtime songwriter whose credits range from The Carpenters’ hits “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays” to “The Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie and the theme to TV series The Love Boat.
READ MORE: Grammys misspell Cory Monteith’s name
Performance anxiety?
Cirque du…no way! Pink’s high-flying rendition of “Try” was a rehash of her 2010 Grammys performance. By all accounts she was lip-synching (you try singing while swinging upside down) because she was a little short of breath when she finally came down to earth to join Nate Ruess (sporting a porn-stache) for “Just Give Me a Reason.”
Someone who should have been lip-synching was Madonna, who joined Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on stage during “Same Love” to sing an off-key snippet of her 1986 hit “Open Your Heart” while trying not to make her face crack.
While performing her hit “Royals,” Lorde looked as though she lost a contact lens on the stage and was trying not to step on it.
Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor was part of the epic closing performance — which was cut off as the credits rolled. Reznor reacted on Twitter: “Music’s biggest night… to be disrespected. A heartfelt F*** YOU”
How did Grammys producers manage to get the surviving Beatles on stage together? Producers: “Ringo, will you perform with Paul?” Ringo: “Sure, but only if I get to sing one of my own songs first.” Producers: “Paul, will you perform with Ringo?” Paul: “Sure, but only if I get to keep my actual drummer on stage.”
Comments