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2012 Grammy Performers

February 13, 2012 by · Comments Off on 2012 Grammy Performers 

2012 Grammy Performers, The long list of performers at the 2012 Grammys was as vast, varied and random as putting your entire music collection on shuffle and setting it on stage. The 2012 Grammy performances spanned an exhaustive array of musical genres, making clear that in the year 2012, pop music is more democratic and less limited than ever before. Jazz standards can share the same stage as Dubstep, and artists as young as Taylor Swift or as established as Glen Campbell and Tony Bennett all belong equally at the same ceremony. Here’s a top-to-bottom recap of all of the performers and performances at the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Bruce Springsteen: Backed by Steven Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa and the the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen opened the Grammys by tearing through “We Take Care Of Our Own,” his new single from his upcoming Wrecking Ball album. It was an on-message salute both to Americans and, more topically, to the music industry and fans mourning Whitney Houston. Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga cheered him on. Also, let me go on record as the 50,045,492th person who notes that Bruce Springsteen does not age. He actually makes me look forward to being, like 50 something. Oh wait. He’s 62? WHAT DOES S-EX- EAT? HOW DOES S-EX- LIVE?

Bruno Mars: Glad to see Bruno Mars is no longer a one-man piano-moving company and instead a consummate old-school band leader with his own onstage theater marquee. He channeled James Brown, Cab Calloway, Chuck Berry and the Four Tops with his golden, shimmering, blowout rendition of “Runaway.”

Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt: Smart, unexpected pairing — the ever-radiant Alicia Keys and country legend Bonnie Raitt pay tribute to the late, great Etta James with a country-blues rendition of “Sunday Kinda Love.”

Chris Brown: Chris Brown reminded us that the Grammys stage is also capable of becoming a club with his psychedelic medley of “Turn Up The Music” and “Beautiful People” that looked like it was from The Future’s talent show. That boy is limber.

Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean: Against a very Buster-Keaton-in-“Safety Last” old-fashioned clock backdrop, Kelly Clarkson and Jason Aldean (who’s nominated for three country Grammys) made me cry (and not for the first nor last time) with their soulful version of “Don’t You Wanna Stay.” OH Kelly Clarkson! Stay in that dress FOREVER. And also, commence with that country album.

Foo Fighters: Thank you for removing my face with your ceaseless rock, Foo Fighters. Their outdoor, satellite performance of “Walk” brought the energy up to a rock-appropriate 11 or so. Oh, and they won FOUR 2012 Grammys.

Rihanna and Coldplay: Easily the most electrifying performance of the 2012 Grammys. A solo Rihanna’s remorseful version of “We Found Love” set to piano absolutely exploded into orgiastic laser-streaked showstopping rave, replete with torches and pelvic thrusts. Chris Martin had to go and RUIN it with an acoustic guitar. JUST KIDDING. The transition from drug carnival to campfire duet on “Princess Of China,” followed by Coldplay’s Keith Haring-channeling Day-Glo graffiti backdrop for “Paradise,” was probably the perfect anecdote to grandparents and/or overly conservative types trying to recover after witnessing Rihanna grind up her dancers.

The Beach Boys, Maroon 5 and Foster The People: Maroon 5 made a croony, charitable attempt at The Beach Boys’ “Surfer Girl,” but Foster The People’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” sounded exactly like 1966. Perfect shirts, perfect harmonies. And 20 years since their last performance and 50 years since their first album came out on Capitol Records, The Beach Boys’ vibrations sounded just as good 50 years later. And, of course, then it turned into one of those legendary everyone-on-stage-at-the-same-time power jams. (Also, hats off to Mike Love wearing a self-reflexive Beach Boys hat!)

Paul McCartney: Oh, big band-era brilliance. Sir Paul’s version of “My Valentine” (from his new Kisses On The Bottom album of standards) set to a somber strings section and a reticent solo guitarist, could not be more pensive. Furthermore, Paul McCartney presents himself with such calm earnestness that it’s almost like no one ever told him he’s Paul McCartney. First standing ovation of the night, by the way.

The Civil Wars and Taylor Swift: Best joke of the evening? The Civil Wars’ “We’d like to thank our opening acts” crack. And I’d like to thank John Paul White and Joy Williams, who went home with two Grammys, for their flawless rendition of their slithery, spooky “Barton Hollow.” I would’ve appreciated the full 3 minutes and 21 seconds, but that’s not always how live awards shows works. Anyway, Civil Wars got a few verses out before introducing Taylor Swift and her full band for a very Appalachian version of “Mean” (which is fine because I love Taylor and Buzzworthy is Team Taylor HQ. We’re about to get even more of The Civil Wars when Taylor’s “Safe And Sound” video from “The Hunger Games” drops tomorrow. Performing a song about a childhood bully at the Grammys where you’re nominated is the definition of classy revenge.

Katy Perry: My take on Katy Perry’s “E.T.” fakeout — she was pulling the plug on her past before unveiling ALL of her brand-new song, “Part Of Me,” from her upcoming Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection album. “Now look at me I’m sparkling” and “You can keep the diamond ring”? Sounds like Katy Perry’s over it and ready to get on with her life as a blue-haired Barbarella. Also, did anyone catch the fact that she BURNED AN ICE MAN EFFIGY? Because she did.

Adele: If Adele ever gets nervous, she has a funny way of NEVER EVER showing it. Could’ve been because by the time she took the stage, she’d already won FOUR Grammys, and before the night ended, she’d win six Grammy Awards total, including Album of The Year. Her Grammy-winning Grammy performance of “Rolling In The Deep,” complete with a gospel choir and Adele’s full “Valley of the Dolls” regalia was more lyrically expressive and, ironically (for a song about devastating heartbreak and despair), more joyful than ever. If her adorable, laughing victory cheer at the end of the song (or the sweet kiss she shared with her boyfriend before winning the Best Pop Solo Performance Grammy earlier that night) was any indication, Adele’s happier than ever.

Glen Campbell tribute with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton: The Band Perry, led by the quirky, quixotic Kimberly Perry, opened the Grammys’ Glen Campbell tribute with a whistling version of “Gentle On My Mind” before Blake Shelton paid tribute to the country legend and Lifetime Achievement Award winner with a celebratory version of “Southern Nights.” Glen Campbell himself then took the stage, in a requisite rhinestone jacket, and triumphantly belted out “Rhinestone Cowboy” without missing a beat.

Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood: Despite the nearly 60-year gap between them, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood’s rendition of the standard “It Had to be You” was as light, lively and youthful as the version they recorded on Bennett’s Duets II album.

Jennifer Hudson: It was just as heartwrenching to watch a poised, plaintive yet powerful Jennifer Hudson sing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as it must’ve been for her to sing it. Herself no stranger to tragedy, Jennifer Hudson’s teary steadfastness was a triumphant tribute to the late Houston.

Chris Brown, David Guetta, Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters and Deadmau5: EDM is having a BIG, BIG moment. Which doesn’t necessarily explain why Chris Brown was dressed like Run-D.M.C. for “I Can Only Imagine,” (along with Lil Wayne, who was impossible to catch, but, hey, it was crowded), but it was pretty cool to see Deadmau5 remix Foo Fighters’ “Rope,” live in front of a sea of Deadmau5es. As a fan of both but not necessarily both at the same time, I concede that this actually somehow worked.

Nicki Minaj: In keeping with the great pop music trope of bending religious mores (especially where Catholicism is concerned), Nicki Minaj opened her performance of “Roman Holiday” in a mock confession booth and probably making the Catholic League’s head spin with a mock exorcism. Maybe it was the male dancers dressed in church robes or the Franciscan monks, but something tells me she dropped out of Catholic school. Something also tells me this is probably the first time anyone ever levitated during a Grammy performance. Jolly good, Nicki!

Paul McCartney: Closing out the 2012 Grammys was arguably one of the biggest names at the show: Paul McCartney, who resurrected The Beatles’ Abbey Road “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” classics. While “Golden Slumbers” was heavy with the weight of the room’s mourning for Whitney Houston, the Bruce Springsteen/Paul McCartney/Rusty Anderson/Joe Walsh/Dave Grohl guitar jam session on “The End” closed out a night of Grammy performances on a high note.

Grammy 2012 Performers

February 13, 2012 by · Comments Off on Grammy 2012 Performers 

Grammy 2012 Performers, Alongside the seemingly endless parade of awards given out at the Grammy Awards, the highlights of the evening of course come thanks to the live performers – many of whom this year were making comebacks. Top of that pile of course was British singing sensation Adele who performed her massive hit ‘Rolling In The Deep’ to a subsequent standing ovation; it capped a phenomenal evening for the singer who went home with six awards including all the main ones – ‘Best Album,’ ‘Best Record’ and ‘Best Song.’

Elsewhere though Chris Brown was also on form – despite the debate about whether he should’ve been there at all, there was no denying that the 22 year-old impressed with new tune ‘Turn Up The Music’ and ‘Beautiful People’ from his Best R&B winning album ‘F.A.M.E.’

More heart warming was the appearance of the founding members of seminal 60s pop group The Beach Boys, more than 20 years after they last shared a stage together. Performing classic hit ‘Good Vibrations,’ they went down well with the audience and afterwards Brian Wilson commented “With all the guys together we were supporting each other. It was a different experience, and it was a thrill for me, just being on stage together gives us a chance to express ourselves vocally and instrumentally.”

Grammy Performers 2012

February 13, 2012 by · Comments Off on Grammy Performers 2012 

Grammy Performers 2012, The Grammys cast aside their celebratory vibe Sunday to pay tribute to singer Whitney Houston, whose death over the weekend hung heavy over the 54th annual awards show.

Until Saturday, the pre-show drama had focused on Adele and how the six-time-nominee would fare in her first public performance since canceling a tour and having surgery on her vocal cords.
A glowing Adele did not disappoint, nor was she disappointed. She won six Grammys, including the Big Three: song and record of the year for “Rolling in the Deep,” and album of the year for “21.” Earlier in the night, she thanked “the doctors who brought my voice back.” That voice sound a touch raspy at points, but her resolve surged as she powered through “Rolling in the Deep.” Without much more than a few hand gestures and a couple of shy smiles, she commanded the screen like few performers during the 3 ½-hour nationally televised broadcast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. A great song and a great voice will do that for you.

She described her winning album “21” as being about something “everyone’s been through … which is a rubbish relationship,” and that universality translated to the year’s biggest-selling and now most-acclaimed recording.

Houston’s death in a Los Angeles hotel room Saturday put the Grammys into scramble mode, as they altered the telecast schedule and devised an appropriate tribute to the pop icon. “We’ve had a death in our family,” host LL Cool J said. He offered “a prayer for a woman we loved, for a fallen sister.”

Jennifer Hudson performed a stark version of the Dolly Parton song that Houston made her own, “I Will Always Love You,” on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. Hudson, one of countless singers influenced by Houston’s pop-gospel sound, played it straight and true, pushing her voice hard in the final turn, the slight cracking exposing the intensity of emotion that underlined this annual music-industry gathering.

“There’s a little bit of a dark cloud … a lot of people are heartbroken,” country singer Miranda Lambert said before the telecast. But “we can let music heal us.”

Bruce Springsteen came not to heal but to incite. He kicked open the telecast with a song that rocked the building, brought a clapping Paul McCartney out of his seat and expressed no small measure of discontent in an election year. “Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea?” Springsteen sang on “We Take Care of Our Own,” from his forthcoming album. He was backed up by an orchestra, but the sound that came through was clanging guitars and thundering Max Weinberg drums.

The telecast was rife with curious decisions. Chris Brown, who only three years ago backed out of the Grammys amid a criminal proceeding involving an assault on the singer Rihanna, scored multiple appearances. Yet the Grammys made only passing mentions to the late “Soul Train” founder Don Cornelius and jazz-poet Gil Scott-Heron.

A few other winners, losers, oddities and observations among the 78 Grammy categories:

“This is ridiculous!”: So said Adele after receiving her fifth Grammy. The remark wasn’t directed at Nicki Minaj, who did some serious “Exorcist”-style button-pushing in a Gothic song-and-dance number, but could anyone blame her if it was?

Second-hand James Brown tribute: In gold suit and pompadour, Bruno Mars tried to channel the Godfather of a Soul, but I’m hearing the influence of his old tour mate, Janelle Monae, who makes the James Brown attitude her own. Mars did get off a good line, though, demanding that the audience “get off your rich (behinds) and let’s have some fun.”

Collaborations, some good, some bad: In general, I’m all for the idea that the Grammys want to mix things up and put artists together who might have a certain chemistry. The Bonnie Raitt-Alicia Keys pairing on an Etta James tribute worked because both artists have a feel for blues-based ballads. But Rihanna was dancing and singing up a storm during “We Fell in Love in a Hopeless Place” before an acoustic duet with Coldplay’s Chris Martin prematurely killed her momentum.

Good vibrations – or not: Speaking of gratuitous collaborations … the Beach Boys reunited with Brian Wilson for the first time in decades, but were compelled to share the stage with lightweights Foster the People and Maroon 5. Wilson isn’t what he used to be as a singer or performer, but he and his bandmates deserved the spotlight to themselves if only for the genius of his songs. “Good Vibrations” still sounds futuristic, like a surf song for Martians.

All is forgiven? Chris Brown performed, ending a three-year hiatus from the Grammys. On Feb 8, 2009, he turned himself in to police in connection with an assault on his then-girlfriend, Rihanna, and then withdrew from performing on that year’s Grammys. On Sunday, he came back to shimmy and gyrate in a prime-time performance, but social media was abuzz with stunned responses. “Sorry, Chris Brown, I’m not over it,” tweeted one pundit.

A little dub step, anyone? Electronic dance music has been blasting out of the clubs and into the arenas in recent years, and that transition was marked by three Grammys for dub-step’s DJ-of-the-moment, Skrillex (a k a Sonny Moore). “This is the most surreal day of my life,” he said. I shared similar feelings about the near-riot Skrillex caused at last year’s Lollapalooza festival in Grant Park when his set turned the dance tent into something resembling a swarming ant hill. It’s unusual for the Grammys to be in step with musical trends (as opposed to a few years behind), but the Skrillex hat trick suggests the Recording Academy has more than a few club-hoppers in its ranks.

Take that, Skrillex! The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, in picking up one of the band’s five Grammys, asserted that he hates pretty much everything that electronic-dance-music maven Skrillex stands for, without mentioning Skrillex by name: “The human element of making music is most important. Singing into a microphone, learning to play your instrument … it’s not about being perfect… It’s not about what goes on in a computer, but what goes on in here and what goes on in here (points to head and heart).” Yet later on, the Foo Fighters participated in a live mash-up with DJ Deadmau5. So are computers cool or not, Dave?

Take that, Russell Brand! Katy Perry turned her performance into a not-so-veiled shot at her ex-husband. She donned a blue wig and flexed an S&M theme as she chirped about “the part of me that you’re never, ever gonna take away from me.” But it’s a big supposition to think that anyone else really cares that deeply about any of it.

And the living artist with the most Grammys is … ? Congratulations if you guessed Alison Krauss. She surpassed Quincy Jones with her 28th Grammy for best bluegrass album.

A public farewell: Glen Campbell, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and is in the midst of his farewell tour, bid goodbye on the big stage with a performance of “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Campbell clearly enjoyed the moment, and the audience – fully understanding its significance – showered him with adulation. It also made me wish that the great jazz-funk poet Gil Scott-Heron had been able to enjoy a similar privilege before he died last year, in lieu of the brief, posthumous tribute he received.

Another Grammy first! In winning best new artist, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon provided what was likely the first-ever Grammy shout-out to Eau Claire, Wis.

The Chicago story: Kanye West had a great night with four victories, but didn’t show up to claim any trophies. His “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” won for best rap album and “All of the Lights” for best rap/sung collaboration and best rap song. He also shared best rap performance with Jay-Z for “Otis.” Jazz harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy shared a Grammy with Bela Fleck for best instrumental composition, “Life in Eleven,” and former Chicago jazz trumpeter Maurice Brown played on the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s “Revelator,” which won best blues album. Nominees R. Kelly, Wilco, OK Go, Kurt Elling, Lupe Fiasco and the Numero Group were among those who came home empty-handed.

2012 Grammy Performers

February 12, 2012 by · Comments Off on 2012 Grammy Performers 

2012 Grammy Performers, The 2012 Grammy Awards are set for Sunday, February 12. Usually the music industry’s biggest night, the 2012 Grammys will be a more sombre affair following the death of singer Whitney Houston.

Here’s some basic info on what you need to know about the 2012 Grammys:

When do the 2012 Grammy start?

The Grammys start time is 8:00 pm ET/PT.

What channel will broadcast the 2012 Grammys?

The Grammys will air on CBS in the U.S. In Canada, the awards show will air on Global.

Where are the Grammy taking place?

The awards ceremony will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California

Who will host the Grammys?

Rapper LL Cool J is set to host.

Who will be performing at the Grammys?

Some of the notable musicians scheduled to perform at the Grammys: Adele in her first live performance since undergoing vocal cord surgery; Coldplay and Rihanna; Foo Fighters; Bruno Mars; Paul McCartney; Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson; Nicki Minaj; Katy Perry; Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band; and Taylor Swift. Chris Brown, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood are also slated to hit the stage together while Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt will perform a tribute to the late Etta James.

Who are some of the presenters at the Grammys?

Notable presenters include Jack Black, Drake, Fergie, Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of the Roots, and Ringo Starr.

Will there be a tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammys?

The Recording Academy intends to include a “respectful” tribute to Houston in Sunday evening’s show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, according to Grammys show producer Ken Ehrlich. Singer Jennifer Hudson is expected to perform as part of a “respectful” tribute at the Grammys,

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