last night, cbs aired the 52nd annual grammy awards and they were no disappointment. while the show is supposed to be about the awards, it was really the performances that made the special, well, special. lady gaga opened the show in true lady gaga fashion, including surprise guest elton john. it was over the top and theatrical, just the way to kick off an awards show. people say they're getting tired of gaga and her theatrics, but had the opening number been a bland stand-there-and-play-guitar type thing, the night wouldn't have gotten off on the right foot.
after gaga, everyone from pink to beyonce and bon jovi took the stage. pink's number, "glitter in the air," was proof that lip synching is dead. dead dead dead. if pink can do aerial stunts and sing live, anyone can. sorry, britney, but you're going to have to get your voice together.
speaking of britney, she was nominated for best dance recording for "womanizer." not surprisingly, she didn't win. but she did show up - after an 8 year hiatus from the show - in a crazy fishnet dress. i think it's pretty obvious why she skipped any press before the show.
beyonce was another great performance, though it was disappointing she didn't sing the song that made her year what it was - "single ladies." miss knowles did, however, cover alanis morisette's "you should know." it's weird to think about beyonce singing about uncle joey from full house (that's who the song was - allegedly - originally written about, fyi), but whatever.
taylor swift, who took home four of the night's big awards, performed on stage with fleetwood mac legend stevie nicks and, well, it was less than impressive. i've said it before and i'll say it again. and again - taylor has an issue singing live. it's usually better when she has the guitar in front of her, but last night it was just flat. flat flat flat. the one thing that saves taylor is that she's a good song writer, which is sure to keep her foot in the door of the industry for the rest of her life. she just needs to start focusing on more adult material and not sing every single song about puppy love and fairytales. the girl turns 21 this year, come on. it didn't help that taylor's breathy voice was backed up with stevie's husky one. it was just kind of a mess. the one plus was that the duo sang one of my faves from stevie's fleetwood days, "rhiannon." why stevie played the tambourine randomly during the performance is beyond me.
the most star-powered number of the night came during the michael jackson tribute, the final imagining of his "earth song" performance form what was to be the "this is it" concert series. the thing that annoyed me most about this performance was that it was in 3d - i know i wasn't the only one not to get the memo about needing glasses. hello, grammy people, not everyone just has those lying around. had they sent them out in the mail or in tv guide, i could understand it. but the award show expected people to go to target or kmart and pick up a pair. why is this '80s technology back with such full force? it's not like they've improved on it or like it's actually there in front of you. 2d is just fine by me. the "earth song" performance featured celine dion (surprisingly tame), usher, carrie underwood, jennifer hudson and smokey robinson. i understand this was michael's favorite song from "this is it," but i would have much preferred a medley of his hit songs.
after the performance, michael's son, prince, and daughter, paris, accepted the lifetime achievement award for their father. for some reason, they were joined on stage by their cousins (there's no question in my mind that this wasn't some way to promote the cousins' fame) but not little brother blanket. where the hell was blanket? prince gave most of the speech and the way he spoke was almost identical to the intonations and inflections in his father's voice. it was almost creepy.
the worst performance of the night has to go to jamie foxx, who didn't seem able to keep up with his backing track for "blame it." the fact that the song is so autotuned made it even harder. watch with your own discretion - let me warn you that the performance starts out with a hokey opera skit.
now to the night's winners and what i think of them.
- album of the year: taylor swift, fearless - while it was a huge hit, i don't know that fearless made enough advances or impact in the history of music. i'm not saying taylor isn't deserving - she works hard and have made people pay attention to country music again - but lady gaga had the most hits and innovation of any other artists. the biggest disappointment is that gaga was shutout of the best new artist category because of a single nomination in the dance/electronica category next year.
- song of the year: "single ladies," beyonce - deserved, deserved, deserved.
- best new artist: zac brown band - did i call it or what? there really wasn't much else to choose from this year so the country group who writes their own stuff was the top pick.
- pop vocal album: the black eyed peas, the e.n.d. - surprising, but their innovation makes it worth it. the peas are another group that can't really perform live. here's their performance.
- best pop vocal performance (female): beyonce, "halo" - duh.
- best pop vocal performance (male): jason mraz, "make it mine" - must have been slim pickings
- pop collaboration with vocals: jason mraz and colbie caillat, "lucky" - colbie may have been the nights most surprising winner because she won on others' coattails. she helped write and sing on taylor's record, garnering herself a grammy for record of the year.
i'm not going to go into all the other categories, but just know that gaga wasn't completely shut out - she won the 2 awards in the dance category: one for "poker face" and the other for her album, the fame. other winners included beyonce in the r&b category, tswift in country, kings of leon and green day (who previewed their broadway musical, american idiot, at the show) in the rock category and jay-z, rihanna and kanye in the rap category for "run this town."
and, because you read this whole, long blog, a treat: my favorite picture from the night, ke$ha and justin bieber. she could eat him.
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