The Grammy Awards are usually the only award show I can tolerate watching for a bunch of reasons:
- I know what the categories are (do we really need a Sound Mixer AND a Sound Editor?)
- There are no long-winded, artistic, political speeches
- The performances don’t involve interpretive dance that no one can interpret but the choreographer
So here are my thoughts on this year’s performances…
Aretha tribute: 5 strong singers all attempting to beat the range and volume of Ms. Franklin. Florence handled herself rather well. Christina remembered the words (SHOCKER). Jennifer Hudson basically gave a big F-U to Simon Cowell by her performance. Martina McBride-ugly earrings, amazing dress and way to represent country. Yolanda Adams looks amazing for almost 50!
Lady Gaga-While her entrance in a space age, irradiated egg was slightly on the nutty side, her performance was kind of awesome. The dance/costumes actually went with the song. The only thing I didn’t like was that Albino Cobra she had growing out of her head. One more thing…thank goodness for pasties and latex staying where they were supposed to.
Miranda Lambert-Hate the dress but LOVE the song.
Bruno Mars, B.o.B, Janelle- Loved the Mars performance, even though his hair kind of hinted to where the performance was going to go. B.o.B. looked like a goofball. I had never heard Janelle sing before and she wasn’t bad but there were two things I didn’t get: her school marm outfit and why she crowd surfed.
Muse-Only the British can rock bedazzled blazers and a dual-neck guitar and not be completely ridiculed. I know the point of the random rioters on the stage, but since they weren’t really visible and there were very few of them, it was useless.
Justin Bieber, Usher and Jaden Smith-The performance showed how many dancers you can afford as the years go by: Bieber=5, Usher=cast of thousands. Can someone please explain the Asian theme? Usher’s pants and how he thinks he is MJ? Jaden…I heart your dad.
Mumford & Sons, Avett Bros, Bob Dylan-enjoyed Mumford, couldn’t stop staring at the lead singers hair of the brother band and was thankful that Bob Dylan’s mic didn’t work.
Lady Antebellum-::Snore::
Cee-Lo/Gwyneth Paltrow-Way to forget the words to your own song! But love the Elton John meets Planet of the Apes costume. Gwyneth should have considered walking and stairs when considering her footwear choice for the performance, but she rocked the black unitard (and the pink feather earrings)! As odd as the puppets were….they were also kind of fabulous.
Katy Perry-Now I know where the Victoria’s Secret diamond bra went. Loved the first song because it showed that she can actually sing and doesn’t need strategically placed cupcakes to perform. I thought it was cute when she kept finding her hubby in the audience and singing to him. (Kudos to the camera man who caught Nicole Kidman rocking out!)
Norah Jones, John Mayer, Keith Urban-Felt very coffee house-ish in a good way. Norah looked beautiful, Keith looked exactly like he always does and John Mayer look like a stoned Captain Jack Sparrow. But, I liked it.
Eminem, Dre, Rhianna- Still hate Rhianna and her bleach stained dress. Eminem is amazing because you can understand him, you know he’s not lip synching (due to the pulsing vein in his forehead), and he actually tells a story. Dr. Dre hasn’t changed in the last 10 years.
And since I don’t give a flying fig about the rest of the performances, I’m signing off. Personally, I would have put Streisand and Jagger in the middle of the show so that their fans could go to bed at their normal time instead of nodding off in their easy chairs. Overall, what I saw I enjoyed, but part of me thinks that nothing will ever come close to Pink’s performance last year.
