I was pleasantly surprised when I finished my tally of how many times the name Whitney Houston would be brought up at the 54th annual Grammys reached only a dozen.
The host of the Grammys, LL Cool J (I suppose Ice-T was busy), began the show with a prayer while that clip that has been burned into any news watcher who hasn’t been living under a rock’s brain of Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” played. It wasn’t like that clip had been playing on every major news station, not to mention VH1 and BET, for a full 24-hour circulation before the Grammys.
Jennifer Hudson delivered the most beautiful and soulful rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” That sufficed as a Whitney tribute. Other than that, the song now gives me an automatic headache.
Nonetheless, Bruno Mars and his disturbingly perfect teeth and hair that doesn’t move motivated the crowd in a friendly way by saying, “Tonight we celebrate Whitney Houston, so get off your rich asses!” Thanks Bruno for sending that message to the crowd that you don’t like them just they way they are.
Following that riveting performance was the Grammy for Best Rap Performance, which was won by Jay-Z and Kanye West for their song “Otis.” In perfect Jay-Z and Kanye style, they were no shows. Jay-Z was probably at home playing with Blue Ivy, and, luckily, Kanye was unable to interrupt anyone due to his lack of presence.
Rihanna and Coldplay took center stage for the song “Princess in China.” Rihanna, channeling Tina Turner with her newly blonde locks, and Coldplay were crowd pleasers and appealed to a broad and diverse demographic.
Then came the cutest performance of all: The Beach Boys with Foster the People and Maroon 5. This was enjoyable. I mean, who doesn’t smile at cute old men and even cuter Mark Foster and Adam Levine? “Good Vibrations” were sung and felt.
As Paul McCartney performed, a disturbing trend on Twitter arose: the question, “Who is Paul McCartney?” I’m scared for the youth of America. Tell me you don’t know who The Beatles are. Tell me you’ve never heard “Let It Be.” Now try and tell me you’re not musically deprived.
Then the biggest WTF moment of the Grammys happened: Chris Brown took the stage. As if it weren’t enough for him to beat up the beautiful Barbados babe and then give no public apology, we all had to suffer through this tool flipping and dancing on pyramid shaped boxes for four minutes? AND THEN he won a Grammy.
Two questions came to mind: When did America decide to forgive this barbaric piece of shit? And when exactly did he become an R&B artist? I thought his specialty was whiny rap and battering women. “#PROUD of Chris Brown” was definitely the most heinous trending Twitter topic.
A few more performances ignited the night, including Katy Perry’s “Part of Me,” leading the audience to zero in on who exactly the song was for — cough cough Russell Brand.
Nicki Minaj also performed as her 97th alter ego, Roman — just another weird Technicolor million-dollar set of a performance that registered nothing close to actual talent. She decided to dress up like Little Red Riding Hood and be escorted by a bishop-looking man, mocking the Catholic Church and its religion. That was weird. I’m kind of excited to watch Joan Rivers demolish her on “Fashion Police” this week.
The most amazing part of the Grammys came from none other than Adele. This woman proved her superhuman power: her voice. She need not flashy lights, backup dancers, scandalous outfits or alter egos. Her best attribute is her voice, and by looks of it, her six-Grammy sweep further supported that.
Moral of the Grammys: talent trumps all (except in the case of Chris Brown), vocals trump elaborate getups and strange performances, and if you die before an awards show, (i.e. Amy Winehouse’s VMAs, Michael Jackson’s BETs, Whitney Houston’s Grammys), you’ll surely get a good portion of the show attributed to you.
