Thank you Bruno Mars for that amazing quote. After a brief blogging Hiatus I am back with my Grammy performance round up.
But first on a more somber note- RIP Whitney Houston, your talent was undeniable and will be missed.
-in order of performance-
Bruce Springstein and the E-Street Band- We Take Care of Our Own- Bruce is always good for a traditional performance. I never find anything über exciting about it but it is usually quite good, and this was pretty much the same. This particular song, a new release, was only ok for me. Maybe I would have liked it if he had played Dancing in the Dark or Born to Run I would have been more excited. B
Bruno Mars- Runaway- Aside from giving everyone that awesome quote Bruno mars is amazing. I seriously think he is so freaking talented. He a) has a great voice and b) can really move! The dance moves were nuts like his legs were made of jelly. He also kept right along with his “doo-wop” Motown feel which I commend him for. Way to go consistency! A-
Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys- Etta James’ Sunday Kinda Love- Alicia Keys sounded good on this, but Bonnie Raitt was freaking awesome! I couldn’t believe how great she sounds for her age. Also wasn’t a fan of Alicia’s pompadour. The ode to Etta was too short in my opinion but very classy in the downscale performance. B
Chris Brown- Turn Up the Music/Beautiful People- Begin Rant- I like, this article feel like Chris Brown should NOT have been allowed to perform at the Grammys. Remember that time that Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMA’s and was completely ostracized for a long time (til my dark twisted fantasy helped bring people back on board the ‘ye train). Why in the world was Kanye treated worse than a man who hit his gf so hard she had to go the hospital?! Domestic abuse is not ok and should not be perceived as so by allowing Chris Brown to perform on a large scale stage- End Rant. That being said Chris didn’t do much singing on these two numbers. Mostly dancing with crazy men in flying squirrel costumes. Blah. The guy can dance but why is that being showcased here? C-
Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson- Don’t You Wanna Stay- I’m not really sure what is so great about Jason Aldean and why he is currently the “golden boy” of country music, he sounds like most other country singers to me, and even had an embarrassing situation when his mic went out on stage during this performance. He looked pretty annoyed. Kelly on the other hand has been awesome live (see national anthem performance at superbowl) and this performance was no exception. Their harmonizing was good though. B-
Foo Fighters (1)-Walk- Foo Fighters are apparently not cool enough to perform on the ACTUAL grammy stage so they have to perform in the tent outside. Regardless I kinda wanted them to sing Rope because I thought it would give them the chance to rock out hard, unlike Walk which is a great song but more somber. Regardless they performed Rope later so look out for it at that point. B
Coldplay and Rihanna- We Found Love/Princess of China/Paradise- This might come as a surprise but I am not a huge fan of the club anthem We Found Love. It’s too much synthetic beat for me to really love it. When she sang it acapella for about a minute I was like…wow this is great. And then the club music came in. I mean she’s a great live performer so the performance itself was good, but again I don’t love the song. On the collaboration between Coldplay and Rihanna Princess of China they sounded ok; again this isn’t one of my favorite songs off of Mylo Xyloto. On Paradise Coldplay tried to re-create some of the magic of the Charlie Brown video with all the black lit bright paint splotches. It made me wish they were singing that song instead of Paradise because I think it’s normally a hard song to sing and Chris Martin struggled a bit, but all in all a pretty solid performance by both artists. B
Beach Boys, Foster the People, and Maroon 5- Surfer Girl/Wouldn’t it be Nice/Good Vibrations- Foster the people and Maroon 5 showed exactly how hard it is to sing a Beach Boys song. While Adam Levine did admirably on Surfer Girl, Foster the People sounded/looked a bit nervous when taking on Wouldn’t it be Nice. I told my friends earlier that day that I had thought Foster the People should sing Good Vibrations, and was honestly disappointed when they didn’t. BUT then the Beach Boys came out and sang it and everyone joined in! Dream came true. B+
Paul McCartney (1)-My Valentine- I had been trying to listen to Paul’s new album Kisses on Bottom for days and hadn’t been able to, but this new song deemed a “new” valentines day standard was pretty boring and sad, and prompted the millions of twitter followers to say “whose Paul McCartney anyways?” C+
The Civil Wars- Barton Hollow- Literally this 60 second snippet of this folk/country band had me BEGGING for more. I loved every second (of the sixty) and have been listening to this band non stop on spotify ever since. Amazing. A
Taylor Swift- Mean- Most of you know that I am not Taylor’s biggest fan, but I actually like the song Mean. She plays the banjo well and I like the jamboree feel and the close re-creation to her music video. All in all a good folksy performance. A-
Katy Perry- ET/Part of Me- Both of these songs and subsequent performances were only ok for me. I get that she was going for a very futuristic vibe but it was a little too much for me. B-
Adele-Rolling in the Deep- Oh how I love Adele. She is seriously the best ever. Not only does she look amazing but she sounds amazing live. Her performance didn’t need a ton of frills to be great either which is part of the reason why she is so singular in her awesomeness. I also re-watched this performance probably 4 times because of how great it was. A+
The Band Perry/Blake Shelton/ Glenn Campbell- Tribute to Glenn Campbell- I like the band Perry better than Lady Antebellum. There I said it. Sue me. I also like Blake Shelton and his charming country boy ways. As you know I’m not a huge country fan in general but everyone did well I thought. Including Glenn Campbell himself. B+
Tony Bennet and Carrie Underwood- It Had to be You- While this pairing was random Carrie did quite well against the always classy and wonderful Tony Bennet. There harmonizing was pretty good too. B+
Jennifer Hudson- Dolly Parton/Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You- in this tribute to Whitney JHud soared. She sounded elegant and didn’t do a carbon copy of the original which I commend her for. The performance really showed the classic beauty of the song. A
Chris Brown, David Guetta, and Lil Wayne-I Can Only Imagine- So while I do like David Guetta I still really don’t like Chris Brown. This song is pretty catchy albeit super clubby, but the entire performance was odd. There were all these audience members holding up random giant glow sticks (like miniature inflated flailing arm tube men) and also looked like it was filmed via audience member in the outdoor tent area. C
Foo Fighters and Dead Mau5- Rope- Really Glad Foo got a chance to rock out but why the need to make it more clubby with the addition of Dead Mau5(who btw haunts my nightmares, someone get that guy off the stage!) B
Nicki Minaj- Roman Holiday- aside from the random thirty second amusing homage to The Excorcist, this was some weird performance. Weirder than ANYTHING Gaga has turned out and that is saying A LOT. Unlike most of her hits this tune didn’t really have a great hook. How much more awesome would it have been had she performed super bass. Seriously. C-
Paul McCartney- Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End- For the last performance of the night the Grammys wisely brought back Sir Paul for this awesome rendition of the Beatles classics. I thought he sounded great (although looked old) and I loved it when he brought so many people on stage with him to rock out at the end (including Dave Grohl finally performing on the real grammy stage and looking thrilled!, and The Boss). A
All in all a more B average night overall. Who, like me, wishes Adele was their friend?
