My Take: The 58th Grammy Awards

SA Engages

February 22, 2016

ICYMI: The 58th Annual Grammy Awards were this past Monday. This may be the only fact of this entire piece – the rest will be my thoughts and opinions, however widely-accepted they have become. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with the night as a whole. There were some highlights, some shots fired, and lots of lip-licking by LL Cool J. Here are some of my takeaways…

Taylor Swift swift kicked off the show with a huge version of “Out of the Woods.” It wasn’t bad…it also wasn’t great, definitely not T. Swift’s most memorable moment from the show. What I remember most were her over-the-top reactions when winners were announced. This seems to be a trend with her…she reacts the way I imagine I would if I won the lottery. If this is the way she reacts to an (arguably arbitrary) award, what do you think her legitimate surprised reaction looks like? I imagine it looks something like those fainting goats.
Kendrick Lamar’s performance was straight fire emoji. No…literally…there was a giant bonfire on stage during his set. I must admit, I’m not a huge hip-hop fan, but I like Kendrick. He’s like Kanye, but better, less pretentious, and he actually smiles.
The Weeknd’s hair made another appearance. What is going on there?
The highlight of the show to me was the James Bay + Tori Kelly collaboration. Bay’s “Let It Go” is one of the better songs from last year, and Tori Kelly is arguably one of the best female vocalists in the room. If you missed it, watch it.
Adele…poor Adele. If you didn’t see it, you missed what sounded like a cat pawing at a guitar during her performance of “All I Ask”. What was supposed to be a powerful, low-key moment turned into a head scratching and disappointing 3 minutes. I’ll admit, I muted Adele. God forgive me.
There were several performances in tribute to David Bowie, B.B. King, Maurice White, Lemmy Kilmister and Glenn Frey. No disrespect, but they were mostly forgettable.
While some performances were meh, others were just downright not good. They are as follows: Little Big Town, Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood/Sam Hunt, Pitbull.

Much more happened during the two-and-a-half hour long broadcast, but #GRAMMYs on Twitter was far more entertaining to me for much of the show. Let us know what you thought of the show!