GRAMMYS STATEMENT Beyoncé’s baby bump spoke loudest—and even outshone Adele.
Beyoncé’s baby bump spoke loudest—and even outshone Adele
Just 56 minutes into the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 12 in Los Angeles, the most anticipated attendees appeared in the spotlight. And when they did, the music industry heavyweights gathered at the Staples Center erupted in gasps and applause. The special guests —Beyoncé’s unborn twins—were introduced as their grandmother Tina Lawson heralded her own daughter onstage: “What makes me most proud and why I’m here tonight to introduce Beyoncé is the devotion and love I see in her.”
With eight nominations, Beyoncé already had reason enough to feel good on the night. Then she emerged to give a show-stopping, nine-minute performance of two tracks from her album Lemonade, baby bump on full display, and the crowd went wild, no doubt leaving her even more, well, swollen with pride. Days earlier, a source close to the singer and husband Jay Z said they “had given up” trying to give daughter Blue Ivy, 5, a sibling, before finding out twins were on the
way. The close friend told Us magazine Beyoncé had been trying to conceive since Blue was born, and was becoming frustrated. “After unsuccessful in vitro fertilisation treatments, they were looking into surrogates and adoption,” said the source, who added Blue Ivy “was asking about another baby forever. Now she gets two!”
Her double joy may have been why Beyoncé, who won two gongs, sounded so exultant accepting the award for Urban Contemporary album: “I thank God for my family, my wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, my fans for bringing me so much happiness and support.”
She lost the Big Three—record, Song and Album of the Year—to Adele, who called her “my idol” in one of her trademark tremulousbut-witty acceptance speeches. Back from a four-year break, Adele conceded that recording her third album, 25, “took an army to make me strong and willing again.”
Yet despite her five-trophy sweep,
Adele wasn’t bulletproof on the night: in a shock flub that echoed her tear-inducing technical difficulties at last year’s show, she cut off her “Fastlove” tribute to George Michael and asked for a restart: “I f--ked up. I’m sorry for cursing on live TV. I can’t mess this up for him.”
Metallica’s James Hetfield was not as lucky—he was saddled with a bung microphone during the group’s duet with Lady Gaga, which ended with her stage dive into the crowd. (On the carpet, Gaga chatted with surprise guest Céline Dion, who, handing an award to Adele, mouthed, “You are ... amazing.”) Presenter John Travolta also ran into trouble. After joking about his jewellery (“You’re thinking, ‘Damn ... where’d he get all that bling from?”) he nearly repeated his “Adele Dazeem” moment —that would be Idina Menzel—from the 2014 Oscars. “I’m not going to be able to read that prompter,” Travolta conceded before pulling index cards from his jacket pocket. “This urban cowboy is going to be using the cards.”