Moments that have us talking
Saturday Night Live wasn’t the only show to go live from New York this weekend. The Grammys returned for the first time in 15 years. Here are moments that got people talking:
Bruno Mars’ big night
No one had a bigger night than the singer/songwriter, who took home six awards, including the big three: album, record and song of the year in addition to three R&B categories.
Stars audition for the ‘Fire and Fury’ audiobook
“As we all know, our current president likes winning awards,” host James Corden told the audience. “Who knows? He could be the subject of next year’s winner for spoken word.”
In the night’s most successful bit, we got John Legend, Cardi B, Snoop Dogg, Cher, DJ Khaled and Hillary Clinton reading parts of Michael Wolff ’s controversial account of President Trump’s first year in office.
Camila Cabello, U2 send a message to DREAMERS, Trump
Cuban-born Cabello delivered the message to the DREAMERS: “We remember that this country was built by DREAMERS, for DREAMERS, chasing the American dream.” Then Ireland’s biggest export, U2, performing a taped bit on a barge in front of the Statue of Liberty, delivered the message to the man who holds immigrants’ fate in his hands: Get Out of Your Own Way. They also dropped in Kendrick Lamar’s line from American Soul: “Blessed are the bullies, for one day they will have to stand up to themselves.”
Kesha gets the last word
Time’s Up didn’t come up until 21⁄ 2 hours into the show, but Janelle Monáe made the most of it by declaring: “To
those who would dare try and silence us, we offer you two words: Time’s up. We say time’s up for pay inequality, discrimination or harassment of any kind, and the abuse of power. We come in peace, but we mean business.”
She introduced Kesha, who gave the night’s most emotional performance with the autobiographical Praying, backed up by Cyndi Lauper, Julia Michaels, Andra Day and Cabello, concluding with a tearful group hug.
Pink stays on the stage for a change
After performing Try on a trapeze at the 2014 Grammys and Beautiful Trauma while scaling a building at last year’s American Music Awards, Pink kept it super-simple. She performed Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken in a ripped T-shirt and jeans, with her bare feet planted on the stage the whole time. The only embellishment: a signlanguage interpreter.
SZA gets snubbed
No category gets music lovers’ dander up like best new artist, and this year was no exception. It’s not that people didn’t think winner Alessia Cara was deserving; they just thought she deserved to win in 2016. Adding insult to injury, SZA lost all five categories in which she was nominated.
Another result that rankled: Ed Sheeran winning pop solo performance over four women.
Kendrick Lamar, U2 and ... Dave Chappelle?
With the volume turned down, the opening of Lamar’s XXX could have been mistaken for a live promo for CBS’ military drama SEAL Team, with its waving flag and light-infantry dancers. He was briefly joined by U2’s Bono and The Edge before the lights went out and we got a comic-relief segue from Chappelle, who later won best comedy album: “I just wanted to remind the audience that the only thing more frightening than watching a black man be honest in America is being an honest black man in America.”