HELMETS OFF
In 2014, Daft Punk threw a Grammy bash for the ages after the ‘Get Lucky’ duo scored upset wins
Every year, there are Grammy parties with jawdropping collections of stars that most mortals don’t get to attend. such as Clive Davis’ legendary Pre-grammy Gala, the gold standard for starry assemblies.
But Daft Punk’s epic 2014 post-grammy fete at the ornate 1924-vintage Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles — after the duo won all of the awards for which their “Random Access Memories” album was nominated — was truly one for the ages.
Although a rumor that Madonna would perform with the pair (Thomas Bangalter and Guy-manuel de Homem-christo) did not come to pass, there were top-shelf DJS including Questlove, DJ Premier and Todd Edwards playing from a balcony 50 feet above the revelers; a lit-up “Saturday Night Fever”-style dance floor; and a guest list to rival any exclusive Hollywood bash. Madonna and daughter Lourdes were indeed there, along with Jay-z, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, Paul Mccartney, Elton John, Trent Reznor, Beck, Lorde, half of Metallica, Yoko and Sean Ono Lennon, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Elliot Page, Johnny Depp, Jared Leto, Zoë Kravitz — and most of all, people who had worked with Daft Punk on the album and its visuals: Pharrell Williams, Paul Williams, Nile Rodgers (all of whom accepted the album of the year award with the duo), Giorgio Moroder and countless musicians, engineers and friends.
The party had a center-of-the-universe vibe not just because of the guests and the setting, but also because Daft Punk had made a record that was commercially and critically successful — and risky as well. The duo had virtually pioneered EDM with their previous albums and tours, yet made “RAM” with live musicians as an homage to 1970s work by Michael Jackson, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and others. The album yielded the ubiquitous smash single “Get Lucky,” but few people expected it to win album of the year — until it did.
The party lives on in attendees’ memories and virtually nowhere else: No professional photographers were allowed, in part to preserve Daft Punk’s treasured anonymity. (For more than a decade, Guy-man and Thomas famously only appeared in public wearing helmets.) It also allowed the celebrities to cut loose. And through it all, the newly minted Grammy winners moved through the crowd helmet-free and virtually unnoticed.
“The party was very out of character for us,” says the duo’s manager, Paul Hahn. “But we had just completed this eight-year odyssey of making the album with a tight group of people, so we wanted to celebrate. Guy-man and Thomas were a little skeptical, but I convinced them.”
Kathryn Frazier, the band’s longtime publicist, recalls how “elated” the pair were after the win. “I remember in the limo on the way to the party, everyone was like, ‘Can you believe it?!’ They’d made this weird record that they’d funded themselves and wasn’t a usual Daft Punk album, and beat out all these mainstream artists,” she says.
Chris Holmes, Paul Mccartney’s tour DJ, who also spun at the event, recalls, “It was like being in a wax museum of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or something. Lorde really wanted to meet [Mccartney] so I went to get him, but she got so nervous that she ran away.”
The revelry continued until the wee hours. “Usually celebrities show their face, chitchat for a minute and then they’re out,” Frazier says. “But all these famous people were there for hours, and not just propped up behind a wall in a VIP section. They were on the dance floor, cutting loose and having a great time. I remember seeing Thomas dancing and thinking, ‘Does anyone even know that’s him?’ ”
“It’s the most legendary party in the 20 years that I’ve lived in L.A.,” Holmes concludes. “They had won all these Grammys and were one of the biggest acts in the world. It was their party with all these super-famous people — and hardly anyone knew who they were.”
No professional photographers were allowed, in part to preserve Daft Punk’s treasured anonymity.
Ten days before her 55th birthday, Kylie Minogue released “Padam Padam,” the first single from her 16th album, “Tension.” Since last May, the tune has become ubiquitous on social media, emerging as a worldwide anthem for the LGBTQ community and qualifying as the singer’s biggest hit of the streaming era.
Named for the sound made by the rhythm of the human heart, it’s also become a drumbeat building to Minogue’s best chance to nab her second Grammy, for best pop dance recording. Her first came 20 years ago at the 46th annual ceremony, when “Come Into My World” won a similar category.
As so many of her 1980s contemporaries have aged out, retired or otherwise faded from the musical landscape, Minogue has embodied the enduring power of pop stardom. Perhaps it’s because she refuses to take longevity for granted. “I will take literally every gain, big or small,” she says of the nomination. “At this stage in my career, ‘Padam’ really took us all by surprise, and I’m so cognizant that this is a good moment for me.”
Echoing the feeling she had while recording the 2001 album “Fever” — still the biggest of her career — Minogue tells Variety that “Padam” was the bellwether that told her she was on the right track as she put together “Tension.” The experience reminded her of the excitement she felt while working on her last worldwide hit, “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”
“‘Padam’ hit me the same as ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head,’ and I just said, ‘Give me that song and let me make it my own,’ ” Minogue says.
With more than 80 million records sold, she’s not only the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time but a global phenomenon. A second Grammy trophy would offer a kind of validation in the U.S. — where her stardom pales in comparison to her stature in other parts of the world — but she resists the notion that she’s been chasing it. “I would say, ‘Oh, it’s so great in the States. I can go and just be free and do whatever I want,’ until once in a while there’d be someone saying, ‘Hey, are you the “Loco-motion” girl?’ ” Minogue recalls of her 1988 hit. “And after ‘Can’t Get You out of My Head,’ then I was the ‘la-la-la’ girl. Maybe now I’m the ‘Padam Padam’ girl.”
Minogue is in the midst of a 20-date residency at the Venetian in Las Vegas that began last November and runs into May. Her stay in Sin City indicates a hope for a bigger North American footprint. She even recorded “Vegas High,” the album’s ninth song, in anticipation of the stopover. “We wanted a song to reflect that, and that’s where it’s going to live,” she says.
Although she’s been in the spotlight for her entire adult life, Minogue has only sparingly revealed her true self. “I like to open the window, but you don’t need to get into the full messy room,” she explains, nodding to the freedom that it gives her. “I like being malleable, chameleon-like, and I think my audience understands that. They can always find me within songs — even if it’s dressed up as something else.”
And with the Grammys, the back half of the residency and an expanded re-release of “Tension” due in the coming months, “Padam Padam” feels less a culmination of her career than the beginning of a new chapter.
“It’s really a wonder I’m still doing this,” she says. “On paper, maybe it shouldn’t have panned out this way.”
Although she’s been in the spotlight for her entire adult life, Minogue has only sparingly revealed her true self.