The Grammy Awards: The Gist, The Glitz & The Backlash

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The 61st annual Grammy Awards took place this month. It was definitely a night for celebrating some of the great talents in the music industry, from R&B to Rock, Rap and Country, the Grammy’s stage is a place where all kinds of musical talent and sound are represented and honored.

Held on the 10^th of February, 2019 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, the ceremony wasn’t just colorful with the amazing fashion statements on the red carpet but the night also celebrated women in the industry as they dominated the award show more than ever before.

Singer-Songwriter, Alicia Keys to Host Grammys

15 time Grammy award winner Alicia keys took on the big responsibility of hosting this year’s Grammys. We all remember that funny moment when she found out and decided to tell her kids who seemed pretty unimpressed by the news as they couldn’t get how much of a big deal it was. 

We love Alicia Keys. She is an icon on self-love and authenticity. Read about how she’s taught us about self-acceptance by clicking here.

However, we on the other hand were very much impressed with her hosting skills as she opened the award ceremony with Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jenifer Lopez and a surprise appearance by former First Lady, Michelle Obama. Needless to say, the crowd went wild as soon as the first lady began to speak reminding us with the other ladies the important part music plays in our lives. It was definitely a great way to kick off the ceremony.

Nominations and Winners

Leading this year’s grammy nominations was hip hop star Kendrick Lamar with eight nominations, Drake earned seven, the most nominated woman of the night was Brandi Carlile with six, Cardi B, Childish Gambino, H.E.R, Lady Gaga and Maren Morris all had five nominations each. With 84 categories on the list, it is no wonder that fans stayed glued to their television screens to see which of their favorite celebrities would be taking home a grammy.

The biggest winners of the night included Childish Gambino for his song ‘This is America’ with four grammys including Record of the year and Song of the Year, which was a first for any Rap Song in history. Also with four grammys was Kacy Musgraves an American country singer-songwriter, who took home Album of the Year  for ‘Golden Hour’, Best Country Solo Performance for her song ‘Butterflies’ amongst others, making the female with the most wins at this year’s grammys.

Another big win of the night was Cardi B who took home the grammy for Best Rap Album, making the first female rapper to ever take home the award for her solo album titled ‘Invasion of Privacy’. Lady Gaga snagged the award for Best Pop Solo Performance for ‘Joanne (Where do you think you’re goin?)’, Best Pop Duo/ Group Performance for her song ‘Shallow’ with Brandly Cooper amongst others.

Some other winners include, Dua Lipa for Best New Artist, Ariana Grande for Best Pop Vocal Album for ‘Sweetner’ this would be the artist’s first grammy win, Ella Mai for Best R&B Song, The Carters (Jay Z and Beyonce) for Best Contemporary Album, Drake for Best Rap Song and Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album by H.E.R.

Performances at the Grammy Awards

The night would not be complete if the stars didn’t hit the stage so we can all dance to our favorite tunes. Some of the amazing performances that rocked the stage were rapper Cardi B for her song Money, Alicia Keys who sang various songs and also played two pianos at the same time. I mean if that doesn’t get you excited I don’t know what else will.

Jennifer Lopez, Smokie Robinson, Ne-yo and Alicia Keys who performed the Motown 60 Grammy Tribute honoring the great talents that came out from Motown records and celebrating 60 years of the label. Fantasia, Andra Day and Yolanda Adams who did a tribute to the Late Aritha Franklin singing the iconic ‘(You Make me Feel) Like a Natural Woman’.

Sisters Chole and Halle also did a tribute to Donny Hathaway for the song ‘Where is Love’, Diana Ross also graced the stage to perform ‘The Best Years of my Life’ and ‘Reach out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)’.

Finally, the MusiCares Person of the Year, Dolly Parton performed alongside Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves and later serenaded us with her iconic song ‘Jolene’ which she performed alongside her god daughter Miley Cyrus.

See more of the Grammys fashion here.

Grammy Awards Controversy

No award show would be complete without its own fair share of controversies, and the Grammy Awards was no exception.

Ariana Grande

A pre-grammy dispute would be that of Araina Grande refusing to perform at the ceremony. The artist wanted to perform her hit song ‘7 Rings’ which is making waves on the charts but was told to perform another track ‘God is a Woman’. Once the artist saw she won’t be getting her wish, she decided to ghost the grammys all together stating on her twitter that

“… her creativity and self-expression was stifled…”

Fans also complained that their favorite stars had their acceptance speeches being cut short. The likes of Drake whom after winning his award was taking time to honor his fellow artists and letting people know that an award doesn’t define you as an artist, had his speech cut short. However, this didn’t stop the award show from being four hours long.

Cardi B

Post grammy controversy that flooded the internet was that of Cardi B who got lots of backlash saying she didn’t deserve the award for Best Rap Album. Though she received a lot of praise from fans and fellow artist on her history making moment, this didn’t stop the haters from getting at her. She posted on her Instagram in true Cardi Fashion getting back at the negative comments saying why she deserved her award and later disabled her account. After more than 24hrs, she enabled her account announcing the release of a new song with fellow grammy award winning artist Burno Mars.

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez also received serious backlash for her Motown Tribute performance. Though this controversy began when it was revealed that the Puerto Rican star would be the one peforming the tribute, most people felt it was insulting for a non African American to give a tribute to a label that brought to life the black American sound to the limelight.

Stevie Wonder was scheduled to perform with Lopez, but dropped out and was replaced with Ne-yo. Smokie Robinson and Alicia Keys were also later added to list.

This tribute was initially supposed to be a Michael Jackson tribute that would be performed with Lopez and the Jackson 5 brothers, it was later changed to the medley performed at the grammys. This was due to the dispute surrounding the release of a Michael Jackson documentary titled “Leaving Neverland’ that talks about children molested at the home of Michael.

With all the backlash received before the performance, this didn’t stop Lopez from giving the performace her all. admist the post commnets of the performance, music legend and honoury member of Motown Smokie Robinson has defended lopez saying that the goal of Motown records was to make music that all people could enjoy from all races not just black people.

Nicki Minaj

Another juicy news that surrounded the ceremony was the song of rapper Nicki Minaj for her album “Queen”. This came as a shock to a lot of Nicki fans as the artists wasn’t nominated for any of the categories especially for Best Rap Album which was won by her rival Cardi B. Now Nicki had made no public comments on this until BET twitted “Meanwhile Nicki Minaj is being dragged by her lace front”. Though this tweet has since been deleted, Nicki shot back saying;

“Young Money will no longer be a part of the BET Experienec or award show. Summer tour dates dropping soon”

Now Nicki was scheduled to perform at the BET award ceremony scheduled for June this year at Los Angeles but after the tweet she decided to back out and made sure her fans knew about it.

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