The biggest night in music arrived March 14: The 63rd annual Grammy Awards. While the ceremony was postponed six weeks due to COVID-19 concerns, the night finally arrived, and was filled with many memorable performances.
This year’s Grammys was hosted by comedian Trevor Noah. While the ceremony usually takes place inside Los Angeles’s Staples Center, this year it took place outdoors at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Noah did a pretty good job as far as trying to keep this year’s ceremony entertaining. While there was no audience due to COVID-19, that didn’t stop Noah from interacting with the celebrity guests at the event.
The Grammys featured 23 different musical performances throughout the three-and-a-half-hour ceremony. The musical guests included Harry Styles, opening the show with his hit song “Watermelon Sugar,” rappers DaBaby and Roddy Ricch, teaming up to perform their No. 1 hit “Rockstar” and Korean Pop group BTS, among others.
One standout performance was Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, who linked up to perform their song “Leave the Door Open” live for the first time. The two are known by the stage name “Silver Sonic.”
Marco Fiorante, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, watched the Grammys and said he was very impressed with Silver Sonic’s performance.
“I thought Bruno Mars’ voice and Anderson Paak’s went extremely well together,” Fiorante said. “My favorite part was towards the end when they were harmonizing together.”
The night featured big winners of the Grammy awards as well. Singer Taylor Swift won the prestigious Album of the Year award for her album “Folklore.” Swift became the first woman to ever win Album of the Year at the Grammys three times, while being only the fourth artist ever to do it.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion had a big night as well, winning three Grammy awards. Megan won the Best New Artist award and won two Grammys for her song “Savage” with Beyoncé. Beyoncé also made history during the night, winning her 28th Grammy award of her career, the most for a female artist in the program’s history. The second highest is Alison Krauss with 27 awards.
Laine McKinney, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, also watched the show and was impressed by the accomplishments of Beyoncé.
“She is one of the most iconic female entertainers of our generation,” McKinney said. “Her music has had a big impact on both the pop and R&B world and if anyone was going to break this record, it was going to be her.”
Despite the Grammys’ attempts at keeping this year’s show engaging, the television audience was not fully engaged. According to the Associated Press, this year’s Grammy awards ceremony had 9.23 million viewers. And while it seems like a lot of people, it was a 51% drop from last year’s ceremony. The Associated Press also believes the drop in views is due to the lack of people watching broadcast television and people simply using social media to see what happened at the Grammys.
This year’s Grammys also came with a lot of controversy, which possibly led to the lack of viewership. Singer The Weeknd was completely shut down from a Grammy nomination this year. The Weeknd claimed that the Recording Academy didn’t like his decision to perform at this past February’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, thus not giving him any nominations, on his Instagram. He had dominated 2020 with his No. 1 album, “After Hours” which had the No. 1 song, “Blinding Lights.” The situation ultimately led The Weeknd to boycotting the Grammys and saying that he will not be submitting any future music to the award show for consideration.
Despite mixed feelings about the Recording Academy, the Grammys still managed to pull off the ceremony despite being in the middle of a pandemic.
This story was written by Rashad Alexander. He can be reached at [email protected].
