U2, Carey are Grammy faves
On Wednesday night, The Music Industry hands out heavy little statues to its own for making music and selling it to people. Last year, the voters showered 10 nominations and three awards on rapper/producer Kanye West's debut, The College Dropout. Bay Area pop-punkers Green Day, now all grown up and socially aware, were also rewarded for the creative growth shown in their magnum opus, American Idiot.
This year, the very confident West can add eight more nominations to his track record for Late Registration, while R&B chanteuse Mariah Carey's career renaissance will likely be completed with a few wins for The Emancipation of Mimi.
In recent years, the Grammy voters have loosened up a bit in the nominations but still tend to take the safe road when it comes time to hand out the awards. Getting into the heads of the voters is difficult, as they seem to be aware that rewarding their old favorites (boomer icons, Sheryl Crow) is perceived as playing it safe and not keeping up with what's really hip and happening.
Taking a cue from the American Music Awards, the Grammy telecast will have a gaggle of "special" performances, and while sparks seldom truly fly, there will be some potentially interesting performances and combinations of artists.
McCartney will perform (all the more reason to hand him an award and let him stand at the podium and charm us all like it's 1964) along with Carey, Legend and West together, Springsteen and Coldplay. U2 and Mary J. Blige will team up again, probably to perform One as they did on a recent Hurricane Katrina benefit telecast.
Faith Hill and country hunk Keith Urban will perform a duet, as will Herbie "living jazz legend" Hancock and Christina Aguilera (we predict the usually flamboyant singer will be dressed more demurely than Carey, whose overpriced Jersey streetwalker look is a trademark).
One performance that could be either an amazing moment or a sloppy shambles will be the all-star tribute to Sly & The Family Stone featuring (take a deep breath) Maroon 5, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Ciara, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Joss Stone, John Legend and Devin Lima, Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Choir, Mariah Carey and her cleavage. There is even talk of the reclusive Rock Hall inductee (who has shamefully not received the deluxe edition or box set treatment afforded to many lesser artists) leaving his house and appearing on the show, which would be quite a coup.
Also interesting is the seemingly odd choice of uber-guitarist Steve Vai (Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake) as a co-host of the pre-Grammy telecast. The telecast will be long and for every moment of musical inspiration and heartwarming, gushing acceptance speeches ("I'd like to thank God"), there will be moments of head-scratching second-guessing by pundits and fans. Awards and awards shows are ubiquitous these days, but just as the Oscars and the Emmys are still the ultimate prize in their respective mediums, nothing validates an artist's hard work like taking home a Grammy. (excerpt from the Beacon Journal)
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