It’s usually not easy for me to get excited about The Grammy Awards. I’m increasingly moving out of even the fringe of the target demographic of the majority of nominated artists, and I’d be hard pressed to pick any of them out of a police lineup. Were it not for the fact that in the course of double-checking some of what was being incorporated into this musing I watched an online video story I might have thought the way to pronounce Charlie XCX was Charlie One Hundred.
And it’s not as if CBS has been going overly overboard in promoting it, either. After all, they’re in their next-to-last year of their current and likely last-ever contract to air it, with the show going to the only slightly less fish-out-of-water venue of ABC in 2027. And even with an impressive +34% year/year bump last February, it still hasn’t fully rebounded to its pre-pandemic viewership levels, not that any other awards show has or likely will. Not that airing a bunch of spots in procedurals like the FBI troika and MATLOCK were all that likely to help. Pure and simple, a theoretically younger-skewing audience has neither the appetite or the patience for a bunch of speeches accompanying a trophy that resembles a machine that hasn’t been in use since their grandparents’ (great-grandparents’) childhoods.
In fact, this year the Grammys might have been better served with the footprint of a gala that took place Thursday night, as no less than FIVE NBCNEWS.com reporters– , , , and
The City of Angels was serenaded by over two dozen artists Thursday during a star-studded benefit that raised money for those affected by the devastating L.A.-area fires.
The FireAid concert, which spanned over five hours, was held at the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome, which are adjacent to each other in the Inglewood area. Lady Gaga closed the show by performing numbers from the 2018 film “A Star Is Born,” as well as an original song she wrote for the benefit.
Other performers included: the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Katy Perry, No Doubt, Earth Wind & Fire, Dr. Dre, Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette, Stevie Nicks, Anderson .Paak, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Mike Campbell and Olivia Rodrigo. Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, the surviving members of the band Nirvana, also made a surprise appearance, performing some of the band’s songs with St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett and Grohl’s daughter, Violet.
See, those are names that even I recognize. And as the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ preview noted:
It will be broadcast live across Apple Music and AppleTV, DirecTV, Disney+, Hulu, FanDuel, KTLA+, Max, Netflix, Paramount+, Pluto TV, Peacock, NBC News Now, Prime Video and Twitch.
I do know how to find those platforms, but it wasn’t top-of-mind for moi. The highlights were nonetheless impressive.
I do suspect a streaming audience would have been more likely to know who some of tonight’s bigger nominees are. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS’ Maria Sherman and Jonathan Landrum Jr. did a little name-dropping in their collaborative prognostication preview dropped early last week:
Album of the year: New Blue Sun,” André 3000; “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé; “Short n’ Sweet,” Sabrina Carpenter; “BRAT,” Charli xcx; “Djesse Vol. 4, “Jacob Collier; “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” Billie Eilish; “Chappell Roan The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Chappell Roan; “The Tortured Poets Department,” Taylor Swift.
Record of the year :“Now and Then,” the Beatles; “Texas Hold ’Em,” Beyoncé; “Espresso,” Sabrina Carpenter; “360,” Charli xcx; “Birds of a Feather,” Billie Eilish; “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar; “Good Luck, Babe!”, Chappell Roan; “Fortnight,” Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone.
Song of the year (songwriter’s award) :“A Bar Song (Tipsy)”; “Birds of a Feather”; “Die with a Smile”; “Fortnight”; “Good Luck, Babe!”; “Not Like Us”; “Please Please Please”; “Texas Hold ’Em.” See the full list of songwriters here.
Best new artist :Benson Boone; Sabrina Carpenter; Doechii; Khruangbin; RAYE; Chappell Roan; Shaboozey; Teddy Swims.
Now thanks to Saturday Night Live I do know who Carpenter and Roan are, but honestly, I thought Shaboozey was a misspelled namesake of the showstopper from THE MUSIC MAN.
But this year I will be paying attention and at least giving myself a fighting chance to be marginally aware of who’s who because they’re gathering at a time when both this city and the TV competitive landscape really needs it. There’s no football on, which is withdrawl enough, and the timing that will allow a city that has suffered through arguably the most horrific start to a year in my lifetime to finally exhale and actually put on a show couldn’t be more necessar.
And as the ultra-busy Sherman reported in a separate AP piece from last week:
The Grammy Awards will look a little bit different this week. The Grammys will still take place on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles but now will focus its attention on helping wildfire victims.
Within days of fires ravaging the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods, the Recording Academy and its affiliated MusiCares charity launched the Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort with a $1 million dollar donation. According to a letter sent to members on Jan. 13, thanks to additional contributions, they’ve already distributed $2 million in emergency aid. Once the fund was set up, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. said they began focusing on reformatting what Grammy week would look like — many conversations conducted “on the road, mobile-y, virtually” as staffers had evacuated their homes.
Events like the annual pre-Grammy Black Music Collective event, Grammy advocacy brunch, and others scheduled to take place at the immersive pop-up Grammy house have been canceled. “We thought consolidating the events would allow us to have more impact,” Mason explains. “And we just don’t feel it was the right time to have social gatherings or places to party or schmooze and just hang out. We wanted to have our events be places that could be purposeful and impactful. Some of the party settings, we decided to fold down into our fundraising efforts.”
“We needed to raise money. We needed to show unity and come together around music. We need to support the city of L.A. (Over) 6,500 people work on our shows and ancillary gatherings. So, once we decided to move forward, it was really a conversation with (Grammy producers) Ben Winston, Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins and myself. And we started to think about, ‘How do we make the show have the greatest impact?’
They decided the path forward was to still give out awards and host performances to give viewers and attendees a bespoke concert experience. But most importantly, the show could raise awareness, drive donations and resources to funds that benefit people in need.
And as someone who works around people who have dazedly looked around for emergency kits, generators and chargers who respond to my otherwise tone-deaf pleas to have them consider buying or servicing their HVACs who blankly respond with something to the effect of “I like your pitch but I no longer have a home”, that’s something I can relate to way more than any particular artist I may not yet know about.
So, yep, I’ll be watching and learning. I might even throw a small donation their way. After all, that’s what a typical broadcast network awards show viewer would be inclined to do.
Until next time…