The 2025 Grammys: variations and similar ol’
I’m a day late as a result of I wished to look at the Grammys final night time and speak about them this morning. They had been each the identical and completely different…however the variations had been most essential.
First, was the deal with the LA fires. As a former resident of Pacific Palisades I used to be saddened to be taught that my former home is gone, together with my complete neighborhood. I used to be extra saddened for the household that purchased it earlier than I moved to Mexico. Whereas they weren’t within the music business – as many individuals who misplaced houses in each the Palisades and Altadena had been – they probably misplaced the whole lot.
So I used to be very joyful to see the Grammys flip themselves so right into a fund raiser for the organizations serving to households, and particularly musicians who usually lease and don’t have any insurance coverage, and even gave a few of their promoting time to companies that misplaced the whole lot. I cherished the advertisements the place the enterprise homeowners talked to us and had been then joined by a rock star, who pressed the message residence.
What else was completely different? Properly, for one, Taylor Swift didn’t win any awards final night time. Regardless of being nominated in six classes for her album The Tortured Poets Division and the tune “Fortnight. ” However, if you happen to had been watching, she was a category act, cheering for the winners, standing for each applause, speaking with different singers, and handing Beyonce’ the award for Greatest Nation Album . Since Swift received Album of the Yr final 12 months for Midnight, it was elegant for her to step again and cheer others, even Sabrina Carpenter, who received within the Greatest Pop Vocal Album for Brief and Candy, ( which I really feel was misplaced – The Tortured Poets Division was mild years higher for my part).
The Beyonce’ win – properly deserved – for Cowboy Carter, was completely different. 5 years in the past if you happen to predicted a black lady would win Greatest Nation Album, you’ll have been laughed out of the barroom. I like nation music, however it’s so good to see it transfer out of the pickup- truck-beer-whiskey-she left- me field it has been in (in equity, it has been climbing out of over the previous few years). Artists like Beyonce and Shaboozey deliver a recent outlook and themes to considered one of America’s music types. It does make me recall that Black cowboys had been current within the American West from the mid-Nineteenth century accounting for an estimated 25% of cowboys from the 1860s to Eighties, at the least 5,000 people.
It additionally made me take into consideration how the Academy responded to The Weekend’s request that it expanded its range, including over 3,000 ladies voting members since 2019, exceeding their unique purpose of including 2,500 ladies voting members by 2025. The Academy has elevated its racial range since 2019, with a 65% improve in folks of shade since 2019, together with a 90% improve in Black or African American members and 100% progress in Asian or Pacific Islander voting membership.
There have been many different variations like Charli XCX’s rave celebration on stage with boldface names, Chappell Roan’s very direct criticisms of the report labels for making thousands and thousands on their stars whereas paying them a pittance (though I’m not certain about her princess hat), the publicity given Raye within the Greatest New Artist phase which is often an afterthought, and Doechii’s choice for Greatest Rap Album, solely the third lady to win the dignity in a heavy male surroundings.
Talking of heavy male surroundings, it was not there final night time. The vast majority of the televised awards went to ladies. Aside from Kendrick Lamar’s wins for File and Music of the Yr males had been barely seen within the present, because the creativity of the ladies overwhelmed them, at the least within the eyes of the Academy voters. (I did like Benson Boone’s flip over the piano – no surprise he wanted a jumpsuit.) My preliminary rely is 14 ladies took residence main awards in comparison with 7 males. And did you discover the big variety of feminine guitarists within the stage bands, particularly St. Vincent.
What was the identical ol’ factor? Trevor Noah’s internet hosting, which was superb ,however didn’t stray from the same old mannequin, apart from when he stated that Sabrina Carpenter was funnier than he was and perhaps ought to host subsequent 12 months’s present. The tribute to Quincy Jones, which was great, did remind of earlier tributes. However I nonetheless cherished it. There have been outrageous and flattering outfits, as typical. And it was filled with advertisements, at the least within the stream I watched.
The Latin Awards weren’t particularly shocking, at the least to me. Shakira within the Greatest Latin Pop Album, Carin Leon for Boca Chueca, Vol1 in the Greatest Musica Mexican Album (not my selection, I’d have picked Chiquis or Peso Pluma), and Rawayana for Greatest Latin Rock Various Album, though I’d have chosen Maintain Me Fed by The Warning.
All in all, the Recording Academy is to be congratulated for a great present with only some headscratchers, properly deserved awards throughout, and the dedication of the efficiency to elevating cash for folks made homeless by the fires. I’m glad I waited a day and watched it.
Patrick O’Heffernan
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