The 52nd Grammy Awards: Taylor Swift wins album of year
Taylor Swift accepts the award for Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys. (Robyn Beck, Getty Images)
In another one of those Grammy shockers, Taylor Swift won the night’s biggest award – album of the year for “Fearless” -- after a nationally televised performance Sunday that pointed out how richly she didn't deserve it.
In the live face-off at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards between Swift and Beyonce, who took home six statues, Lady B was the clear winner with a raucous medley of her “If I Were a Boy” and Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Swift, in contrast, sounded woefully out of tune in a duet with Stevie Nicks, the latest in a string of underwhelming performances on national television.
Yet it was Swift who bested Beyonce for the prestigious best-album honors. Beyonce’s consolation prize was song of the year (“Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It]”). Kings of Leon took record of the year (“Use Somebody”) and the Zac Brown Band won best new artist. Also shut out in the major categories were Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Eyes. Gaga jumped into a pit of fire and the Peas danced with robots, but to no avail.
As if a staggering 1003 nominations in 109 categories weren’t enough, here are a few categories of our own:
Censors working overtime: Lil Wayne, Eminem and Drake – can’t recall a more intense hip-hop performance on this most staid of awards shows. Too bad most of it was inaudible, as the foul-mouthed trio gave the guardians of public decency a migraine while huge chunks of their performance were muted. Not saying we needed to hear explicit language on prime-time TV, but it does point out how ultimately unsatisfying most live music performances on television are because of such restrictions.
Beck-ola! Jeff Beck paid homage to the late guitar great Les Paul by dancing on the strings while covering the old Les Paul-Mary Ford hit “How High the Moon” with vocalist Imelda May. She sounded heavily processed, but Beck was the real deal. If that doesn’t inspire any aspiring ax-man to junk “Guitar Hero” and pick up a real guitar, nothing will.
Best fashion choice: On a night when outrageousness was the rule, Maxwell stood out by going classic. Dark suit, tie, Marvin Gaye-like smoothness, right down to a Tammi Terrell-style duet with Roberta Flack on “Where is the Love.”
When the song isn’t very good … add lots of strings, a marching band, dance badly. Dave Matthews did all of the above in an attempt to salvage “You & Me.”
She never saw it coming: Bet when Mary J. Blige was
clawing her way out of
Were You Holding Your Breath … about which song Bon Jovi was going to play in fan voting? Did anyone think it wasn’t going to be “Livin’ on a Prayer”?
Back from the dead, in 3-D: The Michael Jackson tribute
was one of the set pieces scheduled for his aborted
Pitch-corrector must not have been working: Taylor Swift
sounded flat, especially when she jumped in to sing “Rhiannon” with Stevie
Nicks, who also sounded off. Swift looked more confident than she has on past nationally televised awards shows, but her vocals suggested otherwise.
Comeback kid: Less than a month after brain surgery, Leon Russell banged the keys with the Zac Brown Band, a refreshing throwback to a time when bearded, potbellied Southern guys played roots rock like their lives depended on it.
How do you spell train wreck? A-U-T-O-T-U-N-E. That chaotic Jamie Foxx/T-Pain collision, which started out as mocking opera, then segued into Auto-Tune overkill. (Could someone please kill Auto-Tune now? Didn’t Jay-Z already pronounce it dead?) Not even a Slash guitar solo could save it.
Naughty, naughty? Sure sounded to me like the audio dropped out during Fergie’s rap as the futuristic Black Eyed Peas got all sci-fi on us. Actually, the censors did us all a favor, because as MC’s go, Fergie has got flow issues.
Pink performs at the Grammys. (Kevin Winter, Getty Images) View more photos of Pink's performance at the 2010 Grammys.
Her night? Sensing that she just might run the table on her 10 nominations early on, Beyonce came out with a performance that was all windblown fury and overkill, slamming together her “If I Were a Boy” (grabbing her junk in the process) with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” Unusually aggressive by Lady B standards, especially coming off her classy Etta James moves in “Cadillac Records.”
Makeup! Someone get me makeup! What was with the runny facepaint on Lady Gaga and Elton John in their piano duet? Pretty cool opening set by Gaga, but somebody should’ve reconsidered that hideous makeup job. Yeah, yeah, I get that she got thrown into a "fire" and came out "charred." Just looked cheap. I really like that she's willing not to play the traditional dance-pop diva role, but this was distracting.
Savior of the music industry: Susan Boyle sold a ton of records, but she was no-show, in part because her debut was released too late for Grammy consideration. Still, in a year where the Grammys swung hard toward younger performers, it was a “48-year-old housewife in sensible shoes,” as host Stephen Colbert called her, who gave the sagging industry a late sales uplift.
Better late than never? Neil Young won his first Grammy award, for box-set packaging (“Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 [1963-1972]”). As the LA times pointed out, that ties him with Britney Spears. Seriously.
Second City flop: Tough night for artists with Chicago connections. Kurt Elling won for best jazz vocal album (“Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman”); Kanye West for best rap song (“Run This Town”). But nominees such as Common, Wilco, Neko Case and Mavis Staples went home empty.
greg@gregkot.com
Related:
Photos: Grammy Awards 2010 red carpet
A complete list of 2010 Grammy winners
PINK WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: HOPE THACKER | January 31, 2010 at 07:53 PM
"PINK WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!!!!!!!!"
NO! SHE SUCKED!
Posted by: LGAGA | January 31, 2010 at 08:23 PM
P!nk was not and does not lyp sync!
Posted by: Jodi | January 31, 2010 at 08:24 PM
Pink IS the best. What an awesome performance!
Posted by: henslee | January 31, 2010 at 08:30 PM
Kurt Elling, finally, gets a Grammy for what was not his best work.
Posted by: Kurt Fan | January 31, 2010 at 08:53 PM
You couldn't be more accurate about Swift. It was so painful to listen to her sing Rhiannon with Nicks. She's really not a talented artist and I fail to see her appeal. She doesn't deserve any award.... I can't wait to see the end of her career.
Posted by: A. Thornton | January 31, 2010 at 08:56 PM
Greg - can't believe this is my comment, but had a different opinion of your note about Gaga's makeup. I think the whole point was that she jumped into that "burning" pot and then when she emerged, her face was supposed to look charred. Elton's face had the same effect. So - I don't think there was a "bad makeup job" going on, just an effect to make them look like they were burnt. I promise my next comment will be music-related - ugh.
Greg replies: Yes, I got that bit of it. Just thought it was distracting and took away from the fact that it was actually a pretty cool duet.
Posted by: Bobby | January 31, 2010 at 09:06 PM
Who was the kid with Jay-Z?
Greg replies: Don't know ... anybody out there have a clue?
Posted by: chicago fan | January 31, 2010 at 09:21 PM
Gaga gets thrown into the "reject" bin, is incinerated and comes back with Elton John from the fiery furnace of the Fame Factory....hence, the "runny facepaint" which acts as ashes on their faces. It's not just an arbitrary, hideous make-up job as the writer described above.
Posted by: Andrea | January 31, 2010 at 09:30 PM
The kid with Jay Z is Beyonce's sister Solange's son Daniel.
Posted by: westkoast | January 31, 2010 at 09:32 PM
I also thought there was something wrong with my TV during the 3D segment - what really was the point?
I actually felt dupped and thought there was going to be a We are the World reunion - now that would've been a good remake fundraiser for Haiti.
Posted by: chicago fan | January 31, 2010 at 09:39 PM
The We Are The World redo is scheduled for tomorrow. And yes, the proceeds are going towards Haiti.
Posted by: Tony F. | January 31, 2010 at 09:58 PM
The Taylor Swift madness needs to end. How did she pull off album of the year against all of the other nominees? Sure, she's a great girl, but this is an award based off of music, not citizenship.
Posted by: Annie | January 31, 2010 at 10:49 PM
Tailor swift album of the year about gaga n black eyes peas but not tailor that [woman] cannot sing. horrible .
Posted by: louis | January 31, 2010 at 10:58 PM
Taylor Swift understood how to use the internet, social media, to build a massive internet following. The tweeners who love her can't hear she is out of tune, writes simple 4 chord songs, nor do they care. They support her with the purchase of CDs, downloads and calling radio to play her songs. She worked the heck out of MySpace, You Tube, Twitter.
The music industry is full of dinosaurs who need to retire or do something else for a living. Taylor learned to make a brand and market with the internet, and the music industry sues what they can't control. If the geniuses in charge had asked the Napster kid to help them monetize downloads instead of sueing 13 year old little girls for downloading, they might have figured out how to save the music industry. Get over the fact Taylor figured it out.
Posted by: Mike | January 31, 2010 at 11:33 PM
If I never hear another Taylor Swift song again it will be too soon. (Where is Kanye when we need him?) Seriously, she is not even in the same league as The BEPs, DMB, Beyonce or Lady GaGa!!! Not even close~~~who in the world makes these decisions?!? It was crazy!!! Although I personally would liked to have seen the BEPs win either (or both) the record and album of the year, I would have at least understood if any of the other nominees had won. What is the deal, anyway? It just does not make any sense at all!!
Posted by: Pamela | January 31, 2010 at 11:38 PM
Actually, what Stephen Colbert said was "...a 48-year-old cat lady in sensible shoes...."
Greg replies: Yes, a live-blogging typo. Now fixed. Thank you.
Posted by: Onemorebuddha | February 01, 2010 at 12:04 AM
Greg, you kinda missed the point on the whole Lady Gaga makeup job - as other commenters have explained, she was "thrown into the fire" on stage and came out looking charred - that was on purpose. Plus, that makeup job had to be hastily applied, all in the space of a few seconds, so that also contributed to its roughness. Also, you got the quote wrong about Susan Boyle - it should be "sensible shoes" go and listen to the telecast again. What exactly are "cat shoes"???
Posted by: DJ MichaelAngelo | February 01, 2010 at 12:07 AM
Anybody ever see "Idiocracy"? Because that's what this award show is looking more and more like every year. It's just so SAD. Where are tomorrow's icons? How did someone like Taylor Swift possibly win album of the year?? I mean, she seems like a sweet girl and all - and her band is totally top-notch - but she obviously can't survive without ProTools and pitch correction - so where does that leave us? How did that happen? And when did Beyonce become the benchmark for "good"? You've got warm poop versus dry poop; the only difference is that one is easier to trace out of the tread in your shoes. I was glad to see a few modern glimpses of the real deal: Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Eminem - but aside from just a precious few folks like that, the talent on the 52nd Grammys was from a by-gone era - Elton John, Jeff Beck etc. I saw Zac Brown a couple of years ago at a small place in Atlanta; they were excellent, yes (for the 15 minutes I hung around) - but why/how is "Chicken Fried" their breakthrough song? What does that say about our nation? Before it even hit, friends of mine were ridiculing this derivative country tune that talks about "I like my steak chicken fried" - and next thing you know, it's selling millions of copies! Are you for real?? Now, don't get me wrong - the Grammys have always catered less to art and more to popularity - BUT - given the last decade's distinct decline in future "classic songs", are we now reduced to awarding complete mediocrity?? HUH??? And you know what's even scarier? People don't even flinch! They hear this crap and the yell and scream and applaud and they run out and buy it because it's "bona fide." Well, people, you need to WAKE UP because you're being duped. The music industry pushes a sorry product until you're convinced that it's good - because they tell you it's good, they tell you it's cool, and eventually, like some poor soul with his balls in a vice, you acquiesce, you give in, you submit to crap. But, hey, whatever floats your boat - as long as it's a conscious choice, who can complain? But I'll tell you one thing: A hundred years from now, people WON'T be listening to Rihanna or Chris Brown or Lady Whatever or Taylor Swift or any of this garbage we are so desperately consuming in 2010. Oh, no - when cars hover and holograms are everywhere, what will still be wafting out of karaoke bars? (Because those WILL survive-) "Hey Juuuude / Don't make it baaaad..."
Posted by: Jason Pomar | February 01, 2010 at 01:06 AM
I posted earlier. I totally agree that Swift she may be at selling to these young kids. But, that girl just can't sing.
It's like listening to the Jonas Brothers. UGH!!!
Posted by: Terrie | February 01, 2010 at 01:09 AM
Pink did a gutsy thing. The others didn't have the nerve. That was excellent.
And this is coming from a Lady Gaga fan (me.)
Posted by: mpark | February 01, 2010 at 01:59 AM
did they "pixel" out lady gaga's bottom half at the beginning of the show? i thought there was something wrong with the tv....or something wrong with my eyes but my neighbor taped the grammys onto a dvd and we watched the beginning again and looks like lady gaga's bottom front of her hi-cut green outfit got the pixels! what were the censors afraid of?
Posted by: patti | February 01, 2010 at 02:04 AM
Having heard Taylor sing live, there's no way she should win album of the year! She couldn't stay on pitch to save her life.
Posted by: Deb | February 01, 2010 at 04:21 AM
Taylor can't sing at all. Tragic. The difference btw her, Britney, other prior offenders is that she comes out of Country (very high vocal standards), and is heralded as an "artist" as opposed to an "entertainer", a la Britney at all. I don't know where the hubris originates, but this chick should never not be lip-synching. And on the Grammys, it indicts the entire recording industry. Tragic....
Posted by: sub | February 01, 2010 at 05:12 AM
This telecast is a prime reason why the recording industry is faltering every year. The Grammy's are supposed to be about music and not fashion and production numbers.
No Heart, No Soul, No Rhythm and No Melody!
Posted by: SgtX | February 01, 2010 at 06:04 AM