The Grannies
BY BURAK ŞAHİN (IR/IV)
burak_s@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
The Grammy Awards have kept their boring, old-fashioned concept with irrelevant nominees and choices this year, too. Adele made an impact by winning six awards, including "Album of the Year" as expected, and of course tributes to Whitney Houston took the stage during the evening. Live performances again helped the show to survive. Although the ratings showed that this year's Grammy Awards were watched by 39.9 million viewers -- the second-largest TV audience in the event's history -- the nominees and winners remained debatable. Here are the less boring moments of the evening:
Adele's Tears
As everyone knows, our entire year was passed listening to Adele's emotional songs. She began promoting her album "21" with "Rolling In the Deep," and her fame spread throughout the world with "Someone Like You." By the time people had gotten a full dose of her music, she was receiving treatment for problems with her vocal cords. Despite this, she was planning to attend the Grammys and sing again after a long break. Finally, she did so, and left with six awards. After performing her hit single onstage, Adele won "Album of the Year" for "21" at the end of the show, and could not hold back her tears. She cried and even said, "Oh, I've got a bit of snot!" during her acceptance speech. 2011 was her year, without a doubt.
Tribute to Whitney Houston
After a music legend, Whitney Houston, died on February 11 at age 48, the organizers of the show immediately added some clips and Jennifer Hudson to the lineup to honor the six-time Grammy winner. Hudson had sung Houston's best-known song, "I Will Always Love You," with her in 2008. People liked the duet, and so the organizers decided to ask Hudson to perform this song during the show. The performance was emotional and affected the audience deeply, as could be seen in their faces. This was one of the best moments of the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
Bon Iver's Speech
Bon Iver recorded one of the best albums of the year, as I indicated last semester. The indie rock band won the "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Music Album" awards, but frontman Justin Vernon's speech showed that they were not all that happy about it. The reason was that the organizers had wanted Bon Iver to perform on the show with another band instead of doing one of their own songs, and they rejected this offer. "It's really hard to accept this award but well there's so much talent out here and on the stage. And there's a lot of talent that's not here. But with that discomfort comes gratitude. When I started to make songs, I did it for the inherent reward of making songs so I'm a little bit uncomfortable up here. I'd like to thank all the nominees and the non-nominees that will never be up here. I'd like to thank all the voters -- sweet hookup!" said Vernon.
Quote of the Night
The Foo Fighters won four awards in the rock category, and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl spoke the best words of the night. "This is a great honor, because this record was a special record for our band. Rather than go to the best studio in the world down the street in Hollywood and rather than use all of the fanciest computers that money can buy, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine. To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do. It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."
Lastly, a few more of the evening's better moments: Skrillex won the "Best Dance Recording" and "Best Dance/Electronica Album" awards, and the "Best Pop Duo/Group Performance" award went to the Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse record.