The 64th Recording Academy Grammys were moved from January in Los Angeles to April in Las Vegas because of the ongoing pandemic, but the show went on anyway. This one went on without incident, unlike last week at the Oscars, because Kanye West was told to stay as far away from the MGM Grand Garden Arena as possible. Much to the relief of Trevor Noah, who hosted the CBS telecast.
Song of the Year and Record of the Year went to Silk Sonic's "Leave The Door Open", a Bruno Mars-.Anderson Paak rendition of those 1970s-era soul groups that was introduced last year at the Grammys.
Jon Batiste, who's much better known as Stephen Colbert's TV bandleader, won five Grammys out of 11 nominations including Album of the Year for "We Are". So that's also a win for host network CBS, right?
Olivia Rodrigo, who was expected to do much better with nominations for her album "Sour" and hit single "drivers license" ended up with three Grammys including Best New Artist. Still not a bad evening. It should also be noted that Billie Eilish, who has dominated the awards the last couple of years, came away with nothing this time despite seven nominations.
The In Memoriam segment got too cute when it doubled as tributes for drummer Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters and composer Stephen Sondheim. As four singers warbled through some of Sondheim's greatest hits, images floated by on the TV screen of all those important music figures who died during the past year, whether we could read their names or not.
After being turned down for the Oscar telecast, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned up on the Grammys to beg the West for more support for his war-torn country. It was followed by the usually overexposed John Legend leading a group of singers and a poet of Ukrainian descent to pay tribute to their homeland that is currently fighting for its life. Which is about as political as the Grammys got all night.
Louis CK, whose career has been in eclipse since allegations of sexual misconduct turned him into a pariah, won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album. Canceled or not, the Recording Academy seems to now have a Bill Cosby/Woody Allen problem.
In three and a half hours, only a few awards were handed out during the telecast. The rest of them were done earlier and was carried on the academy's website. Still, in today's attention-deficit disorder times, three hours is an awful long time to wait between the musical act you want to see, the suspense of who won what, and the seemingly endless length of commercial and station breaks. Sometimes it's just easier to announce the results in a one-hour TV special, or online. But no. That'll never happen. Or would it?
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