At the 65th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday, things seemed to be in a holding pattern two hours into the CBS telecast. Beyonce, who these days is considered the Queen of Pop Music by her subjects, was stuck in traffic on her way to the arena currently named for a cryptocurrency outfit. It seems even on Sunday there's a need for traffic reports.
When Beyonce finally arrived at her table, host Trevor Noah presented her with her 31st Grammy, which was announced at an earlier ceremony. That one tied the record for most Grammys won by an individual artist. She broke it later with a win in the dance/electronica category for her album "Renaissance". That was her 32nd.
Beyonce did not, however, win Grammys in any of the major categories. Neither did Adele or Taylor Swift, both of whom were also heavily favored to do so. But Harry Styles did. The former boy-band heartthrob (remember One Direction?) , won Album of the Year for "Harry's Place". It introduced us to the single "As It Was", which ran for 15 weeks at the top of Billboard's pop chart during 2022.
Record of the Year went to Lizzo for "About Damn Time". Yes, we in Minnesota are constantly reminded that Lizzo used to spend some time here before she became famous. She dedicated her award to Prince, who stayed in Minnesota even after becoming famous.
Song of the Year (which, it has to be explained, is a songwriters' award) was "Just Like That" by Bonnie Raitt, an ode to organ transplants that also served as a tribute to John Prine. Raitt, a longtime Grammy veteran, seemed to be just as shocked as you were that she won out over heavyweight competition before accepting her award from First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
In Beyonce's absence, the Grammy telecast made do with their by-now-trademarked "Only At The Grammys" performances that people tend to talk about the next day. Here's a couple:
--In a salute to Smokey Robinson and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr. for winning an industry award, Stevie Wonder and guests rolled through a few Motown classics.
--There was a celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop, featuring every artist the Academy could find who didn't have an alleged criminal record (that we know of), or who had long since gone into acting. It was a reminder to the rest of us that rap had its beginnings during Richard Nixon's presidency.
--The annual "In Memorium" segment was enlivened this year by live tributes from Kacey Musgraves channeling Loretta Lynn with "Coal Miner's Daughter", and Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood performing "Songbird" in honor of Christine McVie. Otherwise, the names and faces of those who have died in the past year just flew by, barely giving us time to know who they were.
A couple of other things:
Viola Davis reached EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status for her win in the spoken-word category.
Best New Artist went to singer Samara Joy.
The Grammy TV extravaganza ran almost four hours, once again leaving the announcement of the major awards to the final half-hour where CBS usually has its local news. We don't need to rehash why awards show ratings have been dropping, but this is one reason why.
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