Unfortunately, “music’s biggest night,” was just the opposite for the 2015 Grammy Awards that took place Sunday, Feb. 8 at 8:00 p.m.
While most of the show did focus on music, a portion of it really zeroed in on social issues, making the event more tender than it should have been.
President Obama and a domestic violence survivor preceded Katy Perry’s touching performance of her ballad “By the Grace of God,” with a message to all about America’s grappling with the issue.
Other performers also advocated for social issues. Eric Church’s performance backdrop was footage of Paris’ Charlie Hebdo incident, and Beyoncé paid tribute to the Civil Right’s movement with “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorites.
Many of the performances were just average. This included Madonna’s performance of her new song “Living for Love,” Pharrell’s overdone “Happy,” Kanye West’s underwhelming “Only One” and Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani singing Maroon 5’s “My Heart is Open.”
Not all was lost, however. Major names in music did join together to form some great on-stage chemistry.
Collaborations from Paul McCartney, Rihanna and Kanye West, Usher and Stevie Wonder, and Ed Sheeran with John Mayer, Herbie Hancock and Questlove really stole the show.
As for the soloists, the unpredictable Sia struck once again with a auditory live performance of “Chandelier” which starred Kristin Wiig and Maddie Ziegler dancing in the famous blond wig featured on the cover of Sia’s album “1,000 Forms of Fear.”
The big winner of the night was Sam Smith, who won awards in four categories: “Best Pop Vocal Album,” “Best New Artist,” “Record of the Year” and above all “Song of the Year.” He also performed his beloved “Stay With Me,” later on with Jennifer Hudson.
While Smith’s success seemed inevitable due to his increasing popularity and major airplay, other wins were questionable.
Many were surprised to hear Beck’s album “Morning Phase” had beat out other artists such as Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, considering it only held its number one spot Billboard’s Billboard 200 chart for one week.
Kanye West was especially surprised when he admitted to E!, “Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyoncé.” This was after he jokingly went on stage for Beck’s acceptance, a nod to his VMA incident with Taylor Swift back in 2009.
Overall, the 2015 Grammy Awards was nothing special. In the end it was just music’s mediocre night.
