An insight of the 63rd GRAMMY AWARDS
By:
Chitranshu Sihania
Looking back to the year 2020, not much great things happened except for the announcement of the Music’s Biggest Night, GRAMMYs 2021. Held in Los Angeles Convention Centre, Los Angeles, the GRAMMY Awards recognized the artists and music released in late 2019 and 2020.
It was originally announced that the ceremony will be held on 31st January 2021 but due to a hike in COVID cases, it was later postponed to 14 March 2021. The show aired on CBS.
Nominations of the ceremony were announced on 24 November 2020 by Recording Academy President / CEO Harvey Mason Jr. The three and a half hours long show was hosted by South African comedian Trevor Noah.
- PRODUCTION
The show was produced by Ben Winston who made sure that there were multiple (5) stages but no audience. Each artist was given his/her own backstage area and they entered the stage from a different entrance in order to follow social distancing. One stage was for the presenters while the other four were for the performers. It wasn’t a fully live show, rather it was a mix of live and pre-recorded performances. To make the show spectacular, Winston collaborated with many other producers.
- PERFORMERS
The Afro-Peruvian Jazz Orchestra paid a tribute to Marvin Gaye in the premiere ceremony. Other artists to perform on the premier were Lido Pimienta, Poppy, Burna Boy, and Igor Levit. Talking of the main ceremony, the list of performers was released on 7 March.
Around 33 artists performed on the night including Dua Lipa, Cardi B, BTS, Doja Cat, Taylor Swift, Black Pumas, Jack Antonoff, Miranda Lambert, Maren Morris, and Chris Martin. Billboard ranked Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s performance on the song “WAP” as the Best Performance Of The Ceremony. Trevor Noah introduced the performance with “If you have small children in the room, just tell them it's a song about giving a cat a bath”.
- NOMINATIONS
There were several artists to receive multiple nominations. Beyonce had the highest, nine. Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, and Roddy Ricch had nominations in six different categories each. Brittney Howard had five. Other artists to get nominated in different categories were David Frost, Megan Thee Stallion, Black Pumas, Doja Cat, Louis Bell, Lady Gaga, Lil Baby, Stuart White, Disclosure, The Secret Sisters, and Jesse Louis among others.
”If The World Was Ending”, “Black Parade”, “I Can’t Breathe”, “Everything I Wanted”, “Don’t Start Now” was nominated for ‘Song Of The Year’. Folklore, Everyday Life, Chilombo, Future Nostalgia, and Hollywood’s Bleeding were the nominations for ‘Album Of The Year’.
- WINNERS
Beyonce became the most awarded artist of the event as she took home four golden gramophones in different categories namely Best R&B Performance (for ‘Black Parade’), Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song( both for ‘Savage’), and Best Music Video (for ‘Brown Skin Girl’). “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish won the Record Of the Year. “Folklore” by Taylor Swift became the Album Of The Year. Megan Thee Stallion was awarded as the Best New Artist. “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles became the Best Pop Solo Performance whereas the Best Pop Duo Performance was grabbed by “Rain On Me” by Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande. More Guitar Stories by Jim “Kimo” West was announced as the Best New Age Album.
Lizzo presented the Best New Artist, Ringo Star presented the Record Of TheYear, Jacob Collier & Jhene Aiko presented Best Pop Vocal Album.
Plenty of great fashion with a mix of outre style and attention-grabbing outfits was seen at the ceremony. A socially distant red carpet was arranged in Los Angeles which was aced by the GRAMMY winners Lizzo, Bruno Mars, Brandi Carlie, and Noah Cyrus. Harry Styles went for a glam look with head to toe Gucci black leather suit and a mint feather boa.
Dua Lipa wore a barely transparent pink gown decked in crystals. Megan Thee Stallion aced in Dolce & Gabbana, BTS was looking as stylish as ever in Louis Vuitton. Taylor Swift couldn’t look much beautiful in Oscar de la Renta & Christian Lounoutin shoes. Beyonce, who was the most awarded artist of the evening, rocked in a black dress from Schiaparelli.
A memorial reel was aired during the telecast paying tribute to the artists that died in 2020 and early 2021. The show was viewed by 8.8 M people alone in the US.
Though it was the least viewed telecast in the history of GRAMMYs, hashtag #Grammys trended for about 18 hours on number one position.
