InsidePulse EXCLUSIVE Coverage!
Welcome to InsidePulse Music’s exclusive coverage of the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards! I will take you through Part 1 of our live recap, until Beth Gottfried takes over at around 9 p.m. EST to wrap up the rest of the event while I proceed to flip between the Awards and “Desperate Housewives” — hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!
That being said, it looks like the GRAMMYs will be a kick-ass show this year, even if the award nominees are a bit suspect (here are my predictions). Queen Latifah hosts, and all the big names in the industry will be there as presenters and/or performers, with the following performances confirmed as of this afternoon:
A show-opener featuring The Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani (with Eve), Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5 and Franz Ferdinand
Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone in a tribute to Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Janis Joplin
Kanye West with John Legend, Mavis Staples, and the Blind Boys Of Alabama
Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony
A tribute to Ray Charles featuring Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston
A salute to Southern rock with Tim McGraw, Gretchen Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickey Betts, Elvin Bishop, and Keith Urban
A special musical segment to raise funds for tsunami relief efforts which will feature Bono, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Velvet Revolver, Tim McGraw, and Brian Wilson
Jamie Foxx and Alicia Keys
James Brown and Usher
John Mayer
Green Day
Alicia Keys
Tim McGraw
U2
All GRAMMY nominations can be found at GRAMMY.com, and I’ll be here at 8 p.m. EST to kick off our GRAMMY coverage, with a post-GRAMMY chat to follow on AOL Instant Messenger in the InsidePULSE chat room!
8:03 p.m. EST and I get caught up watching Trekkies (the original) and tune into the GRAMMYs late — but not too late. The GRAMMYs begin with the huge-ass opening number… Gwen and Eve look great and sing a remake of a remake of that Fiddler On The Roof song.
That segues into Black Eyed Peas singing a censored version of “Let’s Get Retarded,” then LOS LONELY BOYS~! singing “How Far Is Heaven?” Stay tuned for the answer!
The DJ from Carrie Schneiderman’s bat mitzvah asks us to “give some love to Maroon 5” and — they do! So much love, in fact, that the lead singer of Black Eyed Peas joins them, then introduces Brian Setzer? NO! It’s Franz Ferdinand, and they’re singing what sounds like a cover of a J. Geils Band song.
2004: the year 80s dance rock finally made its comeback!
And it all closes off with a huge medley/mash-up (the phrase of the year, folks – remember it!) of all the acts put together, and The Voice give a run-down of all of tonight’s presenters and performers (see above for a list of previously announced performers… and if you really wanna know who the presenters are before the show starts, go to GRAMMY.com).
…
Holy shit, is this list ever going to end? I just had cross between a “Romper Room” flashback and the “side-effects” portion of a Cialis commercial.
Your host is Queen Latifah, who reminds us that it’s the 47th Annual GRAMMYs and the 50th Birthday of Rock ‘n’ Roll! She runs down some key moments of GRAMMYs Past, including Aretha stepping in for Pavoratti and Elton John sharing the stage with Eminem… then teases us for tonight’s show, including “J-Lo and Mark Anthony” performing like they’ve never performed before (if she goes down on him on stage THEN I’ll be impressed).
John Travolta, Christina Millian and Steven Tyler (“from Be Cool“) come out to present the award for Best Pop Performance, Duo or Group.
The nominees:
Evanescence – “My Immortal”
Hoobastank – “The Reason”
Los Lonely Boys – “Heaven”
Maroon5 – “She Will Be Loved”
No Doubt – “It’s My Life”
The winner: Los Lonely Boys – “Heaven”
Los Lonely Boys thank everyone but Tess Broussard, and we go to a commercial break…
We’re back, and Queen Latifah announces that jazz great Art Blakey is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award, showing clips of his career, then introducing Alicia Keys to sing “If I Ain’t Got You.”
She sits at the white piano wearing a modest white top and dress, long earrings, and straightened hair – f*ck, who cares? She’s HOT, smells great and sounds amazing and I still don’t understand how I still don’t own this album.
She brings out Quincy Jones, to conduct the orchestra, and Jamie Foxx, to sit at the black piano facing Alicia’s… and they go into a fantastic rendition of Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind.”
Ladies and gentlemen… a standing ovation. And a hug! Aww…
Nelly and Adam Sandler are introduced next as stars of The Longest Yard to give out the award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
The nominees:
Anthony Hamilton – “Charlene”
R. Kelly – “Happy People”
Brian McKnight – “What We Do Here”
Prince – “Call My Name”
Usher – “Burn”
The winner: Prince – “Call My Name”
Wow.
Not surprisingly, Prince is not there, so Nelly accepts the award on his behalf, and it’s time for another break!
Jerry Lee Lewis becomes a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient as we come back from commercial, and the producers are smart enough to keep Jerry seated in the audience rather than give him any mic time.
U2 is the next performer, doing “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” — not my favorite song from the new album, but a solid performance nonetheless.
Phrarrell Williams, Mark McGrath and Penelope Cruz come out to pay tribute to Led Zeppelin, yet ANOTHER Lifetime Achievement Award recipient! Holy shit, when do I get mine? Not that they aren’t deserving, but three in the first 45 minutes?
The award for Best Rock Album is up…
The nominees:
Elvis Costello & the Imposters – The Delivery Man
Green Day – American Idiot
Hoobastank – The Reason
The Killers – Hot Fuss
Velvet Revolver – Contraband
The winner: Green Day – American Idiot
This is a no-brainer from my POV, but I wasn’t sure if the GRAMMYs would go down the boulevard of broken dreams — I’m glad they did so far. Now let’s see if they’re enough to top Ray Charles in the Best Album category.
Commercial time! Let me just say that during the show, they’re sporadically showing a scrolling thing across the bottom of the screen, letting the audience know what awards were given out off the air. You’ll have to check GRAMMY.com for that one, as it’s utterly impossible to keep up with…
Check out Part 2 of our EXCLUSIVE GRAMMY Coverage, starring Lifetime Achievement Award winner Beth Gottfried… and remember you canvote in our poll – Who Got Screwed in the Pulse Forums…
