The legendary Sting and Ziggy Marley, the ever cool Bruno Mars and Damian Marley and the beautiful Rihanna perform Locked out of Heaven, Walking on the Moon and Could you be Loved during the 2013 Grammy Awards. There’s a musical moment right there and you can see it below:
The 55th annual Grammy Awards are here. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s awards out of Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Red carpet:
Black was the order of the day apparently. Kelly Rowland, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, the guys from Maroon 5 and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters were all keeping it tame in red. Someone who also took to wearing black was Jennifer Lopez, but she wasn’t keeping it too conservative. Last year Angelina Jolie showed a lot of leg at the Oscars and tonight it’s the chance of JLo, who looks amazing.
I think a lot of people were a bit taken aback when Beyonce arrived in her pants suit. She looks fantastic though. Can she do any wrong? Katy Perry and Rihanna brought some colour to the carpet. Katy was in a mint green dress while Rihanna was rocking royal red. Trust them to bring some life to the carpet 
The Awards:
Taylor Swift opens the show with “We’re never getting back together”. She took a stab at her apparent ex, Harry Stylez with a British accent. “I still love you and I’m like I’m opening the Grammys”.
Host, LL Cool J is back. He is blabbering on about origins of music and where some of our favourite artists hail from. B from Houston, Adele from the UK… Rih from Barbados. “The show is ours. All of ours. So are you ready for your show? Are you ready for your show? Let’s get back to the music,” your words LL.
Second performance up tonight is from Ed Sheeran and Elton John. They performed Sheeran’s Angels To Fly song. It was cool – just cool.
Pitbull and Jennifer opez are up to present the first award of the night for the Best Pop Solo Performance Award. Pitbull says to JLo, “You inspire the memo” before handing out the award to Adele for Set Fire to the Rain. “My good luck charm, Jlo. Thank you so much. I want to say thank you and big love to the other girls. See you later, have a wonderful night.”
Neil Patrick Harris introduces fun. I’ll be honest, I though their performance was also just okay. Nothing spectacular.
Bonnie Raitt and John Mayer welcome two of country music’s biggest stars to the stage Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert.
Dick Clark is remembered at the Grammys. LL says, “He is missed”. He then introduces Miguel and Wiz Khalifa. Miguel is singing his now Grammy winning song, Adorn alongside Wiz. The brother has pipes and Wiz is just kinda there. Miguel won for Best R&B Song. They’re now presenting the Best Country Solo performance award, which goes to Carrie Underwood. “Thank you. Country music has always been so good to me and I thank the good Lord. My family, my amazing perfect husband Mike. Glory to God, thank you so much.”
The Song of the Year Award is presented by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. That award goes to Fun for their song We Are Young. “Um, I don’t know what I was thinking writing this song. This is in HD, everyone can see our faces and we are not very young. We have been doing this for twelve years. To our families, we love you guys. I want to thank Jay-Z, Taylor… everyone”.
Johnny Depp introduces Mumford & Sons, who perform their track “I will wait for you”. It’s the performance of the night so far.
Ellen and Beyonce are up to introduce Justin Timberlake. Welcome back JT “He was born to make music”… The black and white effect is awesome. His band, The Tennesse Kids are there and Jay-Z’s verse wouldn’t be left out. Jigga emerges from the crowd and everyone goes wild.
Kelly Rowland and Nas are up to present the Best Urban Contemporary Album. The Grammy goes to Frank Ocean for his album, Channel Orange. “So I hear it’s a bit easier if I imagine you all naked. I want to say thank you to my mother, to everyone at Future Records. Island Def Jam and all of you guys. Thank you.”
Dave Grohl and Pauley Perrette are up to present the Best Rock Performance and the Grammy goes to Lonely Boy by the Black Keys. “We would like to thank our good friend, Brian Burton. Chad Blake. Everyone in Ohio, everybody in Tennesse.”
Alicia Keys and Maroon 5 collaboration is up. Their mashup of Tonight and Girl on Fire wasn’t what I hoped it would be. In my opinion it was too forced and maybe it’s because I’m not a Maroon 5 fan, but it just didn’t work for me. Alicia playing drums is super cool though.
Kaley Cuouco and Keith Urban are up to present Best Pop Vocal Album to Kelly Clarkson for Stronger. “I got stuck to Miranda Lambert. I get nervous speaking in front of people. Fun. I’ve been covering you all summer. Miguel I don’t know who the hell you are but we need to sing together. I honestly didn’t think I was going to win.”
Rihanna and Micky Echo singing Stay. Lovely intimate performance by Rih Rih.
Ne-Yo and Carly Rae Jepsen are up to present Best Rap Sung Collaboration “I didn’t think I’d be the first one speaking but thank you,” Frank Ocean. I would like to thank the Swap Meet for his hat. Thank you God,” Jay-Z. What on earth was The Dream thinking though when he got dressed? Tjop!
Kat Dennings from 2 Broke Girls introduces Grammy winners, The Black Keys. They’re joined on stage by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band as they perform Lonely Boy. Cool performance. Kelly Clarkson honours pays tribute to Lifetime Achievement recipients Patti Page & Carole King before presenting the Best Country Album Award. The award goes to Zac Brown Band for their album, Uncaged.
The Bob Marley tribute is up featuring Sting, Bruno Mars, Rihanna and two of the Marley Brothers. Bruno Mars kicks off the tribute with Locked out of Heaven. Sting joins him and they slow it down with Walking on the Moon. Rihnna and Ziggy Marley are now on stage singing Could you be Loved. Hello Damian Marley. This is winning!
The Lumineers are on stage now singing their let’s get stoned and reminisce. I do love this song though.
Album of the Year nominee, Jack White takes to the Grammy stage to perform.
Katy Perry is up to present the award to the Best Newcomer Award. “I was never nominated in this category and I have my own eyelash line”. The award goes to Fun. “I didn’t think we were going to win this one. Frank Ocean, The Lumineers. Amazing. I’ve got to pee real badly, so I’m going to leave this up to these guys. Thank you so much. We’re so old.”
Hunter Hayes enjoys a short performance before introducing the lovely Carrie Underwood who is performing Blown Away. She, just like Kelly Clarkson has pipes for days. There’s this weird graphics show happening on Carrie’s dress while she’s performing.
Prince presents the award for Record of the Year to Somebody that I used to Know. “Little bit lost for words to be receiving this award from this man standing behind us with a cane.”
Grammymusicteacher.com is a site you will want to visit. Pay tribute to your teachers, make sure they get the praise too.
In memoriam segment is up. In 2012 greats like Dick Clark, Donna Summer, Robin Gibb, Frank Wilson, Hal David passed away. Sir Elton John, Zac Brown, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons and others pay tribute to those lost in 2012 and also to the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy, whose lives were lost too soon. They’re singing a Levon Helm track.
Juanes sings an Elton John number. He then welcomes Frank Ocean to the stage. There’s a great backdrop for the star, as he sings his song Forrest Gump.
Adele is up to present the Album of the Year. The award goes to Babel by Mumford & Sons. Lekker. “Adele is looking lovely tonight and so nice to get this from another British musician. Thank you very much.”
We’ve got just a few days to go until the 55th Annual Grammy Awards take center stage – and no doubt #TheWorldIsListening. Music’s Biggest Night® will honour some of the biggest, the best and the most successful stars we’ve all come to love and adore. The ceremony is set to take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and trust you won’t want to miss this.
Get this, artists like Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert, The Black Keys, FUN., the Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Jack White, as well as Elton John and current nominee Ed Sheeran will all be on stage come the 10th of Feb. While that list is WELL IMPRESSIVE, I’m looking forward to Justin Timberlake’s performance. The news about him performing at the Grammys was announced yesterday and this will be the first time we’ve seen the six-time Grammy winner perform in over four years. He’ll be putting on his (Tom Ford?) Suit & Tie and rocking the stage. Barring Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance on Sunday, this will easily be one of the most talked about and highly anticipated performances of the year.
The Grammys online:
@TheGRAMMYs on Twitter,
“The GRAMMYs” on Facebook,
Google +,
Instagram,
Pinterest,
Tumblr,
I’m going to be up, watching and blogging live on Monday morning (the usual deal). If you’re up with me, it’s on from 3am on Channel O, DStv channel 320. The repeat is on Vuzu (116) at 19:30.
It’s official, Miguel is on his way to South Africa. This follows the news and murmurs on social media in recent weeks. Well now it is confirmed. The star will be heading out to Mzansi to “Adorn” fans. He’ll be here on the 1st and 2nd of March at the Standard Bank Arena (kak venue if you ask me). He then moves onto Cape Town on the 3rd of March at the Grand West Arena.
Tickets are priced really well starting at R375.00 and they go up to R600 for you die-hard fans who will be upfront. They go on sale on the 24th, so be sure to get yours.
Full press release below:
RnB star miguel to ‘adorn’ mzansi with his chart topping hits
Trademark in association with TKO Promotions is proud to present singing music sensation Miguel in South Africa.
Chart topping Miguel is on everyone’s lips and on high rotation on music channels and stations, with his hit 2012 hit single Adorn. The 26 year old singer made his debut on the music scene in 2010 with a number 1 Billboard hit ‘Sure Thing’ and has since seen critical acclaim and respect globally for his genre-defying music style.
More recently the star is set to tour with Grammy award winning music powerhouse Alicia Keys.
His tour to South African shores sees him performing in Johannesburg at the Standard Bank Arena on the 1st and 2nd March 2013. Cape Town will get to see him on 3rd March 2013 at The Grand West Casino.
Guests will also be spoiled by a plethora of talented South African musicians alongside the superstar, who will be revealed closer to the time.
“We are very excited to bring this talented musician to South Africa. He is fresh and going far, what better way to celebrate all things possible than to bring him to South Africa?” remarked Trademark founder and drivetime radio host, Tbo Touch.
Guests will be able to enjoy the performance form a choice of general seating, Golden Circle and VIP at all three of the concerts.
Ticket Details:
On sale from 24 January
Available through Computicket: R375- R600
As part of the build up to music’s big night, aka The Grammys, Bruce Springstreen is set to be honoured at the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year this year. In the press release, the special event will honour Springsteen for his “exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work”. The money raised from the event will go into the MusiCares Foundation for people in music who run into trouble, financially, medically or personally.
The event, in its 23rd year, is completely sold out. It’s set to take place on the 8th of February at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Jon Stewart will host the event and Alabama Shakes, Jackson Browne, Kenny Chesney, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris, Faith Hill, Jim James, Elton John, Juanes, John Legend, Natalie Maines, Tim McGraw, Tom Morello, Mumford & Sons, Patti Smith, Mavis Staples, Sting, Eddie Vedder, and Neil Young will all be in attendance. They are also set to perform. Feeling the FOMO already!!
Stay tuned for more on music’s big night, coming to you on the 10th of Feb at the Staples Center in LA.
The “Queen of Disco” is gone. Donna Summer died in Florida yesterday after battling cancer for some time. She was 63. The star was one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s and 80s, who managed to get many parts of the globe and the various generations jamming to some of her biggest hits. Those included She Works Hard For Her Money, Last Dance and Heaven Knows among many other songs. During her career she also won five Grammy Awards. She is survived by her husband and their two daughter.
Earlier the family released the following statement, “Early this morning, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith. While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy. Words truly can’t express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time.”
Singer and friend Gloria Gaynor had some lovely words for her fellow disco diva: “I am deeply saddened personally for the loss of my dear friend Donna Summer. She and I have been friends for a very long time, we were both known as the ‘Queen of Disco,’ but Donna always referred to me as the ‘First Lady of Disco.’ A fine lady and human being she was. She will be missed dearly by her colleagues, friends and family. She not only made her mark in my heart as well as others, but she forever changed the way of how America danced and enjoyed themselves. She may have had her ‘Last Dance’ here on earth, but ‘Heaven Knows’ it is “dancing with joy for her arrival.”
Other stars have also sent their condolences. Billy Ray Cyrus said, “The more I watch the tributes to Donna Summer the more obvious it is what a HUGE impact she had on music and people around the world. R I P”. Elizabeth Hurley said on Twitter, “RIP Donna Summer. Thank you for the hours of joy I have spent dancing appallingly to your fabulous music.” La Toya Jackson said, “I Feel Love, Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, She Works Hard For The Money, On The Radio, Last Dance what a great contribution to music Donna Summer!❤”
An icon, a legend and a timeless star. May she Rest In Peace.
I’m sure this weekend’s Billboard Music Awards will honour the life of the late star. I’ll be up, as usual, covering the awards from my couch (One day I’ll be there) but for now we wait to see what Billboard has planned.
22nd of May is the first big release of 2012 in my opinion. It’s the date that Grammy Award-winning singer John Mayer will release his new album, which is entitled Born and Raised. The first single off that album, Shadow Days will officially be released on the 6th, but it has already hit the Net. Have a listen here.
The album sees Mayer teaming up with Don Was on a production level. Was is famous for his work with Rolling Stones, B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt among others. Below is the track listing for Born and Raised.
On the album Mayer has also enlisted the help of many other talented musicians, who will be hitting the road with him as part of his 18-date spring tour in support of the new album. That tour kicks on the 9th of April in Bloomington, IN. He then moves onto venues in Detroit, Providence, Buffalo, Memphis and Kansas City. For more dates and times, visit his official site here.
Jennifer Hudson takes to the stage for the special tribute to Whitney Houston and others, whom we lost this year, singing arguably her biggest song ever: I Will Always Love You.
“Whitney We Love you”
Carrie Underwood took to the stage to introduce Tony Bennett. He has won 16 Grammy awards in his career, remarkable. The two sang It Had To Be You.
Best New Artist goes to Bon Iver:
“Hi, it’s really hard to accept this award because there’s so much talent on this stage and also who aren’t. I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here. I want to thank all the nominees and the non-nominees. All the bands I toured with, all the artists and the voters. Sweet hookup. “
This is what he had to say backstage:
The legendary and soulful star Etta James has died. The star passed away this morning following a long struggle with dementia, kidney problems and leukemia. She was 73. Messages of condolences have been pouring in from far and wide:
Black Eyed Peas star, will.i.am said “Showing respect appreciation and love for all the wonderful music and joy #ettajames brought to the world…#ettajamesforever”
Jessica Alba said, “RIP #EttaJames u r a legend and 1 of my all time favs -thank you for giving us all the gift of song http://bit.ly/zaP8jl -what a voice!”
Hayley from Paramore, “#EttaJames, I will be forever grateful for your voice and your soul. Rest in peace.”
The President/ CEO of The Grammys, Neil Portnow also released the following statement:
“Three-time GRAMMY® winner and Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Etta James leaves behind a dynamic legacy spanning six decades. Her music knew no boundaries as she explored diverse genres including blues, soul, R&B, rock and roll, gospel and jazz. She will forever be remembered for her timeless ballad “At Last,” and a powerful voice that will echo around the world for generations to come. We extend our deepest sympathies to her family, friends, fans and all who have been stirred by her soulful songs and passion for music.
Neil Portnow
President/CEO
The Recording Academy®“
May her star and her legacy continue to shine bright and her voice continue to inspire new and upcoming musicians. The music industry and the world has lost a true legend. Rest in Peace Etta James:
