事前投票やSNSなどの口コミでは、エミネムが最多受賞者になるだろうと予想されていた、本年のグラミー賞。しかし、いざ蓋を開けてみれば、この日の主役となったのは、アルバムのタイトルにもなっているヒット曲「Need You Now」（※邦題「ニード・ユー・ナウ 〜いま君を愛してる」）で最多5部門を受賞したカントリーグループ、「レディ・アンテベラム」でした。昨年は、ラジオに、クラブに、車の中…全米中どこに行ってもこの曲を耳にしていたので、彼らの受賞には納得です！
Hi Everyone! wow...it has been a very exciting few weeks... Over the past few weeks, I have been doing some "pre oscar night" reporting for WOWOW television, and have had the chance to get some great inside info, so I will be writing about that in my next article, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, as I am SURE you are aware...the Grammys were just this past weekend. And there were QUITE a few surprise wins on Sunday night! Did any of your favorites win this year???
Well, first of all, according to polls and the social media buzz, most people thought that Eminem would be the one walking away with most of the awards on Grammy night. But INSTEAD country group Lady Antebellum walked away with the most Grammy wins, 5 awards, for their big album and song "Need You Now". Even though, I have to say....the past year here in the US really HAS belonged to that single of theirs...EVERYWHERE I went last year, the Lady Antebellum single was playing on the radio, in the clubs, in cars, just absolutely everywhere! So judging by that, I guess it makes sense.
However I think everyone was pretty surprised with the winner of Album of the Year, which is the most coveted award in the Grammys. Critics and media were all putting their vote on Eminem as a sure win for that award. So when Arcade Fire was announced as winner of Album of The Year, mouths dropped and people were in complete shock. In fact, it seemed that no one was MORE surprised than the members of Arcade Fire themselves! And then after the band received their award, they decided to surprise the people running the Grammys by taking the stage again and performing a surprise number! At the end of their acceptance speech, the lead singer of the band mumbled something like "to say thank you, we will play another number" and they DID!
This year at the Grammys, I was part of the WOWOW live Grammy show, and was actually in the studio for the announcement of the Album of the Year, and even we didn't know what was going on when Arcade Fire started playing right after winning the award. It was all pretty bizarre!
BUT...just to give you a little insight on why and how this young band from MOntreal, Canada won...first of all, they were actually the #1 pick for Best Album of 2010 according to MANY critics list. And have been getting buzz for quite a while now for their album "The Suburbs". So when their name appeared on the nominations, many music experts were not really that surprised.
Another interesting tidbit....this year, more than any other year, the Grammys seemed to really represent the indie labels and bands more than the majors. In fact, more than half of the nominated songs, albums, artists came from indie labels. (Indies took 273 nominations over possible 542 spots) In fact, Indie artists/labels ended up taking home 45 awards on Grammy night in a wide variety of categories. Sing of the times for the music industry? Most definitely.
So when Arcade Fire beat out the "big names" such as Lady Gaga, Eminem, Katy Perry, etc. (who are all backed by major labels, and getting major promotion dollars), it really just showed the world that things don't have to be done the traditional way anymore...you can get worldwide recognition, even when you don't have millions of dollars backing you and your music.
Personally I was really excited with the outcome of the Grammys this year, and was extremely happy that alternative soul artist Esperanza Spalding received the Best New Artist award.
As for performances, I must say that Cee-lo and Gwyneth Paltrow (performing with the muppets from Sesame Street) was one of my favorites! Even though it was wonderful seeing such seasoned veterans as Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand perform along the newer generation of pop, like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Probably the simplest (and maybe even best performance musically) on Grammy night was Mick Jagger. No fancy tricks or costumes. It was ALL about the music. And he definitely represented! What performance was your favorite on Grammy night?
