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The Grammys are music’s biggest night, both literally and figuratively. The ceremony, which takes place in LA on Sunday night, runs for a staggering eight hours, attracting the biggest stars in pop, rock, country and hip-hop. Organisers will hand out 94 awards, recognising everything from best pop album to best choral performance.
Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have both confirmed their attendance, as they square off in the album of the year category for the first time since 2010 (Swift won on that occasion, fact fans). There’ll also be performances from Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Benson Boone, Shakira, Stevie Wonder, Teddy Swims and Raye – and an in memoriam tribute to Thriller producer Quincy Jones.
The big question of the night is whether Beyoncé will finally win album of the year, after four previous losses in the category? During last year’s ceremony, her husband Jay-Z addressed the oversight, telling the audience: “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work.”
The ceremony is split into two parts, with the first 80 awards distributed during what’s called the “premiere ceremony” at 12:30 in Los Angeles / 20:30 in London on Sunday. It’s often worth tuning in. The winners in the more obscure categories are less polished and more excited about winning, and the performances are looser and, dare I say it, more musical than the grandiose set pieces you’ll see later.
You can watch the whole thing on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel, and on live.grammy.com. That’s also where you want to go to watch red carpet coverage, which kicks off at 15:00 in Los Angeles / 23:00 in the UK.
For reasons I’ve never quite understood, winners are often pictured kissing their Grammy Awards. Of course not! But have you seen what’s going on everywhere else in the world? Musicians, however take the Grammys very seriously indeed. A big win can boost album sales and bump you up festival bills.
That said, the awards themselves are notoriously ridiculous. According to legend, they were created in 1959 as a panicked reaction to the popularity of rock ‘n’ roll. Record companies hoped that by highlighting “good” music, they’d steer the public away from Elvis’s swivelling hips. As if to illustrate that point, they didn’t hand Mr Presley a trophy until 1968, and even that was for “best sacred performance”, recognising his first gospel album, How Great Thou Art.
Since then, the awards have remained wilfully arbitrary, woefully out of touch, or a combination of the two. Famously, The Beatles won more awards after they split up than they did together; and there were no rap categories until 1989. And if anyone still thinks that Herbie Hancock’s jazz tribute to Joni Mitchell was the best album of 2008 – the year of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black and Kanye West’s Graduation – I’d be interested to hear your arguments.
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