Feb. 15--Everybody complains about the Grammys. But truth be told, the music industry's top honors have become a reliably entertaining television show, mixing star power, surprising musical combinations and a generally quick pace to keep the folks at home engaged.
And they manage to do it, mostly, without inciting Academy Awards-style racial controversy. Yes, when it comes time to vote, Grammy voters tend to pick veteran performers from veteran genres, but the show itself is a multicultural melange: Slated performers include Taylor Swift, Alabama Shakes, Adele and Kendrick Lamar. Oh, and, um, Justin Bieber, for that special little dollop of Canadian culture.
Here are five things to watch for in Monday night's Grammy Awards on CBS, which run from 7 p.m. to about 10:30 p.m., depending on the length of Taylor Swift's acceptance speeches:
1. Will Kendrick Lamar win best album? Put another way, will the album of the year, Lamar's politically charged, personally anguished "To Pimp a Butterfly," actually win album of the year? "Butterfly" is "an album designed to unfold over time, yielding new information, new connections, with each listen," Tribune critic Greg Kot wrote over the weekend. But Kot also predicted that this gem would lose to Taylor Swift's "1989" because, well, it's the Grammys. (Kot foresaw a better fate for Lamar's "Alright" in the song of the year category.)
2. Will LL Cool J do anything more than play tuxedoed traffic cop? The rapper and actor has the most secure gig in awards-show hosting, returning for his fifth straight stint at the Grammys, taking place at LA's Staples Center. Even the Golden Globes got tired of Ricky Gervais for a time there. But LL Cool J's secret is that he seems to have taken a version of the Hippocratic Oath: First do no harm. And in avoiding injury or insult, he also does minimal joke-telling and almost nothing else to stand out, besides projecting a general air of amiability. It's kind of genius in a way.
3. Will the tributes to the revered dead, David Bowie, B.B. King and Glenn Frey, be worthy of these icons? The planned Frey tribute will feature a bunch of his Eagles bandmates plus old pal Jackson Browne. So pretty much an Eagles show. King's celebrants include Gary Clark Jr. and Bonnie Raitt, which certainly has potential. The Bowie tribute is being put in the hands of Lady Gaga who, early in her career, spoke like Bowie did to the marginalized. My money is on the Gaga performance being the most electrifying of the three, and not only because she has recently shown off a new tattoo of Bowie's face in lightning-bolt makeup. But she can't just go to the greatest hits. Instead of "Changes" or "Heroes," give us a taste of a deeper cut, an "Up the Hill Backwards" or an "Oh! You Pretty Things."
4. Can we have a moment of appreciation for Ken Ehrlich, possibly also featuring Paul McCartney and Sting? Ehrlich, who cut his teeth making the legendary "Soundstage" at Chicago PBS station WTTW-Ch.11 in the 1970s, produces the best TV show among the big awards gatherings by keeping the focus firmly on the music. His "Grammy moments" put artists on stage together in combinations that can often make you forget how out of touch is the supposed main point of the evening, the awards.
5. Will this be the year that Bieber finally makes us all "Beliebers"? In a week during which scientists finally discovered gravitational waves, anything is possible.
sajohnson@tribpub.com
