GRAMMYS 2020
The day of the Grammys was an incredibly sad, head-spinning day because of the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of nine Southern Californians, including Lakers great, Kobe Bryant.
So my mind was not into reviewing the Grammys right away, (although I did pull myself together enough to live-tweet them, only because I had promised you guys that I would, and I try hard to always keep my word.) [Note: If you missed them, and are curious, they’re still up on Twitter, @MajorCelebrity. And if you’d like to read my thoughts on something bad often happening around the Grammys, here’s that link: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/breaking-newsr-i-p-yesterdays-helicopter-tragedy.]
Diplo, speaking from the heart. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the big picture at the top of this page.
As a preface, I already felt awful for everyone in the world grieving Kobe Bryant and the eight other victims of the devastating crash, (especially their families, of course,) but I also felt bad for all the Grammys participants because there was now a major pall on what should have been a very celebratory occasion for everyone.
I really don’t know how anyone was able to speak normally on the red carpet, but a quartet of celebrities described the situation best. First was Diplo, who spoke so well and sincerely about losing Kobe. His words were just perfect. In a matter-of-fact yet very caring way, he communicated the situation of the two very dichotomous events with sort-of like what my policy usually is—I try to not allow something bad derail something good; I put them in two separate compartments in my being, to work through at a later time. I now have big respect for Diplo for how he stated it all to Ryan Seacrest.
Just a short while later, Smokey Robinson, who is a legend in both the music and “celebrity” worlds, told it like it is. He expressed that he wished the tragedy hadn’t happened that day because he wanted them to be celebrating the music, which is what everyone was there to do. What he said was very honest and straightforward without disrespecting the catastrophe from that morning.
Smokey Robinson in the center, performing later on with Little Big Town, which was a highlight of the 2020 Grammys. Photo by Karen Salkin.
And then came Common, whom I already adored from meeting him twice. On the carpet, his thoughtful and spiritual comments about the loss of life that day actually made me feel a tad better about the situation. Just a tad, but that was better than nothing.
And lastly, DJ Khalid said it right: “It’s hard to catch a vibe.”
On more on-point-for-the-Grammys notes, I’m giving you only a very few of my thoughts because it’s hard to be snarky this week. But here’s one overriding one: the obscure people who show-up to the red carpet dress soooo badly because they’re so desperate for attention.
Now let’s get to the two arrivals shows, followed by the actual Grammys show, which just may be the worst one I’ve ever seen!
E ARRIVALS
Rosalia’s nails. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Their “fashion expert” looked like an idiot!!! Her dress was downright stupid and her hair was frightful. And she said “respeK” instead of “respeCT!”
I loved, loved, loved Rosalia’s blinged-out nails. I love her—she’s adorbs! (But why she wore that dreadful white outfit when she performed, that made her look like she weighs two hundred pounds, is beyond me.)
Poor Tanya Tucker. She kept sucking her teeth in a way that people do only when they’re fake. That woman must have had a very hard life because she looks at least twenty years older than she is!
Ariana Grande. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Ariana Grande’s crazy sitting-down posing is so off-putting. I really want to like her because she sings so well, (even though Mr. X and I always laugh because we can’t make out even one of her words!,) and has the absolute best nose jobs in the history of rhinoplasty, (of which I’m envious,) but she makes it difficult.
If Lil Nas X had shown up in that awful pink outfit months ago, he never would have had to come out—we would have all known.
Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X. Photo by Karen Salkin.
I’m happy for Billy Ray Cyrus to have won his first Grammy. He deserved it for sort-of coming to Lil Nas X’s rescue on Old Town Road, by doing a re-mix of the song with him, thereby giving him some “country cred,” when country music was trying to exclude him. (Or something like that—research the top for yourselves if you’d like the exact deets.)
Tank and the Bangas all seem like such happy, upbeat peeps.
Bebe Rexha was wearing a perfect fat girl’s outfit! I mean it.
Billy Porter. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Billy Porter is a lunatic!!! But a fun one. When his lampshade chapeau opened, I almost did a spit take in my living room!
Lewis Capaldi was my absolute favorite person there! I really want him to be my friend. He seems like such an adorable person. He reminds me of Baby Huey a bit. And he’s out-Ed-Sherran-ing Ed Sheeran, in the looks category! He makes Ed look like an Adonis. (After the show, he very happily said that people thought he was a seat-filler! What a riot!)
Ryan Seacrest asked the only guy from BTS who speaks English if the others disagree with what he says on their behalf. How stupid of him! The whole point of that guy being their spokesperson is that the others have no idea what he’s saying since, again…he’s the only one who speaks English!!! Duh.
Dua Lipa and her nerdy boyfriend. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Could Dua Lipa’s boyfriend be any nerdier? He was soooo hunched-over, and wearing high water babies!
CBS ARRIVALS
The only good thing about this show, with the worst female host in history, Kelsie something-or-other (or some name like that,) was how fun Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton were together. It was lovely to see. (But she really needs to trim her dead hair!!! At least five inches of ends are dreadful. How do her stylists not know better??? Actually, how does Gwen not know better?!)
TELECAST
The 2020 Grammys show was absolutely tedious! It was awful. And almost totally devoid of fun and even anything interesting at all.
That being said, the show did handle the beginning well, under the heartbreaking circumstances of that day.
I love Alicia Keys’ incredible talent, but I’m not a fan of her pretentiousness.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton arriving. Look at her awful crying-out-to-be-trimmed tresses!!! Photo by Karen Salkin.
Blake and Gwen’s love duet was the perfect bridge. (But why the heck was she wearing a mariachi dress and headdress???)
Then Alicia brought us down again. At this point, it was enough about Kobe. The producers of the show needed to make it about the people everyone was there/watching to celebrate! (And Alicia got even more full-of-herself as the show went along, if that was even possible.)
I cannot stand that Alicia Keys says everyone she mentions is her whatever—friend, brother, sister, whatever–thus making it about herself.
It was not right to include Kobe in with the tribute to Nipsey Hussle. He’ll have plenty of his own time everywhere; this was supposed to be Nipsey, who we lost way too soon, also. I guarantee you that no one will include Nipsey in with any tributes to Kobe. They needed to let that part be.
The Jonas Brothers nerdy number. Just look at their dancers’ moves! Photo by Karen Salkin.
Is there anyone in that entire building who’s a fan of the Jonas Brothers, outside of their wives? Even their dancers were nerds!
Usher singing Prince was brutal. Even his dancers were doing Caucasian choreography. What is up with that?! And the strobe lights and back lighting made it all way too hard to watch, anyway. (The same with many other moments of the show.)
Tanya Tucker. This picture says it all. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Tanya Tucker looks so used-up. She looks about eighty-five, but she’s only sixty-one. And what a sad song for her to have sung that night. The lyrics were “Bring me flowers now, while I’m living,” and “We all think we got the time until we don’t.” I was cringing with every word. (Not her fault at all—that’s the current song she won for, so she pretty much had to sing it.)
Arianna Grande’s number was among the worst in Grammys history. And I still can’t make out even one word she sings.
Why do women want to bare their chests like so many did on this show??? It’s so unattractive and the furthest thing from sexy.
Billie Eilish, with some weird neck wrap. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Billie Eilish is sort-of pretty, so why does she always make herself look so awful? I’m pretty sure she’s fat, judging by those awful clown outfits she wears.
Aerosmith’s first song was brutal, and the whole performance was semi-embarrassing and old-folks-home-esque. But Walk This Way finally injected a bit of fun into the evening.
Ellen Degeneres‘ ears! OMG. Why does she always feature those elfin protrusions like she does?!
Ellen Degeneres and her humongous ears! Photo by Karen Salkin.
I’m sad to say, but the “big” performance of Old Town Road was weak.
Greta Gerwig is such a putz. (Much more on her in my Mini Movie Reviews I hope to publish right before next week’s Oscars, so stay tuned for that!)
I know people are supposed to say how good poor, unfortunate, open wound Demi Lovato was, but I have to be honest and say she just yelled the entire song.
The best moment of the whole show for me was Smokey Robinson and Little Big Town singing My Girl, a cappella. That was beautiful.
The back of John Legend’s stupid jacket/coat, on the left, and the weirdo Osbournes on the right. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Does no one on this show own a mirror? So many people looked awful! Everyone’s wardrobe looked like this was a Grammys from the ’80s! (An example of that is in the big picture at the top of this page, where everyone’s wardrobe is awful. Photo by Karen Salkin.)
John Legend wore a horrible half jacket, half coat, (which just looked like his wife made him try too hard,) but he did have the best, most heartfelt speech of the night.
I loved H.E.R.’s simple outfit of a blue tight tee-shirt with a fancier skirt of the same color. I swear–I had one just like it…in the ’80s!
H.E.R. Photo by Karen Salkin.
The In Memorium section was done well, actually. No one sang through it; the music was provided by the deceased people in the clips. Very interesting. And appropriate.
War and Treaty are the first people who sang great on that show! And the show was just about over at that point!
OMG—They cut away from Misty Copeland doing beautiful ballet to show Gary Clark, Jr. just playing basic guitar (not his good solo) at the time! Disgraceful.
The Jonas wives. Look at how bad Priyanka Chopra’s naked middle looks! Why do show biz women always want to bare their weird chest areas like that?!
The Eilish bro, Finneas O’Connell, seems very sweet.
In conclusion, I must say that I much prefer the way the Grammys used to do it—one act in a category performed, followed by that winner being announced. And every genre of music was included—opera, gospel, jazz, pop, soul you name it. This rendition was an awful hodgepodge, with few on-air awards. Shame on the producers for this mess.
That’s it for the Grammys. Next week, I rag on review the Superbowl and the Oscars the week after that. And then the worlds of sports and entertainment can be safe from my wrath, for just a little bit. As Roseanne Roseannadanna so aptly used to say, it’s always something.
