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Great Grammy Moments: Beyoncé Cleans House, Parties With Prince

Posted 2/2/11 5:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and music's biggest, most prestigious awards show will feature a number of killer performances, appearances and potential acceptance speeches from the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green, Muse, Arcade Fire, B.o.B, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, Jay-Z and scores of others. In order to appreciate what's to come, every day the MTV Newsroom Blog will deliver a classic moment in the history of the Grammy Awards. Today's installment: Beyoncé has a truly gigantic night with hardware and Prince.

The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences hands out over 100 little sculptures of Victrolas at each show, which means that there are a massive collection of winners every year. But there are often artists who separate themselves from the pack and make each Grammy Awards into a signature night for themselves. Amy Winehouse cleaned up in 2008, Alicia Keys owned the 2002 show and Beyoncé took control of Grammy night in 2004.

The latter's night in 2004 was the most interesting. By the time the final award was handed out, Beyoncé had won herself five awards, making her only the fourth female artist in history to win five in a single night. She joined the likes of Keys, Norah Jones and Lauryn Hill in that category (and Winehouse and Alison Krauss subsequently joined that roster), and perhaps most remarkably, she didn't win any of the major awards (Record of the Year, Song of the Year or Album of the Year).

And while her success with the awards was a pretty big deal, she grabbed the biggest headlines with her performance. During the show, Prince took the stage first to perform a bit of his classic hit "Purple Rain" as a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the movie and album of the same name. But just after he finished the first chorus, another voice joined him. Beyoncé emerged from backstage to sing the second verse of the song with him. From there, the performance just kept escalating: Prince ripped into a guitar solo and the pair shared harmonies before tearing into bits of "Baby I'm a Star," Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" and "Let's Go Crazy." It was a remarkable crossover between the past and present of futuristic R&B.

It was a great night all told for Beyoncé, but she somehow managed to top herself: In 2010, Beyoncé won six awards, making her the female performer with the most victories in a single night.

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Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyoncé Flex Their Pop Vocals: Better Know A Grammy Category

Posted 2/2/11 12:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and they bring with them dozens of artists competing in 109 different categories. The performers on the show — which airs live on Sunday, February 13 — include Eminem, Cee Lo Green, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Miranda Lambert, Katy Perry, Muse, B.o.B, Usher, Bruno Mars, Jaden Smith and Janelle Monae. It promises to be one of the biggest nights in the history of music, and MTV News will be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the big event.

But the awards are the big draw, and just as the MTV Newsroom Blog does with the MTV Video Music Awards, here are a series of guides to some of the biggest categories on the docket. This time around: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Many of the Grammy categories are a study in contrasts. Though all of the nominees for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance exist under the same umbrella (hence their ability to be nominated together), no two of the songs are alike. There's Beyoncé's warm live version of "Halo," Katy Perry's effervescent "Teenage Dream," the futuristic disco of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," Sara Bareilles' groovy "King of Anything" and Norah Jones' sparse "Chasing Pirates." It's a pretty amazing mix of songs from some of the biggest women in music.

But who should win? This is by far one of the toughest categories to call in the entire field. Any one of these women could win and it would make perfect sense (though Bareilles probably has the longest odds and the studio version of Beyoncé's "Halo" won the same award last year). While it seems like Perry or Gaga should take it home, the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences loves Norah Jones. Perry has been nominated for this exact prize twice before, so it seems like the third time is the charm for her and for "Teenage Dream."

Notable Winners: Roberta Flack, "Killing Me Softly With His Song" (1974); Tina Turner, "What's Love Got to Do With It" (1985); Tracy Chapman, "Fast Car" (1989); Celine Dion, "My Heart Will Go On" (1999); Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone" (2006); Amy Winehouse, "Rehab" (2008)

Notable Robberies: In 2009, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" should have topped winner Adele's "Chasing Pavements," and Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time" had no business beating out Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" in 1990.

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Great Grammy Moments: DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince Break Ground In 1989

Posted 2/1/11 4:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and music's biggest, most prestigious awards show will feature a number of killer performances, appearances and potential acceptance speeches from the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green, Muse, Arcade Fire, B.o.B, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, Jay-Z and scores of others. In order to appreciate what's to come, every day the MTV Newsroom Blog will deliver a classic moment in the history of the Grammy Awards. Today's installment: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince collect the first prize for rap.

Considering how many hip-hop artists are nominated for major awards this year (including Eminem, Jay-Z, B.o.B and Drake), it's strange to think of a time when rap music wasn't represented at the Grammys. Of course, the awards were already two decades old by the time the early players started to rhyme over breakbeats, but it took until the 31st Grammy Awards to recognize great accomplishments in the fastest-growing genre of music.

On February 22, 1989, the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences handed out its first ever award for Best Rap Performance. The nominees included some first generation luminaries like LL Cool J ("Going Back to Cali"), Salt-n-Pepa ("Push It"), Kool Moe Dee ("Wild Wild West") and J.J. Fad ("Supersonic," which was produced by Dr. Dre and was later sampled as part of Fergie's smash hit "Fergalicious"). Those are all classics, but the winners that night were DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, who took home the hardware for their cross-generational chart-busting hit "Parents Just Don't Understand."

The Best Rap Performance category only lasted on more year (Young MC won the award for "Bust a Move" in 1990, beating out Public Enemy, Tone Loc, De La Soul and denying DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince a second consecutive victory) before it was split into two new categories (Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group) that carry on today. But in the history of hip-hop and the Grammy Awards, it all started with Will and Jeff.

What's your favorite Grammy moment of all time? Let us know in the comments!

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Janelle Monae, Cee Lo Green Go For Urban/Alternative Immortality: Better Know A Grammy Category

Posted 2/1/11 2:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and they bring with them dozens of artists competing in 109 different categories. The performers on the show — which airs live on Sunday, February 13 — include Eminem, Cee Lo Green, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Miranda Lambert, Katy Perry, Muse, B.o.B, Usher, Bruno Mars, Jaden Smith and Janelle Monae. It promises to be one of the biggest nights in the history of music, and MTV News will be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the big event.

But the awards are the big draw, and just as the MTV Newsroom Blog does with the MTV Video Music Awards, here are a series of guides to some of the biggest categories on the docket. This time around: Best Urban/Alternative Performance.

The prize for Best Urban/Alternative Performance is one of the newest awards given out at the Grammys, as it has only existed since 2003. Its creation was long overdue, as the Best Urban/Alternative Performance prize seeks to reward artists working to push the boundaries in hip-hop and R&B, two genres who are notoriously resistant to change and evolution. The nominees in the category this year each crafted work that takes a genre and helps it mutate into something that is truly original while still remaining true to the tropes of the craft.

The biggest entry in the category is undoubtedly Cee Lo Green's "F--- You," a huge hit single and a fantastically subversive (both lyrically and sonically) throwback R&B track. Green's competition is pretty stiff, as it includes Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" (possibly the strangest song to be played on urban radio in years), Bilal's "Little One," (a sparse old school burner) Eric Roberson's "Still" (a jittery soul track) and Carolyn Malachi "Orion" (a groovy, bluesy slow jam).

Based on popularity alone, it seems like it should be a two-horse race between Green and Monae (though it wouldn't be especially surprising if Malachi's song poked its head in there at the last second). Since Green will probably be winning more high-profile prizes, this one appears to belong to Monae, which should cap off a tremendous year for the young singer.

Notable Winners: Outkast, "Hey Ya!" (2004); Damian Marley, "Welcome to Jamrock" (2006); Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy" (2007)

Notable Robberies: Monae should have won the award in 2009 but got beat by Chrisette Michelle's "Be OK," and though India.Arie won in 2003 (her first of two in this category), Erykah Badu and Common should have scored with "Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)."

Who do you think will win the Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance? Let us know in the comments!

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Great Grammy Moments: Bob Dylan Meets Soy Bomb

Posted 1/31/11 5:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and music's biggest, most prestigious awards show will feature a number of killer performances, appearances and potential acceptance speeches from the likes of Eminem, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green, Muse, Arcade Fire, B.o.B, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, Jay-Z and scores of others. In order to appreciate what's to come, every day the MTV Newsroom Blog will deliver a classic moment in the history of the Grammy Awards. Today's installment: Soy Bomb!

Considering the sort of reverence most people hold for the rock icons of the 1960s, it's weird to think that Bob Dylan ever needed any sort of a comeback. But that's just what happened when the venerable rocker released Time Out of Mind in 1997. After decades floundering with middling music, Dylan finally seemed to be embracing his own mortality on the dark, desolate Time Out of Mind, which tapped into Dylan's particular vision of love, death, freedom and the American experience. The minimalist flavor on the album pleased old fans (who were glad to have the old, weird Dylan back) and attracted a whole new generation of admirers.

Dylan's comeback came full circle on February 25, 1998, when he emerged as the big winner at the 40th Grammy Awards (which were held in Radio City Music Hall in New York that time around). Time Out of Mind took home the prize for Album of the Year, but the moment that everybody remembers from that night came during Dylan's performance. While in the midst of a scorching version of Time Out of Mind's "Love Sick," a man named Michael Portnoy stormed the stage and began manically dancing next to Dylan. Portnoy was shirtless and had the words "Soy Bomb" written across his chest. Dylan glanced at the strange man but barely batted an eye, and security came out to retrieve him while the rocker burned through another bluesy guitar solo.

Later, Portnoy (who was hired to dance behind Dylan during the performance, so was on stage legally) explained what "Soy Bomb" meant. "Soy represents dense nutritional life," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Bomb is, obviously, an explosive destructive force. So, soy bomb is what I think art should be: dense, transformational, explosive life."

Stay tuned to MTV News for all the latest on the 53rd Grammy Awards!

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Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend Play The Edges: Better Know A Grammy Category

Posted 1/31/11 2:30 pm EST by in Grammys

The 53rd Grammy Awards are upon us, and they bring with them dozens of artists competing in 109 different categories. The performers on the show — which airs live on Sunday, February 13 — include Eminem, Cee Lo Green, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Miranda Lambert, Katy Perry, Muse, B.o.B, Usher, Bruno Mars, Jaden Smith and Janelle Monae. It promises to be one of the biggest nights in the history of music, and MTV News will be bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of the big event.

But the awards are the big draw, and just as the MTV Newsroom Blog does with the MTV Video Music Awards, here are a series of guides to some of the biggest categories on the docket. This time around: Best Alternative Album.

The concept of "alternative" as a genre is a holdover from the '90s, a pre-Internet era when counter-cultural music was far more elusive than it is now. However, while many of the albums nominated for the prize for Best Alternative Music Album could be considered mainstream (Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and Vampire Weekend's Contra both topped the Billboard album chart, and the Black Keys, Band of Horses and Broken Bells are generally well-known), the spirit of the prize remains true, as all five of the nominated albums are doing something a little different. The Black Keys continue to deconstruct and rebuild the blues, Arcade Fire push the boundaries of soft/loud dynamics, Vampire Weekend continue to interpolate world music, Band of Horses are mixing the beautiful with the caustic and Broken Bells traffic in literate weirdness.

But which album will dominate? The Grammy voters will probably want to reward an alternative album that also managed some crossover success, which boils it down to Arcade Fire against Vampire Weekend. And while Contra enjoyed a bit of a renaissance at the end of the year (it seemed like a lot of people forgot that album came out last year and were reminded when it showed up on best-of lists for 2010), this is Arcade Fire's prize to lose. Their combination of sonic adventurousness and commercial appeal is too much to deny.

Other Notable Winners: R.E.M., Out of Time (1992); Green Day, Dookie (1995); Beck, Odelay (1997); Radiohead, OK Computer (1998); Wilco, A Ghost is Born (2005); The White Stripes, Icky Thump (2008)

Notable Robberies: Nirvana's In Utero should have beaten U2's Zooropa in 1994; Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell deserved the prize more than the White Stripes' Elephant in 2004.

Who do you want to win the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album? Let us know in the comments!

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Did Hip-Hop Get Snubbed At The Grammys?

Posted 2/2/10 6:57 pm EST by in Grammys

Jay-ZPeople in the hip-hop nation are wondering if the Grammy Awards are snubbing hip-hop.

At Sunday night's show, the only hip-hop award that was broadcast during the show was Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, which Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna won. The only hip-hop act to perform was the finale of Lil Wayne, Drake and Eminem performing "Drop the World" and "Forever" — and even with that coveted spot, the performance was mired in controversy due to network's overzealous muting of the song's lyrics. There was no moment in the spotlight for Eminem's two wins; no show-stopping performances like last year's "Swagga Like Us" tag-team of Jay-Z, T.I., Lil Wayne and Kanye West with M.I.A., which killed it collectively and individually.

"CBS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT RAP PEOPLE!" fumed radio/blog and television personality Miss Info on her Twitter page.

"Looks like none of the hip-hop categories makin' it to TV," DJ Drama tweeted midway through the telecast.

"So best comedy album gets aired but not hip hop?? #BoycottGrammys" Q-Tip said on Twitter.
Read More...

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When Snooki Met Phoenix At The Grammys

Posted 2/2/10 4:32 pm EST by in Grammys

Phoenix are a (pretty excellent) French group whose Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix just won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album. Over the course of the past decade, they have won over critics and established a rather rabid fanbase based on the strength of four studio albums and an unerring ability to write razor-sharp indie pop. In the past year alone, the have saturated U.S. airwaves with performances on "Saturday Night Live," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" (R.I.P.), to name just a few. They are probably one of the 20 best-known indie rock acts on the planet.

Of course, pretty much all of this was news to Snooki, the bubbly, super-tanned star of MTV's "Jersey Shore," who covered Sunday (January 31) night's Grammy red carpet for MTV News. She probably thought Phoenix was that place just down the road from Lake Havasu.

Anyway, that much was apparent when the Snookster interviewed (and I use that term loosely) Phoenix on the carpet. Over the course of 83 seconds, she asked them if they watch her show (they don't, because, as frontman Thomas Mars, puts it, "We're French"), told guitarist Laurent Brancowitz that he looks like "the vampire Edward," and — perhaps most notably — wondered if "they have guidos in France." Like her encounter with metal veterans Judas Priest, it's bizarre only when it isn't really bizarre.

Needless to say, it's pretty much required viewing. So here, for your cringing pleasure, is the footage of what happened when Snooki met Phoenix.

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Snooki Breaks Into The Interview Game With Judas Priest

Posted 2/2/10 11:21 am EST by in Grammys

When MTV News decided to send "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi to the Grammy Awards this past Sunday (January 31), nobody knew exactly how it would go. Sure, she had plenty of on-camera experience, and based on her performance as the breakout star of "Jersey Shore," everybody knew she had a natural charisma that would come across. But the truth was that she had never conducted an interview before Sunday night. What would happen once Snooki hit the carpet and started talking to some of the biggest stars in music?

When she finally got the chance to get her feet wet as a correspondent, she began with an interesting challenge. The first musicians she encountered on the red carpet? Rob Halford and Scott Travis of legendary English metal band Judas Priest (who would later take home the prize for Best Metal Performance, the group's first Grammy in its 40 year history). You might think that a pair of veteran metalheads would give Snickers a hard time, but luckily, she happened upon two hardcores who happened to be fans of "Jersey Shore."

"We know who you are," Halford said during introductions.

"Do you like my show?" Snooki asked.

"Oh yes," Halford replied.

Snooki went on to explain to the metal vets that J-WOWW likes to work out to heavy metal music, so she's probably heard of them. Travis said he was excited for the second season of the show and wondered if a third was already in place. "I think there's going to be a third, fourth, fifth, sixth," Snooki said.

Stay tuned for more Snooki encounters from the Grammy red carpet.

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Adam Lambert Versus Snooki: Who Was The Better Grammy Correspondent?

Posted 2/1/10 6:15 pm EST by in Grammys

Back in the day, we had Joan Rivers on the red carpet asking celebs, "Who are you wearing?" These days, as proven by last night's Grammy Awards red carpet rundown, media outlets tap famous guest correspondents to handle fashion reports. "Entertainment Tonight" hired former "American Idol" fave Adam Lambert to rock the fashion questions while MTV sent Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of "Jersey Shore" fame.

But which "reporter for a day" did you like better?

As "ET" Fashion Correspondent, Lambert had three patented moves. First, he told the ladies that their outfits were "beautiful." Then Lambert asked to see their backs. Finally, he flew into his falsetto to let out an adorably high-pitched, "Whaaaaat?!" Lambert's selfish microphone handling needs improvement (the mic belongs in your interview subject's face, Adam!), but he more than makes up for that by calling Taylor Swift a "glamazon" and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas a "spaceman." Win!

Snooki's style was a smidge less refined than Adam's. Just as she was on "Jersey Shore," Snickers had zero filter. When she had a thought, she said it. In most cases, that "in your face" style yielded spectacular results. (Did you ever think you'd live to see Miley Cyrus and Fergie act star-struck?) But there were a few awkward instances, like when she told grunge gods Alice in Chains she had no idea who they were. But bonus points for Snooki getting celebs phone numbers! I'd like to see Barbara Walters try that.

So what do you think? Which celeb guest correspondent do you prefer? Leave your preference in the comments!

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