The 2012 Grammy’s were like a hodge-podge of sorts and sporadic. But I guess when it’s music’s biggest night of the year, it needs to have twists, right? The festivities included reporters heckling almost every person on the red carpet about Whitney Houston’s death, huge techno and electronic artists being nominated for awards and performing, old stars like the Beach Boys reuniting, and the anticipation of figuring out who won what.
With that being said, Whitney Houston’s very recent and sudden death was a big theme through the whole ceremony.
“I teared up, but I didn’t cry when Jennifer Hudson sang in tribute to Whitney”, said senior Ramone Lewis.
But the show must go on with its normal routine. After Bruno Mars opened the show with a pretty good performance of do-wops with his band of hooligans, calling back to an older American era, the show later when on to letting some real old-timers perform.
That night the Beach Boys reunited and teamed up with Maroon 5 and Foster the People. Twice, we also got to see the last-standing Beatle, Paul McCarney, grace the stage.
Honestly, I was somewhat confused as to why they let Chris Brown perform… twice. It’s great to know that as long as you’re good looking, rich, and famous, it’s perfectly okay to punch a woman in the face. I was not impressed by his act, regardless.
“Chris Brown lip-synced the whole time… it was stupid,” said junior Alliyah Brown.
With that being said, Rihanna did a really good job performing “We Found Love” and then did decently when she walked over to feature on Coldplay’s set. Performing by themselves, Coldplay wasn’t all that great. They sounded find, but their lead singer needs to re-evaluate his vocal range. Those high notes didn’t do justice to you or my ears.
From what I could tell, many people also enjoyed Taylor Swift’s contribution to the night’s events. Taking to the stage with her 6-string banjo, and Little House on the Prairie-esq garb, Swift and company performed “Mean” giving it a huge ending as her little hillbilly hometown on stage came together.
“Everyone was dissing her and stuff, but I thought she did really good,” said junior Kaysan Schneider. “I thought she was so cute up there with her little banjo.”
Personally, my favorite part of the Grammy’s was probably when Katy Perry debuted and performed her new song, “Part of Me.” Admittedly, it was not the best performance, but in her defense she’s never really been the one to have dazzling choreography or pyrotechnics. It makes me wonder if she’s about to make a big transition in her career from the queen of candy land to a more dark and grittier persona and sound.
Towards the end of the show David Guetta and Deadmau5 got to spin side by side as a lot of extras and party-goers got their fist-pump on.
Why did they let Nicki Minaj have that big of a performance? And that close to the end? She really isn’t that good. The same goes for when Lil’ Wayne performed. I don’t understand why anyone would want to listen to him when he sounds that horrible all the time.
“I didn’t like her performance; it was weird,” said junior Meli Reimer.
Sadly, many of the artists that I rooted for didn’t go home with any new trophies Sunday night. Why? Because Adele was running against them in every category, and she basically cleaned house before going into one of her always heart-wrenching performances of “Rolling in the Deep.” This made her big comeback from recovering for her vocal chord surgery.
Upon accepting her awards, she was so ecstatic and crying that she let a snot rocket fly. But it’s good to see that she’s down to earth enough to let it roll off.
“Six for you Adele, you go Adele. None for you Lady Gaga,” said senior Jocelyn Gordillo.
With that being said, watching an award show that didn’t make Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga one of the main focuses was a little odd. I don’t think I even saw Beiber in the crowd, and poor Gaga had to sit through the whole show with a hairnet over her face.