Here we got "The 57th Annual Grammy Awards" and the title is pretty self-explanatory I guess. This is the 2015 awards ceremony the music equivalent to the Oscars where America honored its finest records, songs etc. down to the most specific categories really. The show ran for slightly over 2.5 hours and it is really always that long, but does not include commercial breaks even, so actually even longer if you don't get the condensed version. Director is Horvitz as always with these ceremonies and writers were Ehrlich and Wild, also kind of like always, because this exact trio was also in charge of the recent 2019 Grammys. But back to these here. The host was LL Cool J. Well, was he really? He was pretty much non-existent in a way where you could think something happened to him during the show and they just filled the event with random announcers and they should just go without a host. I must say I was surprised how much i liked this show. There were weaknesses though admittedly and I will startg with them first. AC/DC surprisingly did not get me in the mood early on at all. Madonna was disappointing and she is so much better than her performance and song here. Then 3 of the defining young female singers. Rihanna had some catchy stuff early in her career, but it is embarrassing how she is seen as so skilled performing with Kanye and McCartney. Besides this performance was quite a bummer, but I always found McCartney overrated (compared to Lennon for example), so it does not surprise me. Swift was so promising early in her career, but now she is the epitome of a soulless pop starlet really. But can you really blame her if stuff like "Shake it off" gets these honors. Her Best New Artist announcement was cringeworthy too promoting her single there. So was her introduction to the night, almost as bad as the politicaql reference back to gay marriage from the 2014 Grammys (why include that???) And finally Beyonce. Man she was brilliant in her Destiny's Child days, but now she has been playing it safe for how long? Sadly, her voice is still good enough for her to get away with it, but is such a waste of talent and her final performance of the night sure wasn't one of the highlights. Ed Sheeran I have never been too big on, but at least he played an okay song this time. He is so simple though and not in a good way. Lady Gaga played with Tony Bennett. That's like a tiny rotten apple next to a big juicy one and he kinds saved her, even if her overacting during singing was again not really bearable. Katy Perry I have also liked more than that night. Glory is also very overrated, a pretty simple and empty song without the movie it is attached to. Miranda Lambert was weak too. Away from the performances, why do they get American Football players every year to present categories of this music awards shows. And what was up with pauley Perrette. I like NCIS, but she does not belong there and I guess the makers realized it too, so we hardly even saw her during this ceremony. I almost felt sorry foor her as she was probably busy the entire show backstage (or maybe just went there once for this sequence?) and she would get no screen time.
Now for the good moments. First of all, this was Sam Smith's night and I like him a lot, so I was happy for the wins, even if I must say I like his Oscar-winning song even more than Stay With Me and I would have preferred Sia to dominate the night with Chandelier. Still it was okay and Beck and Pharrell with their wins could not steal Smith's thunder either. As for Beck, when he entered the stage Kanye had maybe the funniest moment of the night. Loved it. I must say there were surprisingly many performances that night that I enjoyed, such as Hozier (with Annie Lennox), Smith (withn MJB), Chandelier (even if I was getting a bit annoyed of the constantly blonde wigs being showed instead of Sia, the very special version of Happy and some others. And the winners were okay too. Most of the nominees actually as well. Pretty arguable if Enrique Iglesias should present one of the biggest categories of the night. I think his Grammy history is just not good enough for that and he is pretty irrelevant anyway these days isn't he? And I disliked Prince's racial reference trying to make this political. So for once I was okay with the amount of performances at the Grammys even if it did get a bit too much towards the end and they should have included other awards instead of Glory and Beyoncé. However, it is still absolutely disgraceful that not all awards are presented during the show in my opinion. Would never happen at the Oscars and it is utterly disrespectful to all the winners who do not only get no screen time, but actually nobody even knows they won. I know it is a lot of categories, but still. Include them. All of them. For example, John Williams, Eminem, Joan Rivers and Al Yankovic all won Grammys that night and they could have made some great acceptance speeches. Johnny Cash's daughter Rosanne won several Grammys even, not a word about her. Now reading all of this, you could think I disliked the show, but no I just disliked certain aspects and decisions and like the rest. i was well-entertained for the most part here and it felt shorter than 215 minutes for sure. I think if you like awards shows, then you can check this one out, maybe fast forward during some performances, but I truly hope the Grammys can get as good as this one again, in terms of entertainment factor as well as quality of the nominees, but right now almost 5 years later, they are miles away from that. Pity. Thumbs up for the 2015 ceremony from me. There were moments when I considered giving this an even higher rating, but some of the flaws are just too crucial and deal-breaking. P-S. R. Kelly was a Grammy nominee that night. Why? Gecause he is so genuinely talented as a singer an artist. Take that, haters.
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