Tag: Grammy Awards

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Out Singer/Songwriter Sam Smith Cleans Up At The 2015 Grammy Awards

Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith had a great night at the 2015 Grammys winning four major awards for his song “Stay With Me” – Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.

In accepting one of his many awards of the evening, Smith said “Before I made this record I was doing everything to try and get my music heard. I tried to lose weight and I was making awful music. It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen.”

Other notable Grammy news:

• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical won for Best Musical Theater Album

• Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for their Cheek To Cheek

• Joan Rivers won posthumously for Best Spoken Word Album for her book Diary Of A Mad Diva

A full list of tonight’s winners can be found here.

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Madonna Set To Perform At 2015 Grammy Awards

Seven-time Grammy Award winner and “Queen of Pop,” Madonna, has been announced as a live performer at this year’s Grammy Awards airing February 8th on CBS.

Via Billboard:

On Jan. 12, the Queen of Pop shared an image to her social media accounts of a Grammy Award wrapped in now-familiar black wire (as seen on the cover of her upcoming Rebel Heart album and many of her Instagram posts) with the caption: “Rebel Hearts see you Feb 8th @theGRAMMYs.” (The Grammy Awards’ official Twitter account re-Tweeted the news shortly afterwards.) Madonna first hinted at a Grammy Awards performance in a December interview with Billboard, saying that it was “possibly something that’s gonna happen.”

Madonna’s manager, Guy Oseary, confirmed to Billboard that the diva will indeed be performing on the show (Some may have wondered if Madonna’s vaguely-worded Tweet suggested that she was simply going to appear on the show, rather than perform).

This will be Madonna’s 5th performance for the Grammy Awards.

I’m guessing Madge will be performing “Living For Love,” the lead single from her upcoming Rebel Hearts album which will be released on March 10th.

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The 2015 Grammy Award Nominations Are Out

The nominations for the 57th Grammy Awards are out today; just waiting for the Album of the Year noms which will be announced tonight at 9PM on CBS. Instead of a usual complete list, this year nominations are being shared via Twitter over several hours.

So far, Beyonce and out singer Sam Smith lead this year with five noms each.

Other nominations of LGBT interest:

• The Best Musical Theater Album category includes Neil Patrick Harris for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It will compete with Aladdin, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder and West Side Story (featuring out actor Cheyenne Jackson).

• Filmmaker John Waters of Hairspray fame is nominated in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio version of his book Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America.

• Also in the Best Spoken Word Album category – beloved gay icon, Joan Rivers, who died in September at the age of 81. Rivers is nominated for her audio of her best seller Diary of a Mad Diva.

Check the list below to see if your favorite made the cut this year.

The 2015 Grammy Awards will be held February 8, 2015, at 8PM on CBS.

Record of the Year
Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
Sia, “Chandelier”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”

Song of the Year
Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
Sia – “Chandelier”
Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off”
Sam Smith – “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”
Hozier – “Take Me to Church”

Best New Artist
Bastille
Iggy Azalea
Brandy Clark
HAIM
Sam Smith

Best Pop Vocal Album
Coldplay, Ghost Stories
Miley Cyrus, Bangerz
Ariana Grande, My Everything
Katy Perry, Prism
Ed Sheeran, x
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour

Best Pop Solo Performance
John Legend, “All of Me (Live Version)”
Sia, “Chandelier”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Pharrell Williams, “Happy”

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
Coldplay, “A Sky Full of Stars”
A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, “Say Something”
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj, “Bang Bang”
Katy Perry feat. Juicy J, “Dark Horse”

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek
Annie Lennox, Nostalgia
Barry Manilow, Night Songs
Johnny Mathis, Sending You a Little Christmas
Barbra Streisand, Partners

Best Country Album
Dierks Bentley, Riser
Eric Church, The Outsiders
Lee Ann Womack, The Way I’m Living
Brandy Clark, 12 Stories
Miranda Lambert, Platinum

Best Country Solo Performance
Eric Church, “Give Me Back My Hometown”
Hunter Hayes, “Invisible”
Miranda Lambert, “Automatic”
Carrie Underwood, “Something in the Water”
Keith Urban, “Cop Car”

Best Country Duo/Group Performance
The Band Perry, “Gentle On My Mind”
Miranda Lambert with Carrie Underwood, “Somethin’ Bad”
Little Big Town, “Day Drinking”
Tim McGraw feat. Faith Hill, “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”
Keith Urban feat. Eric Church, “Raise ‘Em Up”

Best Country Song
Kenny Chesney, “American Kids”
Miranda Lambert, “Automatic”
Eric Church, “Give Me Back My Hometown”
Glen Campbell, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”
Tim McGraw feat. Faith Hill, “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”

Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Jhene Aiko, Sail Out
Beyonce, Beyonce
Chris Brown, X
Mali Music, Mail Is
Pharrell Williams, G I R L

Best R&B Album
Bernhoft, Islander
Aloe Blacc, Lift Your Spirit
Toni Braxton & Babyface, Love, Marriage & Divorce
Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio 2
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Give The People What They Want

Best R&B Performance
Beyonce feat. JAY Z, “Drunk in Love”
Chris Brown feat. Usher & Rick Ross, “New Flame”
Jennifer Hudson feat. R. Kelly, “It’s Your World”
Ledisi, “Like This”
Usher, “Good Kisser”

Best Traditional R&B Performance
Marsha Ambrosius & Anthony Hamilton, “As”
Angie Fisher, “I.R.S.”
Robert Glasper Experiment Featuring Lalah Hathaway & Malcolm Jamal Warner, “Jesus Children”
Kem, “Nobody”
Antonique Smith, “Hold Up Wait A Minute (Woo Woo)”

Best R&B Song
Beyonce feat. JAY Z, “Drunk in Love”
Usher, “Good Kisser”
Chris Brown feat. Usher & Rick Ross, “New Flame”
Luke James, “Options”
Jhene Aiko, “The Worst”

Best Rock Album
Ryan Adams, Ryan Adam
Beck, Morning Phase
The Black Keys, Turn Blue
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hypnotic Eye
U2, Songs of Innocence

Best Rock Performance
Ryan Adams, “Gimme Something Good”
Arctic Monkeys, “Do I Wanna Know?”
Beck, “Blue Moon”
The Black Keys, “Fever”
Jack White, “Lazaretto”

Best Metal Performance
Anthrax, “Neon Knights”
Mastodon, “High Road”
Motorhead, “Heartbreaker”
Slipknot, “The Negative One”
Tenacious D, “The Last in Line”

Best Rock Song
Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun”
Beck, “Blue Moon”
The Black Keys, “Fever”
Ryan Adams, “Gimme Something Good”
Jack White, “Lazaretto”

Best Rap Album
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Childish Gambino, Because the Internet
Iggy Azalea, The New Classic
Common, Nobody’s Smiling
Schoolboy Q, Oxymoron
Wiz Khalifa, Black Hollywood

Best Rap Solo Performance
Childish Gambino – “3005″
Drake – “0 to 100/The Catch Up”
Eminem – “Rap God”
Kendrick Lamar “i”
Lecrae – “All I Need Is You”

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Common Featuring Jhené Aiko, “Blak Majik”
Eminem feat. Rihanna, “The Monster
I Love Makonnen feat. Drake, “Tuesday”
Schoolboy Q feat. BJ The Chicago Kid, “Studio”
Kanye West & Charlie Wilson, “Bound 2″

Best Rap Song
Nicki Minaj, “Anaconda”
Kanye West & Charlie Wilson, “Bound 2″
Kendrick Lamar, “I”
Wiz Khalifa, “We Dem Boyz”
Drake – “0 to 100/The Catch Up”

Best Reggae Album
Ziggy Marley, Fly Rasta
Lee ‘Scratch Perry, Back on the Controls
Sean Paul, Full Frequency
Shaggy, Out of Many, One Music
Sly & Robbie & Spicy Chocolate, The Reggae Power
Soja, Amid the Noise and the Haste

Best Alternative Music Album
alt-J, This Is All Yours
Arcade Fire, Reflektor
Cage the Elephant, Melophobia
St. Vincent, St. Vincent
Jack White, Lazaretto

Best Soundtrack
American Hustle
Frozen
Get On Up
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Musical Theater Album
Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
A Gentleman’s Guide To Love & Murder
Hedwig and The Angry Inch
West Side Story

Best Americana Album
Roseanne Cash, The River & The Thread
John Hiatt, Terms of My Surrender
Keb’ Mo’, Bluesamerica
Nickel Creek, A Dotted Line
Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

Best Spoken Word Album
James Franco, Actors Anonymous
Jimmy Carter, A Call to Action
John Waters, Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America
Elizabeth Warren, A Fighting Chance
Joan Rivers, Diary of a Mad Diva
Gloria Gaynor, We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration and the Power of Song

Best Dance/Electronic Album
Aphex Twin, Syro
Deadmaus, While (1<2)
Basement Jaxx, “Never Say Never”
Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glynne, “Rather Be”
Disclosure feat. Mary J. Blige, “F for You”
Duke Dumont feat. Jax Jones, “I Got You”
Zhu, “Faded”

Best Music Video
Pharrell Williams, “Happy”
Arcade Fire, “We Exist”
DJ Snake and Lil Jon, “Turn Down for What
Sia, “Chandelier”
Woodkid feat. Max Richter, “The Golden Age”

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Grammy Museum to unveil new exhibition “Donna Summer: Four Seasons of Love”

Fans of classic 70s and 80s pop/rock/dance music – mark your calendars!

On July 2, 2014, The GRAMMY Museum will unveil its latest temporary exhibition Donna Summer: Four Seasons of Love.

Located on the Museum’s fourth floor, the exhibition will offer visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic career of 5-time Grammy Award-winner Donna Summer. This will be the first exhibition highlighting the career of the legendary “Queen of Disco.”

“Donna Summer galvanized a diverse group of music fans and she was able to give credibility to a genre of music that had many skeptics,” said GRAMMY Museum executive director Bob Santelli. “We are honored to tell her story and help demonstrate why Donna Summer is not only the undisputed ‘Queen of Disco,’” but also one of the most successful female artists of all time.”

On display through Spring 2015, the exhibit, (produced by client relations rep Brian Edwards and Summer’s son-in-law Rick Dohler) will feature gowns, costumes, set design sketches, handwritten lyrics and notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, hand-painted pieces from Summer’s Fine Arts Collection and much more from the Donna Summer estate.

With a career that spanned decades and musical genres, Donna Summer holds the record for most consecutive double albums to hit #1 on the Billboard charts (3) and first female to have four #1 singles in a 12 month period; three as a solo artist and one as a duo with Barbra Streisand.

Donna Summer was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (1979, “Hot Stuff”) as well as the first-ever recipient of the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording (1997, “Carry On”).

In 2004, she became one of the first inductees, as both an Artist Inductee and a Record Inductee into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in New York City.

Most recently, Summer was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18, 2013, less than a year after her death on May 17, 2012.

The GRAMMY Museum features 30,000 square feet of interactive and multimedia exhibits located within L.A. LIVE, the downtown Los Angeles sports, entertainment and residential district.

(via press release)

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Bryan Fischer: Having same-sex parents is “child abuse”

Predictably, hate group leader Bryan Fischer was not happy about this year’s Grammy Awards show.

Regarding the Macklemore/Madonna/Queen Latifah “Same Love” segment near the end of the telecast, Fischer calls the marriage ceremony an “abomination.”

He goes on to say “If you care about children,” Fischer said, “this thing ought to appall you because gay marriage is bad for children. In fact, same-sex parenting – I’m going to be very direct here – same-sex parenting is a form of child abuse.”

(via Right Wing Watch)

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Alabama QB AJ McCarron finds the Grammy Awards show “demonic”

Last night during the Grammy Awards telecast, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron tweeted that he found the show to be “demonic” which led him to ponder the amount of evil in the world.

Tom Fornelli at CBS Sports had this to say:

I have no idea what McCarron is talking about. Personally I found Beyonce’s performance to start the show to be a religious experience, but not the demonic kind.

The strangest thing about all of this to me, though, is that McCarron sent out this tweet before bands like Metallica and Nine Inch Nails performed. Usually its the hard rock bands being linked to evil, not the pop stars like Katy Perry.

Maybe what McCarron meant was that there must be evil forces at work for some of last night’s winners to be deemed award-winning musicians. Or maybe he just saw Taylor Swift dancing. If that’s the case then I totally get where he’s coming from.

I can only IMAGINE what McCarron would have to say concerning the Macklemore/Queen Latifah/Madonna wedding ceremony that included same-sex couples at the end of the show.

Plus, someone tweeted that Alabama had only recently gotten electricity, so I imagine a LOT of things might look demonic on television. “Jesus! There are gerbils driving Kias! Goodness gracious!”

Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron

(h/t JMG)

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What’s it like to get married in front of millions at the Grammy Awards?

After last night’s Grammy Awards ceremony, during which 33 couples were married on-air, one of the newly-wed couples joined HuffPost Live to share their unforgettable night. Deondray and Quincy Gossfield explained how they were selected for the ceremony, clarified the legality of their union and even dished on a memorable moment they shared with Katy Perry and Paul McCartney.

On keeping the ceremony under wraps:

Quincy: “Oh gosh, it was the worst secret ever because you want to share it with your friends and family. And our family is spread across the country so we had to devise ways to get people to watch the grammy’s without telling them we were getting married. But they knew that we were engaged. It was extremely difficult. We were not allowed to tell.”

On the legality of their marriage:

Deondray: “Yes, [we are officially married]. We went through the entire process… We got married.”

Quincy: “[Queen Latifah] came backstage after the grammy’s and she signed, with the state officials, everybody’s marriage certificate.”

On the most memorable part of the evening:

Deondray: “It was pretty surreal… during the ceremony, I caught eyes with Katy Perry and I was pretty good. I was pretty good. I said I wasn’t going to cry. And she looked at me and she put her hand on her mouth and tears just flowed out of her face.”

Quincy: “I tried to look away from [my husband] and I catch eyes with Paul McCartney. And Paul McCartney puts his hand over his heart and he smiles at me and nods his head and I lost it, which is the screengrab that everybody is posting all over the internet, #uglycry.”

(via HuffPost Live)

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2014 Grammy Awards – Macklemore, Mary, Madonna and marriage

Mary Lambert and Madonna at 2014 Grammy Awards

So here’s how the moment went down on the Grammy’s tonight:

Queen Latifah introduced Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as they launched into their hit song “Same Love” at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. As the lyrics clearly state “No freedom till we’re equal, damn right I support it.”

Mary Lambert, who is featured in the song, joined Macklemore onstage.

Queen Latifah proceeded to officiate the marriages of 34 couples as Ryan Lewis and then Madonna walked out onstage as the 43-year-old actress screamed with excitement, “I now pronounce you married!”

Madonna begins singing her song “Open Your Heart,” as the newlywed couples – old, young gay, straight –  embraced and showed off their love for one another as they smiled and waved to the camera.

Madge dueted with Lambert as the moving performance came to a close.

Predictably, while love and commitment were being celebrated at the Grammys, some howling was heard from the right-wing wildcats.

Fox News Radio reporter Todd Starnes posted a rant of tweets condemning the ceremony:

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KINKY BOOTS wins Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album

Cyndi Lauper accepts the Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album”

The cast recording of the Tony Award-winning show KINKY BOOTS just won the Grammy Award for “Best Musical Theater Album” featuring Billy Porter and Stark Sands.

So, add “Grammy Award winner” to the list of wins for Mr. Billy Porter 🙂

Congratulations to Billy, Stark Sands, Cyndi Lauper, Stephen Oremus, Jerry Mitchell and everyone connected to the blockbuster show!