When presenter Miley Cyrus appeared onstage at Crypto.com Area towards the top of the Grammys telecast Sunday, she informed the viewers she was there for 2 essential causes.
“No. 1, look at this gown!”
Cyrus had modified through the course of the present from a black leather-based Saint Laurent halter costume to a floor-length robe by Maison Alaia, and he or she needed to verify the group took be aware.
No. 2, she stated, was to current the award for report of the yr, received by Kendrick Lamar.
In a standard Grammys, Cyrus’ playfulness wouldn’t be worthy of be aware. However this was not a standard Grammys.
As a substitute, the second uncovered simply how uncomfortably the standard glamour of “music’s biggest night” — couture vogue, extravagant performances, trophies being handed out to celebrities — match along with organizers’ pledge to make the latest L.A. fires the main focus of the awards.
These blazes, which lower than a month in the past killed 29 folks, burned greater than 50,000 acres and 16,000 constructions and uncovered thousands and thousands of individuals to poisonous ash and smoke, have been omnipresent through the occasion, together with acceptance speech shout-outs and the QR code on the telecast used to boost reduction funds. But the Grammys’ dealing with of town’s ongoing trauma felt extra performative than profound: The fires grew to become a prop and backdrop to the evening’s honors, dropping the human depth and unimaginable scale of the tragedy within the course of.
From the outset — a rousing rendition of Randy Newman’s well-known “I Love L.A.” carried out by fireplace survivors Taylor and Griffin Goldsmiths’ rock band Dawes, alongside Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley, John Legend, Brittany Howard and St. Vincent — the problem was not the intention (laudable), however the execution (awkward).
Photographs of the destruction wrought by the hearth — and of individuals serving to others amid the wreckage — streamed on big screens on both facet of the stage whereas the musicians performed, starting a night-long narrative of hope and uplift that papered over the uncooked horror of what occurred and the “tragedy after the tragedy” nonetheless unfolding.
Perhaps it’s naive to anticipate any completely different of a nationally televised awards present. However with many individuals nonetheless homeless, many others whose properties survived in or close to the burn zones unable to return, and an growing refrain of specialists sounding the alarm concerning the poisonous nature of urban-fire ash, it was the Grammys itself that appeared naive. Or worse: a pre-taped phase that includes video of victims returning to the footprints of their former domiciles with none type of protecting gear felt downright scary.
For probably the most half, although, the Grammys merely felt like a typical awards present with the drama of a hearth tacked onto it. When a bunch of youngsters have been introduced onstage to accompany Stevie Surprise in a transferring rendition of “We Are the World” throughout a prolonged tribute to the music legend Quincy Jones, it was solely talked about after the tune that that they had simply misplaced their colleges to the fires. When L.A. firefighters have been introduced onstage to discuss their work, it was amid the frenzy at hand out the evening’s remaining prize, the telecast working previous its allotted time slot.
The end result was that the fires’ position within the proceedings felt perfunctory, not important — the minimal acknowledgment required by good style so the present may go on. And it left presenters and performers in a tough place, the place enterprise as standard appeared misplaced however earnest emotion may seem compelled.
I like a superb panty-launcher as a lot as the following music fan, however watching Charli XCX cowl dancers with multicolored lingerie whereas performing her hit tune “Guess,” I couldn’t assist however assume the Grammys proved as soon as and for all you can’t have your flying drawers and your fireplace profit too.
Perhaps the second to have fun the wonderful work of the music business — together with Beyonce’s long-waited, massively deserved win for album of the yr —was not simply but. Perhaps the present’s producers ought to have taken the present right down to the studs and rebuilt it as a pure profit live performance, versus an awards present/fundraiser hybrid. (By the top of the evening, greater than $7 million had been raised for fireplace reduction — and that was simply from the viewers at house; the cash coming from the massive pockets within the enviornment had not but been tallied.)
Maybe, although, the lesson right here is that there isn’t a candy spot after a tragedy just like the one Los Angeles has simply endured — no good time to combine the crass business boosterism and self-congratulatory posing of a conventional award present with the gritty, real-life expertise of ongoing ache and struggling.
Solely the good Diana Ross lent the right gravity to the proceedings when she introduced the award for tune of the yr. She stated her coronary heart was with the victims, “especially the children who might be frightened.”
She additionally stated she had frolicked desirous about placing the correct steadiness “between celebration and sorrow.”
The Grammys might need executed extra of the identical.