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THE 46TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS IN A NUTSHELL
The honored and ignored at the music industry's proudest moment.
Published in PRESS Magazine March 2004
Every year, since the evening of May 14th 1959 in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences have presented The Grammy Awards, the music world's top accolades. In the beginning, there were only 28 award categories. Through the years, numerous other categories were added in order to include a wider selection of music genres as well as the various aspects of music production, bringing it to the present 105.
Last 8 February 2004, billions of music fans from all over the world tuned in to the 46th Annual Grammy Awards to celebrate the best of what the worldwide music community has to offer. Though it has always been a live annual television extravaganza, this year’s television extravaganza, irrevocably shaped by the previous weekend's 38th annual Super Bowl Janet-Jackson-and-Justin-Timberlake fiasco, played it safe with a tape-delayed "live" CBS telecast, presenter banter that stuck to the script and terribly polite acceptance speeches. Nevertheless, it was still broadcasted straight from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California which hosted a galaxy of superstars on that day.
While majority of the awards were presented during a pre-telecast ceremony next door to the Staples Center (most awards for specific genres of music - pop, rock, R&B, rap, etc. - were given out during the non-televised portion of the program, save for headlining awards, such as Best Contemporary R&B Album or Best Rock Performance), this year's Grammys became an unraveling ball of surprising winners, elaborate performance set pieces, as well as unique performances, and a night where musicians who don't normally play together united under a common thread of musicality, almost as if they’re saying, “…no matter what comes between us, we'll always have music…”
The Rise of Urban Music
Jump-starting the awards show with an energetic performance was Beyoncé, Grammy’s biggest winner of the night - and special guest, Prince, where she and the Purple One performed a medley of hits, including three tracks from Prince's 20-year-old classic Purple Rain and, appropriately, Beyoncé's own hit single, "Crazy in Love," the song netted Beyoncé two gold gramophones, for Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z. About two hours later, with vocals that were off the charts impressive, she performed "Dangerously in Love" in front of an elaborate framed tableau which closed with a dove landing on the singer’s hand. At the end of the night, no one delivered more of speeches than Beyoncé, the 22-year-old R&B star who dominated the music ceremony and was the evening’s biggest winner who won five Grammy Awards from six nominations, including Best Contemporary R&B Album for "Dangerously In Love," best R&B performance by a duo or group for "The Closer I Get To You," (with Luther Vandross), and a songwriting award, joining the ranks of Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill and last year's big winner Norah Jones, for most-ever wins in a night by a female solo artist, earning her place among the world's top music acts.
Soul star and veteran R&B crooner Luther Vandross was close behind Beyoncé, and swept up four out of five awards, including the prestigious Song of the Year Award for co-writing "Dance With My Father" with Richard Marx, which also won him Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Though too ill to attend the show after he suffered a debilitating stroke last April, Vandross made a rare public appearance via videotape – his first public statement since emerging from his coma – thanking fans for their support while he recovers, during which he sang a quick line from his song, "Power Of Love" ("I believe in the power of love!"). Later, in a tribute to Vandross, Alicia Keys delivered a version of "A House Is Not A Home," one of Vandross' most famous songs while Celine Dion came out to croon Vandross' "Dance With My Father." His other awards that night were Best R&B Album for "Dance With My Father," and Best Vocal R&B Performance By a Duo or Group which he shared with Beyoncé for their collaboration on “The Closer I Get To You.”
With two separate, eye-popping performances during the awards ceremony, old-school-grounded hip-hop duo OutKast, whose multi-platinum Speakerboxxx/The Love Below have dominated the charts for the last two months picked up three out of six Grammy nominations, namely, Best Urban/Alternative Performance, Best Rap Album and the coveted Album of the Year, which in particular was a victory for urban and hip-hop music, as the Outkast album features more rap than any winner in the history of that category. Made up of two solo efforts from its members Andre 3000 and Antwan ''Big Boi'' Patton, OutKast's brave, varied double CD, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below beat out albums by Missy Elliott, Evanescence, Justin Timberlake and the White Stripes in the Album of the Year category. In accepting the album award, OutKast thoughtfully brought L.A. Reid -- the music exec who gave the group a recording contract -- up on the stage and thanked him profusely, as OutKast's Andre 3000, offered his “stank yous." It was an amusing change from earlier in the show, when OutKast was nearly a no-show when it came time for them to accept the Best Rap Album Grammy. When Andre 3000 makes it to the mike, he establishes a new record for acceptance speeches, by taking the Grammy from presenters B.B. King, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler and saying two words: "Thank you," before leaving to go back to his seat. OutKast closed the show with an energetic rendition of their hit “Hey Ya!” for which they received a standing ovation.
Another musician who came up big and walked away that night with his (two) first-ever Grammys as a solo artist was Justin Timberlake who took Best Pop Vocal Album for his solo debut, Justified, where he honed his writing prowess and earned co-writing credits on seven tracks in a blend of R&B, retro rock and hip hop produced by the achingly hip Neptunes and Timbaland, as well as Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Cry Me a River." In his acceptance speech, Timberlake apologized for the previous week’s half-time show performance at the Super Bowl where he ripped Jackson's outfit to reveal a breast and scandalized America. But, referring to the awards, he continued, "This is officially the greatest moment of my life. Thank you." Before the evening ended, not only did Timberlake justify pop stardom with two awards out of five nominations, he also gave an animated performance of his celebratory single "Senorita" while tinkling a keyboard and leading an Latin-tinged big band which also featured Latin jazz master Arturo Sandoval and later, got funky with Black Eyed Peas on "Where Is the Love?" proving that on top of an all-round pop appeal, he has rare credibility as a white performer among the urban crowd.
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Surprises…