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THE 46TH
ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS IN A NUTSHELL
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Performance Highlights
The
show was packed with performances including Grammy tribute that marked the 40th
anniversary of The Beatles' invasion of America – the 40th anniversary of their
landmark first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Still a draw in their fifth
decade, the Beatles were central to the telecast, with an all-star jam featuring
Sting, Dave Matthews, Vince Gill and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes who also
won the Best Producer Award that night as they performed "I Saw Her Standing
There" with the Fab Four's freshly-scrubbed faces flashing behind them. The
second part of the Beatles tribute saw them being given the President's Award.
Surviving band members Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr joined the party and
acknowledged their honor by satellite link from London, while the late George
Harrison and John Lennon were represented live by their respective wives, Olivia
Harrison and Yoko Ono, who said tearfully, "If John were here, he would say it
again, 'Come together, give peace a chance and love is all we need.'"
The
show also featured an all-star funk tribute, starring Earth, Wind & Fire,
OutKast, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and George Clinton and his
Parliament/Funkedelic unit who all shared the funkified stage and brought the
crowd to their feet with “Shining Star.”
Other performance highlights
of the night included MusiCares Person of the Year STING singing "Roxanne" with
a reggae-rap twist from Sean Paul; Sarah McLachlan’s stunning performance of her
Grammy-nominated song “Fallen” accompanied by bluegrass singer Allison Krauss,
who won three Grammys, and the Foo Fighters performance of "Times like
These" with veteran guest musician Chick Corea.
 Pre-Show Winners
No Doubt took the prize for
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, Pink took home Best Female
Rock Vocal Performance, Metallica won Best Metal performance and Dave Matthews
won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Famed film composer and Toronto-born
musician Howard Shore earned yet another accolade for his work on the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, this time for best score for Two Towers. On the other hand,
former SCTV comedian Eugene Levy and Michael McKean took home their first
gramophone trophy for Best Song Written For A Motion Picture for writing the
song "A Mighty Wind" for the film of the same title. Alberta-born singer K.D.
Lang and Tony Bennett's album A Wonderful World won the award for best
traditional pop vocal album, while Sean Paul picked up his first-ever Grammy, in
the Best Reggae Album category for "Dutty Rock," capping off a breakthrough year
for him and the dancehall reggae genre. Weird Al Yankovic won best comedy album
for his record Poodle Hat, and Livin', Lovin', Losin'— Songs of
the Louvin Brothers snagged best country album. The unusual team of former U.S.
president Bill Clinton, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia
Loren won Best Spoken Word Album For Children for their reading on Prokofiev:
Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks. The music for the recording of the
Russian folk tale was performed by the Russian National Orchestra and conducted
by Grammy-award winning director Kent Nagano. And former politicians weren’t the
only ones who won a Grammy, but Buddhist monks at a monastery in the Indian
Himalayas were also honored with an award for their Tibetan chants. The monks'
CD, Sacred Tibetan Chant: The Monks of Sherab Ling Monastery, won best
traditional world music album at the Grammys.
Posthumous Awards
A handful of posthumous
honors were also handed out to four artists who had passed away.
Late country legend Johnny
Cash’s video for his Nine Inch Nails cover, "Hurt", which showed a frail but
defiant Cash, was honored posthumously with director Mark Romanek for Best
Short-Form Video, marking the first time a country performer has even won that
category.
Cash's wife, June Carter
Cash, who died last May, won two Grammys namely, Best Traditional Folk Album for
her work off her final studio album, Wildwood Flower and Best Female
Country Vocal Performance for the song "Keep on the Sunny Side,” which won over
songs from Patty Loveless, Martina McBride, Shania Twain and Dolly Parton.
Another posthumous winner was
US singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, who worked with REM, Bob Dylan and Bruce
Springsteen, and passed away in September due to lung cancer. He was 56. He won
two Grammys, namely Contemporary Folk Album for his swan song, "The Wind," which
he recorded while dying of lung cancer, and Best Rock Vocal Performance for
"Disorder in the House," a duet with Bruce Springsteen.
Other posthumous winners
are salsa queen Celia Cruz won for Best Salsa/Merengue Album while George
Harrison won for Best Pop Instrumental.
Still More Awards…
Among the artists to be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences were classical pianist Van
Cliburn, the funksters of the Funk Brothers, children's music great Ella
Jenkins, jazz legend Sonny Rollins, big-band great Artie Shaw and bluegrass
picker and roots artist Doc Watson, while pianist Marian McPartland is honored
with the Trustees Award.
The
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences also paid tribute to the dearly
departed with a long "In Memoriam" list that includes Barry White, Johnny Cash &
June Carter Cash, Celia Cruz and Robert Palmer. Warren Zevon, a two-time winner
tonight, gets a four-hankie tribute as his kids and friends such as Billy Bob
Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, Jackson Browne and Emmylou Harris sing background to
Zevon's "Keep Me in Your Heart."
On the other hand, Brill
Building songwriting legends Gerry Goffin and Carole King ("Up on the Roof,"
"One Fine Day") were among those presented with other honorary trophies.
All in all this
year’s biggest night in music was a fun, surprising and energy-filled
three-and-a-half hours.
© Valerie V. Mayuga,
2005
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