The Grammy Awards: Time for a Change?

The Grammy awards 2008 will go down in the history books for two reasons: they were the 50th edition of the event and the commotion around Amy Winehouse. The story is well-known, but in short, for those who might not be familiar with it, here is what happened. Miss Winehouse was nominated in 6 categories, including 'Best Song' and 'Best Album'. Unfortunately, US authorities weren't able to provide her with a visa on time so she wouldn't be able to perform live on stage in LA. Being one of the favorites in a few of the heavier categories, this already decapitated the show of one of the possible highlights. Creative as one can be in such circumstances, a solution was quickly found. A satellite connection was set up between LA and London and Miss Winehouse would still be able to perform 'live'. This turned out to be a fortunate solution, as she went on to win 5 awards and become the biggest winner of the night. But what else happened?

As the special acts were known long before the show started, there weren't much surprises. Most anticipated concert was without a doubt the teaming up of Tina Turner and Beyonce Knowles. With Cher, another icon of the showbiz industry, as the announcer, the tone was set for a spectacular performance. Beyonce gave Miss Turner the introduction a star of her caliber deserved, looking nothing short of amazing with her new blond, shorter hair and legs that justified her being on the same stage with La Turner. Tina herself showed that despite her age, she still has got what it takes and gave a flawless rendition of 'What's Love Got To Do With It' and 'You'd Better Be Good To Me' before calling Beyonce back on stage and performing an incredible version of 'Proud Mary'.

Unfortunately, other acts were less successful. You can't take away any credit from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, but one can't help feeling sorry for the once so furious piano-rambling madman after seeing tonight's almost painful performance. Little Richard tried to show he can still reach the high notes but only barely succeeded. No risks were taken, and when Amy Winehouse finally got to sing her 2 songs (introduced by Cuba Gooding Jr.), the sparks had already gone.

Alicia Keys was given the opportunity to show off different dresses and hairstyles during several performances, and never disappointed. Most memorable was probably the rendition of her top-single 'No one' with John Mayer on guitar. Whomever still might have doubted her qualities as a singer-songwriter-performer will now hopefully be silenced.

The 50th edition will not be remembered as the most inventive one: Cirque Du Soleil did what they do best from their Beatles show, Fergie showed that she really can sing with John Legend on piano, Feist showed why she was nominated as newcomer of the year, Kanye West gave a colorful performance of 'Stronger' and almost 400 little statues changed hands. Unlike other years, there were no exceptional dresses or outfits and everybody was nice to each other.
Only downside was Kanye's acceptance speech where he felt the need to diss fellow rappers Nas and Common, only to find the organization retaliating by playing music over his speech. Which, given the unfortunate passing away of his mother and the earlier song dedicated to her, showed proof of some bad timing.

As for the winners, no real surprises there, except for the most important category. Where everybody had expected the Grammy to go to either Kanye West or Amy Winehouse, it was old veteran Herbie Hancock who walked away with the most desired statue for his album 'The Joni Letters'. Neither Amy or Kanye will have much to complain about, as they won respectively 5 and 4 awards, but both of them still seemed disappointed.

All in all, the show didn't really live up to the expectations, especially if you look at all the talent that was present in the room and on stage. 2 more highlights deserve mentioning, and that's about it. The Time's first performance in 25 years, mixed with Rihanna's mega-hit 'Umbrella' was probably the most refreshing act of the evening and Vince Gill's acceptance speech for winning the Grammy in the 'Best Country Album' was hilarious in its shortness. Ringo Star handed him the Grammy, which lead Vince to ask Kanye if he ever was handed a Grammy by a Beatle. And with this, everybody went home with a smile.