Grammys Performances: Our Top 5 Favorites in the New Millenium
Tonight is the 60th Annual Grammy Award Ceremony. This year, there are three hip-hop artists (that’s including Childish Gamino, by our marks) nominated for Album of the Year. And then Bruno Mars. The Grammys haven’t shown this kind of love to the genre since the 2004 awards with Outkast. The committee’s winning choices have been the subject of debate (rightfully so) but each year, music’s tastemakers bring their biggest budgeted spectacles in a consistent show of reliably entertaining performances.. In 2015 there were 23 performances. 23! That’s like a much-longer-than-average live concert. Where do the awards come in?! In 2015, we got Pharrell and Hans Zimmer, Paul McCartney, Kanye, and Rihanna, a ballad from permanent resident Queen Bey, ANOTHER Madonna performance? In past years we’ve seen couples get married by Queen Latifah to a Macklemore song, Lady Gaga & Metallica, Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar, and the Jonas Brothers & Stevie Wonder (wtf?). The Grammys organizers are just mad scientists in a laboratory seeing if shit will stick.
From all that time in the lab, here’s our choices for the top five performances this century.
5) Eminem & Elton John — “Stan”, 2001
TP: So many things happening in this performance. We get Eminem at the beginning of his meteoric rise to hip hop stardom wearing a Tar Heel blue sweatsuit and backwards visor cap. We get Elton John wearing a checkered suit straight out of Craig Sager’s playbook playing Dido in a song about suicide that is performed for 6.5 minutes on live television with cursing slips along the way. The pairing is surreal. A rapper who was carelessly throwing around homophobic slurs in his music, performed on one of the most prominent stages an artist can reach with an all-time legend who happens to be gay. Elton shines on the keyboard, breathing life and emotion into Eminem’s lyrics, whose performance is impassioned and strong. The two hug as the song comes to a close. From here, Eminem will go on to release the world’s best-selling rap album of all-time .
5) Joss Stone & Melissa Etheridge — Janis Joplin Tribute, 2005
MF: Joss Stone, smoky British soul queen and Best New Artist nominee that year, has a voice bigger than a freight barge but on this night, even she was no match for badass muthafuckin’ Melissa Etheridge, fresh off of chemotherapy and hungry for…well I’m not sure, exactly, but you take one look in that woman’s eyes and tell me she isn’t singing that song like it’s life or death. She revels in screams and is physically pleased when she rolls off those notes. The performance is metaphorical as all get-out with her fight against breast cancer and she beams, obviously not letting the symbolism pass her by. She whips circles ‘round poor Joss Stone who cannot, for the life of her, keep up, but still kills it with her fearless belting. These generational artist collabs are what keep me coming back, year after year, to the Grammys, or at least to YouTube the morning after the ceremony.
4) Amy Winehouse — “You Know I’m Know Good” / “Rehab”, 2008
MF: Amy’s vulnerability here is touching — she was denied a visa to visit the US for the Grammys and was broadcast from a theater in London accepting awards and performing two tracks. She was solemn for acceptances and a little hazy through her songs, but her vibe locks in the moment she opens her lips. Amy livened up a markedly sleepy telecast for the Grammys and gave the audience a little something to move their hips to. A beautiful showcase for some surreal talent, and she cleaned up that night, too: after kicking and dancing her way through two lively tracks (including the eerily self-referential “Rehab”) she succeeded in winning almost every award she was nominated for.
4) Beyoncé — “Love Drought” / “Sandcastles”, 2017
TP: A pregnant Beyoncé puts on a performance that’s visually cirque-du-soleil. Adorned in a gold crown and sequenced maternity gown, she’s Daenerys Targaryen, mother of the music world. As ruler, she chooses to perform for 10 minutes on the biggest night in live music television with a spoken audio recording and visual display comprising the 4.5 minute introduction. The 10 minutes are an art installation, a tribute to mothers and daughters, speaking directly to the beauty of being a woman. The songs are not 2 of her hits, but they are cathartic releases from an icon navigating a tumultuous time in a very public relationship.
3) Paul McCartney with Dave Groehl & Bruce Springsteen — Abbey Road Medley, 2012
TP: Sir Paul and his many friends. I feel like they could do this Beatles Open Mic segment at the Grammys every year and it would be a hit. I love this trio of songs because it hits all the right Beatles tempos. First, there’s the sleepy piano ballad “Carry That Weight” featuring what Paul is known best to croon over. Next, we’ve got the sing-along chorus driven by improvised piano, guitar, and drum solos to get the crowd involved. And to finish it off, we’ve got a jam session and positive vibes from our version of a rock starring cast in a fictional movie resembling Wild Hogs. Sure it made for a better narrative with Dave Groehl & Bruce Springsteen on stage, but for a spectacle like this — sit back, relax, and let these Abbey Road classics make you feel good.
3) Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl & Steven Van Zandt — “London Calling”, 2003
MF: Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl and Steven Van Zandt: together, they joined forces to pay raucous tribute to The Clash front man Joe Strummer, a not-so-typical punk icon that ushered the death of Beatlemania and the beginning of these four careers. At the conclusion of the In Memoriam presentation, Joe Strummer’s name is projected on a screen that slides down to reveal all four of these legendary musicians hammering away at the intro to “London Calling”. One of the more badass Grammy moments to ever happen, no doubt.
2) Lady Gaga & Elton John — “Poker Face” / “Speechless” / “Your Song”, 2010
MF: Lady Gaga is one artist who has a particularly profound understanding of the potential carried by a televised award show performance (for example, see literally any of her award show performances). In 2010, following her critical and commercial success with EP The Fame Monster (“Bad Romance”) and her five Grammy nominations for LP The Fame, she was invited to open the 52nd annual awards and did so in a huge way, bringing elaborate stage production and a massive dance troupe. After a theatrical monologue introduction by a dancer, a jump stunt, a choreography circus and an elaborate storyline plot to kill Gaga by throwing her into a furnace, she emerges, covered in soot, at one end of a set of dueling baby grands across from Elton John (she’s godmother to his two children). The two bang out a medley of “Speechless” from The Fame Monster and “Your Song” from Elton’s 1970 eponymous second album. The chemistry here is bombastic; even watching through a screen, you can feel the two musicians so comfortable and in-sync. A fabulous effort from two recording legends and Gaga’s very first of many Grammys stage appearances.
2) Radiohead — “15 Step”, 2009
TP: Yeah, you could call this a strange seance, the metamorphosis of a man from Jekyll to Hyde, or more simply, someone who looks like they’re tripping on psychedelics, but, you also have to acknowledge that as a performance, it captivates. Whether you’re a fan of Radiohead or not, you’ve played witness to their experimental, avante-garde approach to performing. With a troupe of percussion and brass backing for “15 Step” (referring to ’15 stairs’ the approximate height to the gallows), Thom Yorke jams to his frenetic call to action like the hippie in the park he really is.
Honarable Mention: Madonna — “Music”, 2001
TP: I’d be remiss not to throw in an Honorable Mention for the performance that featured Lil’ Bow Wow, garbed completely in baggy leather clothing, hopping out of a stretch El Camino limo for a brief Crip Walk only to then, open the door and play chauffeur to Madonna. Oh by the way, when Madonna hops out, she’s wearing a Cruella de Vil inspired fur coat along with cargo pants fit for rock climbing. Wow. 2000’s fashion-identity was wack.
Honarable Mention: M.I.A. & The Rat Rap Pack — “Swagga Like Us”, 2008
MF: Okay who wasn’t hanging on the edge of their seats waiting all night for the Rap Rat Pack to perform and then move out the way for nine-months-pregnant, performing-on-her-due-date MIA? I was hanging on the edge of my seat, I vividly remember, because I was freakin’ floored that her water wasn’t breaking. This performance is stupid and ostentatious and it’s so fun to luxuriate in. What a show from this woman, nominated for two awards and performing. Isn’t music awesome?
1) Kanye West — “Stronger”/ “Hey Mama”, 2008
TP: An electrifying performance followed with his most sentimental, choosing Kanye West here feels right. One who constantly shifts the rap paradigm, he performs Stronger, his immortal single and one of the first known collaborations between rapper and electronic artist. Then, keeping us on our toes, he immediately transitions to “Hey Mama” just months after his mother, Donda West, had passed away. I can only imagine he led with “Stronger” to gather some actual strength to make it through the next performance without breaking down. His voice quiets to a whisper as he repeats, “last night, I saw you in my dreams, now I can’t wait to go to sleep.” It’s a tender moment with minimalist backing from Jon Brion’s string arrangements. Say what you want about present-day Kanye, you can’t help but sympathize with his pain in this time and marvel at the tribute he plays for his late mother.
MF: After he took home five Grammys and referred to the telecast as his “new permanent residence,” he took to the stage and gave one hell of a Kanye West performance. The night was largely a jumbled attempt to unite seasoned veterans with younger talent (Alicia Keys performing with a video of Frank Sinatra, Beyonce performing with Tina Turner) and was remarkably reverent in tone. West & Daft Punk’s electrolyzed set harkened the arrival of a Sith Lord’s ship to the planet surface. Dark, ribbing, rumbling and loud, and completely irreverent to the scope of the night’s energy; the performance was slick and fun. West followed “Stronger” with “Hey Mama” in honor of his mother, Donda, who passed away prior to the show. He touches here on symbols that are of great significance in the ‘Ye-niverse, namely angels as a symbol of salvation, truth and freedom. His mother’s death was a great, unstable force in West’s creative life and his fear and pain are palpable on stage in front of his peers here at the Grammys. Incredible, masterful showmanship and an A-plus in emoting; overall, this performance is one of West’s best ever.
