When presenter Miley Cyrus appeared onstage at Crypto.com Enviornment towards the top of the Grammys telecast Sunday, she advised the viewers she was there for 2 essential causes.
“No. 1, look at this gown!”
Cyrus had modified throughout 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 wished to verify the group took be aware.
No. 2, she mentioned, was to current the award for file of the yr, received by Kendrick Lamar.
In a traditional Grammys, Cyrus’ playfulness wouldn’t be worthy of be aware. However this was not a traditional Grammys.
As a substitute, the second uncovered simply how uncomfortably the standard glamour of “music’s biggest night” — couture trend, extravagant performances, trophies being handed out to celebrities — match along with organizers’ pledge to make the latest L.A. fires the main target of the awards.
These blazes, which lower than a month in the past killed 29 individuals, burned greater than 50,000 acres and 16,000 buildings and uncovered tens of millions of individuals to poisonous ash and smoke, have been omnipresent throughout the occasion, together with acceptance speech shout-outs and the QR code on the telecast used to lift aid funds. But the Grammys’ dealing with of the town’s ongoing trauma felt extra performative than profound: The fires grew to become a prop and backdrop to the night time’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).
Pictures of the destruction wrought by the fireplace — and of individuals serving to others amid the wreckage — streamed on large screens on both aspect 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.
Possibly it’s naive to count on any totally 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 consultants sounding the alarm in regards to 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 essentially the most half, although, the Grammys merely felt like a typical awards present with the drama of a hearth tacked onto it. When a gaggle of children have been introduced onstage to accompany Stevie Marvel 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 music that they’d simply misplaced their colleges to the fires. When L.A. firefighters have been introduced onstage to talk about their work, it was amid the frenzy handy out the night time’s remaining prize, the telecast operating previous its allotted time slot.
The consequence was that the fires’ function 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 typical appeared misplaced however earnest emotion may seem compelled.
I like panty-launcher as a lot as the following music fan, however watching Charli XCX cowl dancers with multicolored lingerie whereas performing her hit music “Guess,” I couldn’t assist however suppose the Grammys proved as soon as and for all which you could’t have your flying drawers and your fireplace profit too.
Possibly the second to have a good time the superb work of the music business — together with Beyonce’s long-waited, vastly deserved win for album of the yr —was not simply but. Possibly 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 night time, greater than $7 million had been raised for fireplace aid — and that was simply from the viewers at residence; 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 standard award present with the gritty, real-life expertise of ongoing ache and struggling.
Solely the good Diana Ross lent the correct gravity to the proceedings when she introduced the award for music of the yr. She mentioned her coronary heart was with the victims, “especially the children who might be frightened.”
She additionally mentioned she had frolicked serious about putting the best stability “between celebration and sorrow.”
The Grammys might need achieved extra of the identical.
