Beech Tree News Network

The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held Sunday February 10 in the Staples Center in Las Angeles.  The Grammy nomination process goes on through December and January. The Grammy was first called the Gramophone Award, an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry.  The first Grammy was passed out on May 4, 1959.  One working title of the award was the Eddy, to honor phonograph inventor Thomas Edison.  They finally decided on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the Gramophone, for the award: Grammy for short.
The top all-time Grammy winner is Sir Georg Solti-Classical/Pop-with 32 awards.  For a local connection, the Nashville Symphony has generated 14 nominations. All that history and this year the Grammys began with…Taylor Swift.  She paid homage (although she probably didn’t realize it-to Tom Petty’s “Don’t Come Round Here No More, dressing as the Mad Hatter. 
Elton John and Ed Sheeran combined to perform Sheeran’s hit “A-Team”, which has nothing to do with the classic TV show, by the way.  The first Grammy, given 20 minutes into the show, for best pop solo performance, went to Adele for “Set Fire to the Rain”.  Neil Patrick Harris then introduced a performance of new band fun. 
John Mayer and Bonnie Rait introduced a Miranda Lambert/Dierks Bentley (tour mates, by the way) performance of her hit “Over You” and his hit “Home”.  She can sing his song, but in my view he didn’t do such a great job with hers.  Miguel and Wiz Khalifa in their test-pattern zebra outfits performed Miguel’s song “Adorn”.  Good song, actually.  They then presented Best Country performance (b/c when I think Country, I think of two R&B guys) to “Blown Away by Carrie Underwood. 
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw presented the Song of the Year Grammy to fun.’s “We Are Young”.  Johnny Depp, who I hear women are a little attracted to, introduced a favorite of mine, Mumford and Sons performing their hit “I Will Wait”.  Aren’t the Lumineers already trying to take their place?
Beyonce and Ellen introduced the return of Justin Timberlake to music. I can’t fight the urge to be a fan of this guy.  JT is just too cool.  Best Urban Contemporary Album went to Frank Ocean (not Billy’s kid) for Channel Orange.  Best Rock Performance went to Black Keys, another favorite of mine, for “Lonely Boy”.  Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys did a “Daylight” and “Girl On Fire” mash-up, which was pretty cool. 
Keith Urban and Kaley Cuoco presented best pop vocal to Kelly Clarkson for Stronger.  Well deserved! Rap Collaboration went to “No Church in the Wild”-Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and the Dream. 
Two Broke Girls star Kat Dennings introduced the Black Keys featuring Dr. John, performing “Lonely Boy”.  Carole King and the late Patti Page were honored with the Lifetime Achievement award.  She then presented Zac Brown Band with Best Country Album for Uncaged-a great album!
Bruno Mars and Sting sang Bruno’s “Locked Out Of Heaven” and eased into “Walking On The Moon”.  Rihanna and Damien Marley joined in for the Bob Marley tribute.  Marilyn Manson, I mean Jack White, performed next.  Seriously, he cannot look anymore goth.  Katy Perry presented best new artist to fun.  Prince, the Purple Recluse-presented Gotye with Record of the Year for “Somebody That I Used To Know”. 
President of Recording Academy Neil Portnow and Ryan Seacrest announced Justin Timberlake who helped announce a new award starting next year, the Music Educator Award.  We then went through the Memorial for the year past. Zac Brown, Elton John, Mumford and Sons, T.Bone Burnett, Mavis Staples and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard paid tribute to the late Levon Helm by singing “The Weight”.  If you are unfamiliar with Levon’s group The Band? Look them up.  You won’t be sorry.
Frank Ocean performed his song “Forrest Gump”.  Nice 1994 reference, by the way.  It’s 2013, you know kid? Mumford and Sons’ Babel won Album of the Year.  I was glad an established who actually plays their own instruments won and not a flash in the pan.  Host LL Cool J closed the show.  After 20+ years, the guy can still perform great! All in all a good show, this is like an anomaly for the Grammy’s.  It doesn’t happen often.

Hello, my name is Andy Sullivan. I received my bachelor’s degree in business from Mid-Continent University in May 2009. I began writing for Beech Tree News in July 2009.  I enjoy playing guitar, the occasional Wii game, writing, and listening to music. I write a sports blog that can be found at http://andyuk79.tumblr.com
   If you have a comment, feel free to leave it in the space below.