The 62nd annual Grammys were held on January 26, accompanied by an overwhelming amount of out of place, sleep worthy performances that overshadowed the actual good ones.  

Opening the Grammys with Lizzo was the first of many mistakes. Lizzo opened with “Cuz I Love You,” “Truth Hurts,” and an interlude of du-rag wearing ballerinas.

Now, Lizzo is very talented – she has an amazing voice and deserved the award she earned, but should she have done the opening performance? No, she shouldn’t have. Someone like Ariana Grande should have had the opening spot because her music reaches a broader audience. Her music is more favored among the public, while Lizzo seems to hit just one demographic. However, Lizzo dedicating the performance to Kobe Bryant, who was revealed to have died earlier that day, made the performance just a bit more bearable. 

The awards were mixed with surprises and many snubs. Billie Eilish won five Grammys, four of them being major categories. She won Album, Song, and Record of the Year, Best New Artist, and Best Pop Vocal Album. Her brother, Finneas O’Connell won various awards for engineering and producing the album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”. While Eilish had an amazing year, and her music is undoubtedly good and popular, she did not deserve all those awards.

Eilish’s winnings of Album of the Year and Best New Artist (however, Lizzo was a good contender for that award) are justified, but Record of the Year definitely belonged to Ariana Grande for “7 Rings”, and Best Pop Vocal Album for “Thank You, Next”. Grande had the best year of her career – she was leading in pop music and her songs were everywhere. And yet, she walked away with no awards, that being a huge slap to the face for Grande.

Lana Del Rey and H.E.R were also snubbed hard. Del Rey has been in the industry for years and somehow has no wins. And H.E.R somehow didn’t nab Best R&B Song or Performance. However, she did win two out of five categories she was nominated for the last year, so it isn’t that bad for her.

A final major snub was when Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus won Best Music Video for “Old Town Road” against FKA Twigs for “Cellophane,” despite the fact that that the video is running laps around “Old Town Road” in the artistic category.

The Grammys this year was full of many lackluster, sleep worthy and forgetful performances. The Aerosmith and Run-DMC performance were flat, with Steven Tyler sounding almost hoarse. Run-DMC just sounded downright horrible. The mix of voices, instruments, and every other noise made a horrible end result that would make someone’s ears bleed if they listened to it more than twice.

The overdue Prince tribute was also messy, with Usher, FKA Twigs, and Sheila E performing together. But instead of an emotional tribute, this just seemed like some kind of karaoke session with some drunk friends. There were good parts to it, such as when FKA Twigs was showing off her pole skills, but the entire thing together was a no. Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s duet was… odd. It was fine but incredibly forgettable, and there is the overlying question of “why?” to the performance as a whole.

Something that had Twitter fuming is the performance by Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, Mason Ramsey, Diplo, and BTS. What has fans so angry is how BTS were just backup dancers, just along for the ride. However, they still got to hold mics and sing/rap with Lil Nas X. That itself is monumental, and maybe next year they’ll be able to perform their own song. 

Despite the show obviously has gone downhill over the past years, this year’s show still had its moments. Demi Lovato’s emotional vocals for “Anyone” was gorgeous and tear-jerking, and Ariana Grande performed “Imagine”, “Thank You, Next”, and “7 Rings”, serving a completely amazing show that deserved and earned immense praise. The “Old Town Road” presentation as a whole was entertaining and good, and Billie Eilish’s performance of “When The Party’s Over” was raw and gorgeous, showing off Eilish’s vocal range. 

Overall, the Grammys were a mess, with some finding the award show to be more and more irrelevant with every passing year. From undeserved wins to lackluster performances, the Grammys seem to be digging themselves a deeper and deeper hole. Maybe the award show could clean up their act for next year, but only time will tell. 

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