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Grammys 2017: Adele wins big; Pays homage to Beyoncé

By Jeffrey Owusu-Mensah
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Adele, the English queen of pop heartbreak and redemption, scored a perfect five for five Sunday at the 59th Grammy Awards , sweeping the top categories of album, record and song of the year in a triumphant return to the spotlight following a long, trying hiatus.

She also won points for humility and grace, restarting a tribute to George Michael that she began off-key and paying homage, in the evening’s final moments, to the artist considered her key rival for the top awards.

As she accepted the album of the year award for the blockbuster  “25,” the singer, born Adele Adkins, paid homage to Beyoncé.

“The ‘Lemonade’ album is monumental, so monumental, so well-thought-out, so beautiful and soul-baring,” Adele said as Beyoncé looked on from her seat in Staples Center and mouthed the words “Thank you.”

Adele’s hit single “Hello” also collected the song award, which recognizes songwriting, and record of the year, which factors in vocal performance and record production. In addition, she won the awards for pop vocal album and solo performance.

Beyonce, who received the most nominations this year, won two of her nine categories; “Lemonade” won for urban contemporary album and “Formation” won the music video award.

David Bowie ’s final album, “Blackstar,” also picked up five Grammy Awards for alternative music album, rock song, rock performance, engineered nonclassical album and recording package.

Not surprisingly given the mood of the country, the ceremony featured several moments of political commentary, ranging from calls for unity to blatant criticism.

In accepting the urban contemporary album award, Beyoncé said, “My intention for the film and album was to create a body of work that will give a voice to our pain, our struggles, our darkness and our history, to confront issues that make us uncomfortable.

“It's important to me to show images to my children that reflect their beauty,” she continued, “so they can grow up in a world where they look in the mirror, first through their own families, as well as the news, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the White House and the Grammys, and see themselves. And have no doubt that they're beautiful, intelligent and capable."

Far more direct was the call-out to “President Agent Orange” from hip-hop collective A Tribe Called Quest.

This year's Grammys will be remembered for its songs of protest

As in almost every show in this volatile awards season, political protest was all over the Grammys this year. From subtle and poised to outraged and esoteric, resistance came from artists of all genres and will likely be a major part of what this contentious Grammy ceremony will be remembered for.

Far from avoiding the obvious tension in American political life, Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich encouraged artists before the show to say as much about it as they could during their sets.

“If you have record labels and such to thank, please thank them later backstage with the press and say something important,” he said. “We’re expecting it.”

Many accepted his invitation. In an awards season marked by political activism — at the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep lectured President Trump on civility, Screen Actors Guild Awards winners denounced Trump’s travel ban — no doubt more than a few viewers tuned in to see what the music community, long outspoken on leftist causes, would have to say.

When it came to speeches, the artists at the prime-time Grammy telecast were relatively subdued. They seemed to heed the words of Recording Academy board member John Poppo, who in the early afternoon at a preshow said, “People can have ideologies that are so different that they’re willing to wage war over them, and yet very often they’re singing the same songs on both sides of the battlefield.”

So they let the music do the talking.

Adele appeared flushed but resplendent in green backstage at the Grammys after becoming the first artist to sweep album, record and song of the year twice.

As with her final acceptance speech, the singer, who won five Grammys on Sunday night, gushed over the importance of Beyonce’s “Lemonade,” saying that she had spoken to her childhood idol both before and after the show.

She also said that her mistake during her George Michael tribute, which caused her to drop multiple f-bombs and ask for the song to be started over, left her feeling “devastated.”

“My earliest memory of me being a fan was ‘Fastlove,’ ” she recalled.  “When the video came out, I was blown away by how hot he was. I was young, I was about 10 and I heard the vulnerability in that song.”

After Michael died, Adele told her partner Simon Konecki that she had to be the one to perform his Grammy tribute. At first his family didn’t want a tribute, she said, but they later came back to the Grammys specifying that they would allow a tribute only if Adele performed it.

“I found him to be one of the truest icons, because famous people often create this massive bravado to protect themselves, but for him it wasn’t based on a look or an assumption,” she said. “And he was very British.… The British press really gave him a hard time, but he still stayed loyal to the very end.”

Writing “25” was a difficult experience for Adele, who felt in many ways as if she had disappeared after having her son.

“I felt the pressure writing ’25,’ and in the process I couldn’t find my voice. I’m still not sure I did,” she confessed. “I was gone for so long. I had my baby and raised him through the toddler years, and then slowly edged my way back into work, but I thought that nobody would care.

“The Grammy means a lot to me, and I’m very humbled by that accomplishment … but like I said in my speech my album of the year was ‘Lemonade,’ so a part of me died inside,” she said, adding that the prize was largely for her son, who knows, “I’m a powerful force, he feels it at home and when he goes to work with me.”

She said that she wrote a lot less of “25” than she did of “21” because, “I had a bad drinking problem with ’21,’ so I couldn’t really find the inspiration this time around.”

She wrapped up her time with the press by circling back to Beyonce, who she said became her idol when she was 11. She was practicing a song for an assembly and she suggested to her friends that they do a Spice Girls song, but then her friends played a track by Destiny’s Child.

“I remember how I felt when I heard it, and I fell in love immediately with her and that was when I was 11, and I’m 28 now, and how I felt when I heard ‘No, No, No’ was exactly how I felt when I heard ‘Lemonade’ last year,” she said. “For her to be making such relevant music for that long of a period — I felt like it was her time to win — what does she have to do to win album of the year?

“The Grammys are very traditional, but I thought this year would be the year that they would go with the tide. I’m very grateful to have won it, but I felt the need [to do what she did during her acceptance speech] because I love her and I felt she is more worthy.”

Source: latimes.com