Groovers in the Heart - Deee-Lite

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards was televised live on CBS last night. Of course, I started my viewing early with E! Channel's Red Carpet Special. I'm just there to view the fashion. Period. I can barely take Seacrest on American Idol. How the hell was I going to tolerate him along with un-funny man Jay Manual from America's Next Top Model and Giuliana Rancic (nee DePandi)? I blocked out majority of what they were saying. And at times, I felt bad for the celebrities for having to deal with the Dull Trio. Than I think bout how much money they have, wearing the glorious clothes and the amount of free shit they get for just being a damn celebrity. Also, listening to some of the best music in the house...for free! Then it's like, hey, I'm sure some of them wished the Dull Trio can morph into Barbara Walters right in front of their eyes but you gotta do what you gotta do (*sings* "...and break her heart! I don't wanna see her cry but it's hard to live a lie" *sings*...Sorry. Broke into New Edition for a bit).
I enjoyed the show! Watched it with my sis & close friend. We girls had way too much fun. My laptop with FB was

right next to me. Fun times! I'm telling you, the best way to watch a televised event is with a group of friends/family. And it helps that everybody has the same dark, twisted sense of humor as yourself. By the end of the night, my stomach was hurting. Also, technology is taking over! Welcome to 20-dime (Heard that from my sis who heard it through a local radio station where a group of high school kids called in to rep the year they're graduating. So cute. Had to steal it). FB was overflowing with hilarious status updates. And I'm sure the same was going on over @ Twitter (as you can tell, I don't have a Twitter acct and don't care much to have one).

Lady Gaga and Elton John - First of all, that piano is heaven sent! With the hand motion from the "Bad Romance" video attached on top? *bows down* Ga-Ga started off with "Poker Face" with a different arrangement. This wouldn't be Gaga if the set wasn't over-the-top: The Fame Factory. So, homegirl gets tossed in some flames. The walls open up and she's glided out, sitting across that awesome piano from Elton freakin' John. Who looked hella burnt. I was scared. Then I saw that Ga-Ga looked hella burnt, too, and all was well in the world. Speechless started; my heart melted. The song seamlessly goes into "Your Song". I've concluded that what we've learned from this performance was (take it away, Sir Elton John!): "I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is with Gaga in the world." Damn skippy! (p.s. The MC in the beginning of her performance was actor Elijah Kelley from Hairspray.)

Greenday performed "21 Guns" with the cast from American Idiot broadway show. I was really digging the performance. The female singers were great and I liked the song. Never knew there was a broadway show inspired by Greenday. Cool beans, on their part. Can I get a freakin' broadway show inspired by Ms. Royal Reigns life?!!! Geez.

When she came out with the gorgeous white hooded dress, singing "Glitter in the Air" beautifully, I was smiling. Finally, an understated performance that showcases her remarkable voice. Know this, Pink can sing with the best of them. She can lay down lyrics with the best of them. She should have at least 5 Grammys sitting on her shelf at home. Back to the performance. Into the song, she started undressing herself. Shit. Dress comes off and underneath was a hideous white strappy onesie. *blank stare* Covering only her top assets and front asset. She wasn't bothered by her back asset, though. But the CBS producers were. To show that this exposure wasn't enough, she decided to be doused in water, a la that scene from Flash Dance. Only this was done while in the air. Spinning around. Still, she sounded great. That right there is what I call stamina.

What is a Lady Antebellum? The group sang Need You Now. Opening scene and what do we see? A curtain landing on the poor lady's head hindering her of sight for a couple of seconds. Yep, someone's getting fired. They sounded great and the song is nice. But performance wise? Meh.

Beyonce. Sasha Fierce. You see that Rihanna? You can never be that. You see that T-Pain? You can never get that. I have such a love-hate relationship with Beyonce. (That's for another post. I'm dead serious. It warrants a post). She's just so damn extra. Over singing. Over dancing. Over ticking. Over booty shaking. She claims it's her alter ego possessing her. Whatever. It's annoying. Back to the performance. She gave us "If I Was a Boy". Complete with army rejects from Moonwalker. Followed by her impersonation of Alanis Morrisette's "You Outta Know". Trying to garner some cool points with me, B? Fail. She ended the performance with her writhing on stage and swinging her lace front wig to "Boy". At this point, I was done. Don't get me wrong, she is one of the best young entertainers out in this game today. But all I'm asking is for her to dial down the extra-ness. Is that too much to ask?

Where do I even begin with the Black Eyed Peas? They suck live. Period. I am never ever impressed with their live performances. And last night's didn't waver my opinion. Performing "Imma Be" (1st time hearing it. Immediately loved it) and "I Gotta Feeling", all the members did were to jump up and down on the stage. Running outta breath every minute of it. Fergie sounded wack which is such a shame cause she has an amazing voice. She's other one that tends to over sing. And they really didn't need those dancers nor the robots. Were the robots there to indicate that they (BEP) are the future of music? Fail.

Here's a biased review: I love Blame it on the Alchohol and I love Jamie Foxx. I find it so effing amusing that this dude right here is an acclaimed Academy Award winner. Ha! He doesn't take himself so seriously and I love him for that. This performance was similar to the BET Awards performance - minus the opera-like setting. Just insert Doug E. Fresh, Slash and Jamie's sister (No, young world! That was not Precious. Now stop. *giggles*). I had a blast. As much as I can't stand some T-Pain, he's entertaining to watch. Doug E. Fresh ripped it. Slash came to showcase his amazing guitar riffs (y'know, he's half Nigerian). Travis Barker was waaay in the back, doing (good) damage on the drums. Fun times all around!

Zac Brown Band. White bearded dude looked like he enjoyed himself. I don't think he's part of the band, though. Lead singer looks like Alan from The Hangover (my sister peeped that out and I so agreed!). They sang "America the Beautiful", "Dixie Lullaby" and ended with "Chicken Fried". Honestly, the whole thing felt like I was in a bar. Tapping my feet on the ground while chugging down some Heineken. It wasn't a boring performance, I know that much.

The long awaited MJ tribute. First and foremost, how come the viewing public wasn't in on the memo bout rocking some 3-D glasses? The crowd in the mosh pit was left to raise their hands in the air and wave it 'round like they just don't care, confused. We were at home pissed. Then the cameras had the nerve to pan to the audience and show Beyonce, Rihanna and a host of others sporting white 3-D glasses. Oooh, they're so cool. *side eye* The song they decided to go with was "Earth Song". Good choice and smart choice. Starting us off was Celine who I am happy to announce scaled it back and just sang. Next up, was Usher. We'll get back to him later. Carrie appeared, looking hella skinny but sounding great. Followed by Smokey Robinson who, I am afraid to say, is not aging courtesy of Botox and a couple of surgical procedures here and there (Don't be like Heidi Montag, you hear? Or is it too late *sad face*). Rounding up the group was the powerful voice of Jennifer Hudson. All in all, it was good. Maybe I'm the only one, but I was actually looking forward to a happier MJ tribute. But given the difficult time the world, and especially Haiti, is going through I understood why that wasn't the case. All was well with the performance until you notice that Usher was twitching. Oh dear. The extra-ness wanted to come out. He would stifle a dance move here. Caught himself before he put his hands in the air over there. But it had to be done: show off Usher emerged. I don't remember if he spun around a couple of times but what I do remember was him falling to the ground, kneeling and singing, "What about us!" *blank stare* But why? When will it end, Usher? When will it end?

Bon Jovi with the girl from Sugarland. She looked great in that leather outfit. They sang "We Weren't Born to Follow". Blah. But then "Who Says You Can't Go Home" came right on time. Yay! Now CBS thought it was cute for the home viewers to vote which song should the band play next. The winner? "Livin' On a Prayer". Okay, I can deal with that. I was hoping for "It's My Life". I didn't vote, though. I was more of a "Don't fail me now, America!". America did fail me. :o(

Taylor Swift came to bless us with her angelic voice. Singing "Today was a Fairytale", her voice filled the air and seeped through my TV screen with such force and beauty that it brought this hard-ass to tears. "Why are people so hateful?!!" I screamed at my FB as I see hoards and hoards of statuses exclaiming Ms. Swift as "horrid", "dreadful", "wack", "annoying". One person just went for the jugular, "Fuck Taylor Swift". I gasped. How dare they? Girl can't sing to save her life. And this is coming from a HUGE (literally, ha!) Taylor Swift fan. She makes great music. She's a prolific songwriter. Her lyrics are so pure. Her songs are just great pop-country. But the girl is a horrendous live performer. Didn't the producers not learn their lesson last year when we had to trudge through the Swift/Miley Cyrus pairing? So, the Grammys thought of another pairing, this time with the legendary Stevie Nicks. Would this soften the blow? Listening to them as they went through "Rihannon" and "You Belong With Me" the answer would be EPIC FAIL. As a new found friend of mine wrote as her FB status, "It sounded like a Sesame Street sing-a-long."

It's with great joy in my heart to see that Mary J. Blige no longer over wails. Yay! MJB and Andrea Bocelli's rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was pleasant.

Dave Matthews Band performed "You and Me" with the help of some random choir. Such a great performance. I really like this band.

Maxwell was understated as understated gets. Looking very dapper in his black suit, he sang one of his best songs of his career, "Pretty Wings". Sounding just like the record. A-MAH-zing. Roberta Flack came along and both got into "Where Is the Love". Honestly, didn't care much for it. I would've been fine with Maxwell just finishing up one of his best songs of his career, "Pretty Wings".

I was more drawn to the woman in the gold dress with a voice that channels the early '50s. Too bad that I have a slight feeling she was lipsynching. Her name is Imelda May, by the way. I kept looking at her mouth cause it just looked like she was lipsynching. Booo! She was on stage with Jeff Beck, having fun to "How High the Moon". Nice performance all in all.

Why the Grammys chose to have them as the closer of the show is beyond me. Considering that the censoring went haywire throughout. Geez! There were parts of the song that didn't even REQUIRE the freakin' censors. I'm like, do the people behind the boards even know what they were doing? Oh well. The little of what we were allowed to hear from "Drop the World" and "Forever" was good enough for me. I was just happy that Drake didn't have his pants on the ground (get 'em up!) cause we all didn't want a repeat of last summer (buahaha starts from 0:35). Lil' Wayne did have his pants on the ground but he was much more careful. Eminem, for some odd reason, decided to dance on the ground when he appeared. Pointing THIS WAY, THAT WAY! Thankfully, he stopped while ahead. Travis Barker doing some double duty that night.

Can't wait for the next awards! Oscars, right? Ooh. Um, yeah, don't expect a post about that one.

I'm out like the sympathy win --- oh wait, that's still in style. Oh boy.