57th Grammy Award Ceremony

Last night, 8 February, 2015, hundreds of music icons  from Tony Bennett to Nikki Minaj came together to commemorate the 57th Grammy Award Ceremony.  As usual the event took place at the Staples Centre in  Los Angeles, California and was hosted once again by LL Cool J, making it his fourth consecutive year hosting. The memorable night was broadcasted on CBS at 8 pm EST while being filmed live at 5 pm PST.

Nancy and Paul McCartney

It seems almost impossible to out-due last year's Grammy Awards after Sir James Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited on stage and The Beatles being honored with The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which brought not only Paul and Ringo to attend but Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon (Read about The 56th Grammys here ). This year however, Starr was not present at the awards but McCartney was proudly seated front row next to his beautiful wife, Nancy.  Without his friend and fellow band-mate, McCartney nonetheless found his way back on stage, this time not as a lead singer or plucking behind his legendary violin- Hofner bass, but standing behind a rustic- style acoustic guitar as a backup with "musician" Kayne West for Rhianna's newest single, "Four Five Seconds", on which Sir Paul McCartney and Kayne contributed. This is not the first time West and McCartney had worked together, in fact earlier last month West released "Only One" which featured and produced by the doe-eyed musician.

LL Cool J provided smooth transitions from award to award and various acts to duos. Amongst these awards and nominees were a few of my personal favorites, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who were nominated for Best Rock Album Of The Year, for their well-written album Hypnotic Eye, but unfortunately didn't win ( Congratulations Beck). Late last month there was a small dispute, if you will, between Sam Smith, who took home four Grammy's last night, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, for similarities in Smith's "Stay With Me" and Lynne and Petty's "Won't Back Down", but all was settled. With that said, not only was Sam Smith present at the awards but Jeff Lynne had made his appearance on stage with Ed Sheeran, where Sheeran accompanied the music legend with two beloved classics, "Mr. Blue Sky's" and "Evil Woman". The two-song concert was greatly admired as Jeff Lynne was trending on Twitter last night and Sir Paul McCartney had to be asked to sit down for dancing during the performance. The Following Video is Jeff Lynne and ELO with Ed Sheeran performing "Mr. Blue Skys";

Later as the night went artist from Miranda Lambert to the duo of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga took the light, along with those recognized with the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award; The BeeGees and George Harrison where amongst the listed (read about George Harrison being honored here). As mentioned before, Rhianna had made her appearance with Kayne West and Paul McCartney. This would be the highlight of any Beatlemaniac watching the event who were let down by the performance due to Kayne pressing himself close to McCartney guitar and the lack of amplification on McCartney's mic; there wasn't any. Rhianna and West's vocals were both strongly heard but McCartney's mic had seemed to be muted. Anyhow, as Eric Idle would say, "Always look on the bright side of life" and even though his voice may not be heard, his energy and passion for performing was fully registered. The Following Video via Youtube is "Four Five Seconds";

Tune in next week, Sunday 15 February, as The Grammy's pay tribute to the wonder that is Stevie Wonder, as they had done a year ago tonight with The Night That Changed America, an event honoring The Fab Four.

Until next time, Peace and Chaos.

Dhani with his wife Sola and Olivia Harrison accepting George's Lifetime Achievement Award

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Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award for George Harrison

"This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history. It's an honor and a privilege to recognize such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come." -Neil Portnow, Recording Academy President/CEO

If you're a music lover than you already know about The Grammy's and the wonderful awards and celebrations they put on. 2015 marks The Grammy's fifty-seventh annual awards, which brings new nominees and a house full of musicians from old classics to the twenty-first century music icons, all in hopes of wining just one of the symbolic, gold, turn table statues. 

If you watched last year you would of seen Sir James Paul McCartney win the Best Rock Song award with Dave Ghrol, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear for their song "Cut Me Some Slack". McCartney also took home two more awards that night which include, Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for Wings Over America, and Best Surround Sound Album and Best Music Film for his music documentary "Live Kisses", a film about making McCartney's old classic favorites called Kisses On The Bottom. But any Beatlemaniac who watched the ceremony would know that that wasn't the only highlight of the night. In fact not only did McCartney take home three awards but Ringo Starr performed a song that was sure to please the crowd, "Photograph". The night however did not end there, the two surviving (once) mop-topped legends took the stage together, reuniting, to preform "Queenie Eye", off of McCartney's newest album, New.

Last years Grammy's were almost a Beatle lover's dream when not only McCartney and Starr took the stage together but the boys along with their two deceased friends, John Lennon and George Harrison, were awarded with the Life Time Achievement award, given to the four men for their contributes with the little band, The Beatles. Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison were there to accept the award.  Besides the fifty-sixth annual Grammy's last year, The ceremony also highlighted The Beatles on behalf of their own  event celebrating The Beatles pavement to the British Invasion in America with "The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles"

This year George Harrison alone, will be recognized with The Lifetime Achievement Award, an award that "honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance other field of recording," ( Grammy.com ). George Harrison himself  has won Ten Grammy's with The Beatles, Three Grammy's as a solo artist, and one with the Super-group, The Traveling Wilburys. 

Amongst George Harrison, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, the Bee Gees, the Louvin Brothers, and Wayne Shorter will be honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award during a special celebration for invited guest on Saturday 7 February, 2015, while they will be formaly acknowledge at the fifty-seventh annual awards on the following day; to take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

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