Bruce Britt is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
node: video: Alabama Shakes Win Best Rock Performance node: video: Ghost Win Best Metal Performance Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard was almost, well … shaking. She and her bandmates had just nabbed the GRAMMY for Best Rock Performance, capping a night in which the band earned their very first GRAMMYs. Nervously explaining how the band got their modest start…
During Wednesday night's 10th Annual Music Preservation Project — "Sounds Of Change" — at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow triumphantly put the evening into perspective. Introducing a video featuring heartrending clips from the Jim Crow era, Portnow noted that when The Recording Academy was established in 1958, many black Americans had little hope…
It was 2015, and like some NASA-engineered showbiz rocket, Tamar Braxton was prepared for takeoff. Not only had she nabbed a hard-earned spot competing on the "Dancing With The Stars," she had also captured a GRAMMY nomination for her seductive single, "If I Don't Have You." Then, out of the blue, calamitous fate intervened. The R&B singer contracted lung clots,…
In a secular sense, Raphael Saadiq has been born again. Born Charles Ray Wiggins in Oakland, Calif., the singer/songwriter adopted his current nom de plume in a gesture that seemed to symbolize the metamorphic aspirations of his career. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Iif2UhFBZdM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Emerging nearly 30 years ago as frontman for the chart-topping R&B trio Tony! Toni! Toné!, Saadiq…
When you think about it, every day is Halloween for many musicians. They wear costumes onstage, often assuming different personas, and are generally the life of the party. But there's one thing that can make performing live a fright fest all on its own: stage fright.For many artists, stage fright is a serious ailment, whether they're performing on the intimate…
(The Making Of GRAMMY-Winning Recordings series presents firsthand accounts of the creative process behind some of music's biggest recordings. In this installment, Sarah Jarosz details the making of Undercurrent, which won Best Folk Album at the 59th GRAMMY Awards, and "House Of Mercy," which won Best American Roots Performance.) The early gestation period of [Undercurrent] goes all the way back…
They were two musical giants born just months apart in the '50s. As both came of age, they mastered their respective crafts to become synonymous with absolute excellence. On Feb. 28, 1984, Michael Jackson and The Recording Academy took their curiously symbiotic relationship to the next level at the 26th Annual GRAMMY Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles…
It was one of the most memorable performances in the storied history of the GRAMMY Awards. On Jan. 26 GRAMMY winner John Legend took the stage on the 56th telecast and threw himself into a confident performance of his ballad, "All Of Me." Performing in a solo piano setting, both television and live audiences watched in hushed amazement as Legend…
Play word association with the name "Malibu" and for many folks a posh Los Angeles suburb abounding with surfers, celebrity residents and palatial beachfront property springs to mind. But if seasoned TV producer/director Doug DeLuca has his way, Malibu will soon conjure yet another indelible image — that of a world-famous annual music festival.In 2015 DeLuca launched the Malibu Guitar…
He caught the global music scene unawares, thumbing his nose at pop convention with a fearless fusion of brooding R&B and high-concept art rock. Within three years of his 2011 debut, Canadian singer/songwriter Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, had cultivated an underground following so loyal he headlined the world-famous Hollywood Bowl without ever having placed a Top 40 U.S.…
In 2014 25-time GRAMMY winner Stevie Wonder came face to face with a longtime fan during the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in Washington, D.C.: President (and fellow GRAMMY winner) Barack Obama. In his presentation speech before a crowd of world dignitaries, the commander in chief intimated that Wonder's classic 1972 album Talking Book was the very first LP he…
According to journalist Larry Gabriel, decades ago some Motor City jazz virtuosos coined the phrase "The Detroit Way" to describe a local tradition of passing musical knowledge down to future generations. Now, Gabriel and an ambitious group of fellow Detroit writers are applying that same sharing spirit to a commendable task: documenting the musical history of their beloved city.Founded by…
(The following is an excerpt from "The Vegas Issue" of GRAMMY magazine. Read the issue, in a new reader-friendly format, here.)"Vegas baby, Vegas!"Those immortal lines, delivered in the 1996 comedy classic Swingers, embody the swagger, high expectations and dice-rolling excitement of America's favorite gaming town. But the martini-swilling Las Vegas symbolized in the film is undergoing a curious transformation. Unlike its postwar…
With the start of the NFL's regular season finally upon us, anxious fans are looking forward to action where it counts most — on the field. The season kicks off officially tonight with the defending Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants hosting the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.Of course, we're so excited about the 2012–2013 season that we cut…
Forget Punxsutawney Phil and the swallows returning to Southern California. For the music industry, the most important harbinger of the summer touring season is April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Elsewhere, this coming weekend's Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and Electric Daisy Carnival and upcoming festivals such as Lollapalooza and Outside Lands bring plenty of concert heat. With some…
Sept. 11, 2001.Not since the '60s has a series of events left Americans so rattled. The cunning, audacity and ferocity of the attacks on Sept. 11 shattered America's collective psyche like few events before it.Now, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans are turning to music to commemorate that fateful day in 2001, just as they did…
(The following is an excerpt from a feature published in the "Health & Fitness Issue" of GRAMMY magazine. Read the complete feature here.)Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine practices yoga to improve his "Moves Like Jagger." Pop diva Pink maintains her radiant glow with a fat-melting mix of aerobics and weight lifting, while Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist Anthony Kiedis follows a seafood-inclusive…
Fascinating, informative and appropriately thrilling, the Spike Lee documentary Bad 25 celebrates the quarter-century anniversary of Michael Jackson's GRAMMY Album Of The Year-nominated 1987 album, Bad. The result is an eminently watchable film that chronicles a period when the King of Pop bravely confronted his most formidable rival: himself. The documentary, which premieres Thanksgiving night at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, reveals…
Framed in music terms, the U.S. healthcare debate has unfolded like an epic battle of the bands. For nearly a century politicians, doctors and private insurers have riffed on the subject, with each side hoping their proposed healthcare solutions would capture the grand prize of public approval. With the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the…
Broadway star Billy Porter — a recent GRAMMY and Tony Award winner for his role in Cyndi Lauper's "Kinky Boots" — is set to release a new album, Billy's Back On Broadway, on April 15. Ahead of the album's release, GRAMMY.com has your exclusive first listen to Porter's gospel-tinged version of the 1950 "Guys And Dolls" classic, "Luck Be A…
