While thousands of teenaged girls waited to high-five to Justin Bieber's big wins, the pop sensation was snubbed.
Instead, the best new artist nod went to a jazz singer who many people have never heard of – Esperanza Spalding (further solidifying my belief that if you give your kid an unusual name, they will do well at something).Apparently Bieber fans immediately went to town on Spalding's Wikipedia page, but the harsh words were quickly removed.
Let me just say, however, I have respect for the Biebs; for a teenaged boy from small-town Ontario, he sure handles the spotlight well. And he performed just as well, if not better, than the other big stars on the 53rd Grammy Awards Feb. 13.
The kid exudes class, and I'm sure he wouldn't have approved of his fans trash-talking his competition.
I was also very pleased to see another amazing but not-yet-mainstream musician, Ray Lamontagne, be nominated in the best song category, although he lost to the country band Lady Antebellum. Little did I know until I just did a search, but Lamontagne actually won for best contemporary folk album. If you haven't listened to him, I suggest you do – he's awesome live and recorded.
I would have much preferred to see his non-flashy style of performance during the Grammy show, as opposed to an alien emerging from an egg to confuse the audience.
It was also nice to see Canadian living legend, Neil Young, win his first Grammy (really Grammy academy? Young's first win? Talk about overdue).
Going back to the start of this blog entry, where I thanked the academy for somewhat restoring my faith:
Despite the unexpected Grammy wins, I still can't help but feel the music industry is stuck in a rut, and needs to explode into a new direction. The 70's had disco, the 80's had new wave, the 90's had grunge, the 2000's had... hmmm.... that's debatable. But so far this decade? I have no idea. A second-class version of Madonna dominates the charts. Not pointing any fingers.
But at least on Feb. 13, 2011, song won over show.
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