Grammy Awards 2022 highlights: Host Trevor Noah slides in Will Smith Oscars slap reference, spotlight on diversity of winners

As the lucrative concert industry tries to rebound from the pandemic, the larger music community gathered in Las Vegas on Sunday for the 64th annual Grammy Awards — the first time the ceremony has been held with an audience, and with full-scale performances, in two years.

The show opened with a rapid-fire carousel of contemporary pop, in the kind of elaborate stagings that were absent from the stripped-down show of last year.

Silk Sonic, the retro soul-funk project of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, played ‘777,’ about the high-rolling, Sin City side of Las Vegas. Olivia Rodrigo, the 19-year-old pop sensation, sang her hit ‘Drivers License’ on a set like a suburban street, her voice swelling to emotional peaks and then breaking as it fell. Latin pop superstar J Balvin sang ‘Qué Más Pues? with Maria Becerra, and his song ‘In da Getto’ in front of masked dancers arrayed in stadium seating.

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Moments later, Silk Sonic won song of the year for ‘Leave the Door Open,’ a throwback to smooth early ’70s soul, and the K-pop stars BTS, looking like Oceans 11 characters, began a performance of their song ‘Butter.’

“Better late than never,” the host Trevor Noah, said as the CBS telecast began of the Grammys ceremony. Initially planned for 31 in Los Angeles, it was delayed nine weeks by the spread of the omicron variant and moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

“We’re in Vegas,” he said. “Look at this. You know, people are doing shots. I mean, last year, people were doing shots, but it was more Moderna and Pfizer.”

Lil Nas X, the rapper, singer, and meme master, performed a high-concept medley of his songs ‘Dead Right Now,’ ‘Montero (Call Me by Your Name),’ and ‘Industry Baby,’ featuring Jack Harlow, interspersed with a montage of overheated media commentators.

There were several nods to the controversy that marred last week’s Academy Awards, when actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage. During a non-televised ceremony before the telecast, comedian Nate Bargatze came out to present awards in the classical categories wearing a thick helmet. “This is what comedians at awards shows have to wear now,” Bargatze said.

And early on in the telecast, Noah promised, “We’re going to be dancing, we’re going to be singing, we’re going to be keeping people’s names out of our mouths,” alluding to Smith’s expletive-filled demand that Rock stop talking about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.

A series of complications in recent days challenged Grammy producers. Kanye West was barred from performing and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters, which had been scheduled to play, died while on tour. Two members of BTS, the K-pop phenomenon, announced that they had tested positive for the coronavirus.

As the touring industry tries to return to full capacity, the music industry brought together some of its biggest stars for a high-decibel ceremony, with a series of segments intended to honour crew members for stars who were nominated for major awards and set to embark on tours this year.

In awards given early in the day during a non-televised ceremony — more high-energy than usual, filled with speeches about togetherness and unity — Jon Batiste, the bandleader of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,  who had 11 nominations, more than any other artist this year, took the lead with four wins, including one tie.

“I am so grateful for the gifts that God has given me, and the ability to share that for the love of humankind,” Batiste said when accepting the award for best music video, for ‘Freedom,’ which was also up for record of the year.

Rodrigo, whose song ‘Drivers License’ was a blockbuster last year, won best pop vocal performance and best new artist. She was nominated for all four major awards — album, record and song of the year, as well as best new artist.

Foo Fighters won all three awards they were nominated for: rock performance (‘Making a Fire’), rock song (’Waiting on a War’), and rock album (Medicine at Midnight). Voting by Recording Academy members ended in January, long before Hawkins’ death.

Country star Chris Stapleton won two awards, as did jazz keyboardist Chick Corea, who died last year.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s album Love for Sale, a collection of Cole Porter songs, won best traditional pop vocal album, a category that Bennett, 95, has now won 14 times. Love for Sale also took best engineered album, non-classical, with the prize going to Dae Bennett, one of the singer’s sons, and to Josh Coleman and Billy Cumella. Love for Sale was also up for album of the year, and its title track for record of the year.

Joni Mitchell, the iconic singer-songwriter, who was set to appear as a presenter during the show, won best historical album for her Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967), sharing the award with Patrick Mulligan, her fellow compilation producer.

The Grammy ceremony honoured music released during a 13-month period, from 1 September 2020, to 30 September, 2021. Winners were chosen by more than 11,000 voting members of the Recording Academy, who qualify by gaining recommendations from fellow music professionals.

Speeches from early winners and presenters highlighted personal triumphs, social ills, and the power of music to serve as a balm in troubled times.

Accepting the award for best country duo/group performance, TJ Osborne, of the group Brothers Osborne, said their song ‘Younger Me’ was written about his coming out as gay — a risk given Nashville’s largely conservative music business.

“I never thought that I’d be able to do this professionally because of my sexuality,” he said, “and I certainly never thought I would be here on this stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, potentially in a very negative way.”

Comedian Louis CK, who has faced accusations of sexual misconduct, won for best comedy album (Sincerely Louis C.K.).

Tammy Hurt, the chair of the board of the Recording Academy, the organisation behind the Grammys, saluted the nominees, and spoke of music’s power to unite amid the war in Ukraine: “To all music creators, please continue to create lyrics of peace, songs of promise, and music that unites all of us as one in every corner of this planet.”

The first award of the day, for best musical theater album — a prize that in the past has gone to Broadway smashes like Hamilton and The Book of Mormon — went to The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, a DIY project by Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow, who created the music as fans, while spurred on by comments from viewers online who watched them work.

“A year ago, when I asked the internet, what if Bridgerton was a musical,” said Barlow, “I could not have imagined I would be holding a Grammy in my hands.”

In a more serious note, Bear alluded to the lack of diversity, which has been a major topic in the industry. A study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, for example, found that, over the past decade, an average of just 2.8 percent of the producers of top pop songs were women.

“This is really for all of my fellow female producers, composers, engineers, that are still struggling to gain recognition and support for what we do.” “It’s not that we don’t exist,” Bear added. “We do.”

Ben Sisario c.2022 The New York Times Company