music
The Talk Goes on Brief Hiatus After Sharon Osbourne’s Heated Defense of Piers Morgan
A heated conversation between The Talk co-hosts Sharon Osbourne and Sheryl Underwood about Piers Morgan has led CBS to conduct an internal review and put the show on a brief hiatus. The incident occurred on Wednesday’s program, when the two argued whether Morgan’s criticism of Meghan Markle was racist or not. Morgan walked off the set of his morning TV show Good Morning Britain when co-host Alex Beresford called him out after he had lambasted Markle for her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. The onetime America’s Got Talent host questioned Markle’s claims that she suffered mental health issues as part of the royal family and even contemplated suicide. The following day, Morgan permanently parted ways the show. Osbourne defended Morgan on Twitter, writing, “@piersmorgan, I am with you. ...
Bruno Mars And Anderson Paak Slide Into Leisure Suits For Silk Sonic Debut
In 2018, shortly after Bruno Mars took the a few of the top honors at the Grammys, I implored every player to put their pinky rings up to the moon in celebration. Now, as the 2021 show marks his return to the stage for the first time since, I must swap in flared collars and dark sunnies for pinky rings — a soulful re-emergence is upon is. “Leave the Door Open,” Mars’s latest collaborative tune with Anderson .Paak, is a complete throwback to the time of Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield. As the supergroup Silk Sonic, the pair have gone full ’70s soul, and “Door” is characterized by its soft piano and smooth vocals, elements they brought to life on the Grammys stage Sunday night (March 14). By “stage,” I mean a dark set that nevertheless sparkle...
Folklore Or Evermore? Taylor Swift Chose Both At The Grammys
By Deepa Lakshmin To everyone who fantasizes about running away to start a new life in a cabin surrounded by towering trees and babbling streams, Taylor Swift’s 2021 Grammys performance is for you. The 10-time Grammy winner — who has six more nods tonight (March 14), including nominations for Album of the Year and Song of the Year — transformed the stage at Los Angeles’s Staples Center into an enchanted forest fit for a princess who never wants to be found. Swift certainly looked the part as she sang “Cardigan,” the lead single off 2020’s Folklore, in a patch of moss on a cabin rooftop. It would be very unlike Tay to stop there, of course. She just wrapped a busy year releasing two surprise albums and rerecording her old music, so she had to show off a few more of the hits she’d worked so ...
H.E.R. Honored George Floyd With ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ It Won Song Of The Year
After her powerful rendition of “America the Beautiful” at the Super Bowl, H.E.R.‘s big year keeps getting better. Last year’s winner Billie Eilish was nominated once again in the Song of the Year category for “Everything I Wanted,” it was H.E.R. who took home the coveted Grammy for her George Floyd-inspired song, “I Can’t Breathe.” “We wrote this song over FaceTime,” H.E.R. said while accepting the award with her co-writer Tiara Thomas, who joined her onstage. “I didn’t imagine that my fear and that my pain would turn into impact and it would possibly turn into change. That’s why I write music. That’s why I do this.” “These lyrics were kind of easy to write because it came from a conversation o...
Doja Cat’s Sci-Fi Grammys Performance Was Just Purrfect
Best New Artist-nominee Doja Cat had plenty of punches left to roll with at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (March 14). On the pre-show red carpet, Doja served Girl With the Dragon Tattoo realness when she teased that her upcoming performance would feel “like an action film” while wearing a daring, skin-baring gown with dramatic green feathering. And Doja delivered, with a reimagined performance of her disco-inspired bop “Say So,” trading the sun-soaked visuals from the song’s music video for a gritty sci-fi set. The whole shebang was complete with lasers and leather-clad cyborgs wearing kitty ears. Doja has a flair for out-of-this-world performances, like the time her VMAs choreography blasted viewers off to a hot-pink planet. Doja...
Grammys 2021: John Prine Posthumously Wins Two Awards for “I Remember Everything”
The late John Prine posthumously won Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Prine’s final song “I Remember Everything” claimed the prize in both categories, beating out fellow nominees including Brittany Howard, Black Pumas, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples. These Grammys mark the third and fourth ones of Prine’s legendary career. He previously won Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1991 and again in 2005. Additionally, last year he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Prine passed away on April 7th, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. “I Remember Everything” was released two months later on June 12th, and was later name one of Consequence of Sound’s favorite songs of 2020. In the corresponding writeup, Matt Melis had ...
Grammys 2021: Billie Eilish Performs “Everything I Wanted”: Watch
Billie Eilish took the stage at the 2021 Grammy Awards on Sunday to perform “Everything I Wanted”. Watch the replay below. “Everything I Wanted” is up for three Grammy Awards, including “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, and “Best Solo Pop Performance”. During the Premiere Ceremony, Eilish won the award for Best Song Written for Visual Media for her James Bond theme, “No Time to Die”. Our former Rookie of the Year and Artist of the Year made a record-setting debut at the 2020 Grammys, becoming the youngest person in history to win the four main categories of Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. in the same year. Awards aside, 2020 was a relatively slow year by Eilish’s standards, but in addition to “No Time to Die” and “Therefore I Am”, ...
Grammys 2021: Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic Perform “Leave the Door Open”: Watch
After successfully talking their way onto the Grammys stage, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak made their live debut as Silk Sonic performing “Leave the Door Open”. Later, as the award ceremony paused to reflect on the artists who died this year, Mars and .Paak paid tribute to Little Richard with a performance of “Good Golly Miss Molly”. The soulful supergroup released their debut single earlier this month, and then all that was left to do was promote it. “Dear Grammys”, Mars wrote in a Twitter letter, “If you can see it in your hearts to allow two out of work musicians to perform at your show, we would really appreciate it.” Ask and ye shall receive. For music’s biggest night, the artists performed “Leave the Door Open” in throwback threads, wearing brown suits unbuttoned to the ste...
Cardi B And Megan Thee Stallion’s Grammys ‘WAP’ Debut Came With A Warning
By Deepa Lakshmin Before Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion took the stage at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards, host Trevor Noah gave a disclaimer to those watching at home: Tell the kids that “WAP” is about giving a cat a bath. Though the not-so-safe-for-work song dominated airwaves last year, tonight (March 14) was the first time the Houston and Bronx rappers performed it together live. And whew, did they go all out. Their explosive set at Los Angeles’s Staples Center included a giant heel sculpted for pole dancing, a bed large enough to fit the duo plus their dancers, and enough splits to make your legs hurt. Of course, they pulled it off without missing a beat. As Meg said at the start of the performance, “Tonight is my first night at the Grammys, but it is not my first time entertaining you...
BTS Shine Through The Grammys With ‘A Little Funk And Soul’
BTS know how to turn up the party: The superstar South Korean band performed their disco-revivalist jam “Dynamite” at the VMAs in August and made it a black-tie affair. Now, they’re bringing that electric energy — and appropriately colorful suiting — to the 2021 Grammy Awards stage on Sunday (March 14). Just like the ’70s-inspired music video for “Dynamite,” the energetic closing track on their hopeful November album Be, BTS’s performance was awash in pastels. It began on a stage decked out with flowers, which Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook all navigated with ease while moving through towers of falsetto hooks. The group made full use of the set, eventually finding their way onto the roof. Finishing their choreography within an i...
Billie Eilish Won Record Of The Year, But She Was Rooting For Megan Thee Stallion
Billie Eilish was flattered to win a top honor at the Grammys this year, but she wasn’t expecting it. The nominees for Record of the Year usually make for stiff competition, and the lineup at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday (March 14) was no exception, with recordings by Dua Lipa, Meg Thee Stallion, and Beyoncé receiving nods. Ultimately, the award went to alt-pop ingenue Billie Eilish and her brother-collaborator Finneas for “Everything I Wanted,” a pensive 2020 single they co-wrote. (The duo also performed an enchanting rendition of the song earlier in the show.) When the Beatles legend Ringo Starr announced their win, Eilish and Finneas were visibly surprised. “This is embarrassing,” a disbelieving Eilish said into the mic before...
Taylor Swift Thanks The Real-Life James, Inez, And Betty In Album Of The Year Speech
A few hours ago, she took the Grammys to the woods with a hybrid Folklore/Evermore medley performance. And as the night wound down to its final (and top) prizes, Taylor Swift was rewarded for such a journey with a golden gramophone. Yes, the Recording Academy awarded Folklore, Swift’s surprise return-to-roots quarantine album, the Album of the Year trophy. The folk album’s win punctuated one of the most unusual years in the Recording Academy’s history, and Swift mentioned the origins of Folklore‘s 16 tracks in her acceptance speech. “I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine,” she said, thanking her partner, Joe Alwyn. She led by thanking “all of my collaborators,” including recording engineers Jonathan Low and Laura Sisk and c...
