The Recording Academy seemed intent on pushing youth during its 67th Grammy Awards on Sunday night. By my count, 19 distinct “acts” performed on stage, and 15 of them were not alive for the first Reagan administration. (That’s under 40 for those who failed American Government in High School.)
Excepting for the occasional band member (Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, that guitar player from Khruangbin) nobody past that 40-year mark was even on stage until we reached the Quincy Jones tribute in the third hour.
Fortunately, the kids were up to the task.
Best performances from the 2025 Grammy Awards
After a pleasant enough opening from LA’s Dawes which set the theme of the evening – “I Love L.A.” – the heavy hitters hit hard. Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan – all performed monster hits from 2024. Actually, Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” is almost five years old by now, but the song achieved major success last year. And her performance was fairly awesome
After Carpenter and Roan got their own sets, the remaining six Best New Artist nominees hit the stage for a high-energy medley, each performer handing off to the next. Benson Boone did his patented backflip during “Beautiful Things” and Doechii killed with a mashup of “Catfish” and “Denial is a River” shortly after she had been awarded Rap Album of the Year for Alligator Bites Never Heal. RAYE closed the New Artist set going full diva on “Oscar Winning Tears.”
The next major highlight came when the Recording Academy staged a major tribute to music titan Quincy Jones, who passed away last year. Will Smith narrated the tribute which featured Cynthia Erivo, Lainey Wilson, and Stevie Wonder (playing a chromatic harmonica on Jones’ “Bluesette”) with assistance from Herbie Hancock and Jacob Collier.
Then, on a night so devoted to new artists, it seemed only fitting that last year’s New Artist winner, Victoria Monet, closed the Quincy Jones segment by channeling Michael Jackson with “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough.” She brought the house down.
Chris Martin did a tasteful “In Memoriam” and Shakira worked the crowd in typical Shakira fashion before the evening's final performance. Charli XCX began outside, climbing out of an SUV, and ended up on stage along with Julia Fox and a cast of dozens showered in lingerie while performing “Von Dutch” and “Guess.”
Charli, like many of her co-performers, was outstanding, but not everything was perfect. The Academy seemed to be trying a bit too hard to congratulate itself by “bringing back” the Weeknd to its stage. And Trevor Noah, despite being a first-rate host, too often seemed to be hosting a telethon for fire relief.
Much of the support for victims of the recent tragedy was handled quite well, but it did seem overbearing at times. Noah also indulged in a strange habit of insisting that the audience continue applauding after many performances. Note for the future – the artists did not need the help.
Performance-wise, the biggest disappointment was the total absence of rock & roll from the stage. That does seem apt for a year in which the Academy chose to give major Rock prizes to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Though highly predictable, that does not bode well for the future of rock. It was particularly troubling because one of the year’s best younger rockers – St. Vincent – was in the house, guitar in hand.
She performed, along with another rocker, Brittany Howard, in support of Dawes during the opening number. St. Vincent (real name – Annie Clark) won the Grammys for best rock song (“Broken Man”) and best alt-rock performance (“Flea”). She probably should have had her own solo performance. It would have given a little hope to rock fans.
It also might have been nice had Beyonce and/or Kendrick Lamar performed. Though no one knew for sure who would be winning the biggest prizes, it wasn’t that hard to predict their wins. (Even I got two of the Big Three correct.) So we didn’t get to hear the song & record of the year, nor did we hear anything from the album of the year.
But we did get to hear quite a bit, and most of it was fantastic.