McCallion
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The
Grammy’s- Another year Over –
A great show that was definitely missing a Canadian flavour
By: Kelly Sunderland, freelance writer
On February 8th, 2004, the 46th annual Grammy Awards for Music took place at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California. The show opened up with an amazing performance by Prince singing “Purple Rain.” He was later joined by Beyoncé and together, they sang a medley of different songs and wrapped it all up with “Let’s Go Crazy.”
Shortly after they finished, and the evening officially began, Beyoncé was called up again to accept the award for Best Contemporary R&B Album for Dangerously in Love. Later that evening she ended up winning 4 more; Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Dangerously in Love, Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for Crazy in Love with Jay-Z, and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for “The Closer I Get To You” with Luther Vandross. It was the most Grammy’s taken home that night.
Earlier this year, Luther Vandross suffered from a stroke and was unable to attend the Grammy’s, but everything still went ahead as planned. At the show, Celine Dion sang one of his recent and probably one of his most famous songs, “Dance With My Father.” Although it had a rough beginning when her microphone wasn’t working, by the end, it brought tears to our eyes. He ended up winning 3 awards for that song; Best R&B Album, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and Song of the Year.
Evanescence is a new band that’s just starting out this year. This being the first time they’ve been invited to attend the Grammy’s, I would think they got a pretty good first impression. By the end of the night, they had won 2 awards; 1 for Best New Artist, the other for Best Hard Rock Performance for Bring me to Life (with Paul McCoy). Talk about jumping to the top, stars like Brittney Spears have been in the business for a long time and didn’t even get a nomination for her new CD, “In the Zone.”
OutKast ended the show with everyone’s favourite “Hey Ya” and the group itself ended up taking home 3 Grammy’s; Best Album of the Year and Best Rap Album for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, as well as Best Urban/Alternative Performance for “Hey Ya.”
Sadly, barely any Canadians brought back Grammy’s. This was especially true of our female performers, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, and Celine Dion. Despite the fact that they are all so talented, they didn’t get a single Grammy. Then again, how could they win anything if in total they only got 3 Nominations; 2 for Avril (Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Song of the Year for “I’m With You”) and 1 for Shania (Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “Forever and For Always”). Although Canadians have generally performed very well at the Grammy’s, I think we may need to try a bit harder for next year.