February 12, 2007

Luda Shouts Out O'Reilly, Chicks Get Last Laugh As Grammys Hit Home Stretch

By James Montgomery (MTV.com)

LOS ANGELES - It's debatable whether Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is watching the Grammy telecast, so in case he's not, let us be the first to let him know that he's officially been put on blast by his old pal Ludacris.

"Shout out to Bill O'Reilly," Luda laughed during his acceptance speech for the Best Rap Album award. "I love ya."

It was the first real headline-grabbing moment of the night -- but not for long.

The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines, whose opinions of George W. Bush and the country-music establishment are well documented, played it (relatively) nice when accepting the Song of the Year and Country Album awards, though during the latter, she got in a dig at the group's critics.

"To quote the great 'Simpsons,' 'Ha-ha!' " she said, aping the toon's monosyllabic bully, Nelson Muntz. "A lot of people just turned their TVs off."

Meanwhile, other acts decided to let their music speak loudly. Gnarls Barkley stomped through a slowed-down -- yet throughly epic -- version of their ubiquitous "Crazy," backed by a full choir, and Mary J. Blige brought the house down with a powerful performance of "Be Without You" that segued into the soul classic "Stay With Me." And minutes after performing in a countrified tribute to Lifetime Achievement honoree Bob Wills, Carrie Underwood scored her second Grammy of the night, for Best New Artist (though Academy members may have been rethinking their votes a few minutes later, when fellow Best New Artist nom Chris Brown blew everyone off the stage with his step routine.).

Earlier in the evening, the reunited Police kicked off the show with their first major public appearance together in more than 20 years, shaking off the cobwebs with a stirring version of their first hit, "Roxanne." Their performance was followed up by an even more old-school pairing: Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder, who won for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.

The Dixie Chicks, backed by swirling strings, emoted through "Not Ready to Make Nice," and then Prince rose from beneath the stage to simply say, "One word: Beyoncé," introducing the singer who fought off a stomach bug to belt her way through "Listen," from Dreamgirls.

The queen of the evening, Mary J. Blige, won her second Grammy, as The Breakthrough was named Best R&B Album, then received a standing ovation by ignoring the house band and rifling through several index cards filled with thank yous.

Hindsight being 20/20, she could've just waited, since she was back on the podium a few minutes later, accepting her third award, for Best Pop Vocal Album.

Meanwhile, the man who would be king, Justin Timberlake, sat at a piano -- and then pulled some serious "Blair Witch Project" action thanks to a handheld camera -- for the first of his two performances of the evening, "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" (which he introduced as "the best song I've ever written").

Considering the reunions and ovations, the show is moving along at a brisk clip -- but that's nothing compared to the ceremony known as the "pre-tel" (a.k.a. pre-televised awards), which were handed out earlier in the day in a glass-and-steel monolith next to the Staples Center known as the Los Angeles Convention Center (where there's also a boat show going on, the ample signage informs us). The Recording Academy doles out Grammy Awards in 108 categories, and the "pre-tel" serves as a way to tear through 97 of them, with winners being announced at a furious clip (OK Go actually won the first award of the day, taking home the Best Short Form Video for their treadmill-heavy "Here It Goes Again").

T.I. took Best Rap Solo Performance for "What You Know" and shared Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Timberlake for "My Love." JT also nabbed Best Dance Recording with Timbaland for "SexyBack." Other winners include Ludacris winning Best Rap Song for his tag-team with Pharrell on "Money Maker"; and Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone snaring Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Ridin." Rick Rubin won his first-ever Grammy (unbelievably) for Producer of the Year. Madonna, another artist who's walked the Grammy red carpet more than a few times, won Best Electronic/Dance Album for her Confessions on a Dance Floor.

A bit later, Best Comedy Album winner Lewis Black took the stage and dropped the evening's first profanities, and was followed by the sartorial splendor of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones bassist Victor Wooten, who accepted the group's Best Contemporary Jazz Album Grammy in full pirate regalia.

Then, a couple of the evening's most-nominated - and most famous - nominees notched their first wins. Mary J. Blige, she of the eight nominations, won Best R&B Song for "Be Without You," four-time noms Gnarls Barkley won Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Crazy," and Beyoncé's B'Day won Best Contemporary R&B Album. John Legend also made his presence known, taking home a pair of awards (for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Heaven," and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for his role in "Family Affair" alongside Joss Stone and Van Hunt).

A flurry of even more big names followed, including Christina Aguilera winning Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Ain't No Other Man," multiple nominee John Mayer winning Best Male Pop Vocal for "Waiting on the World to Change" and Best Pop Vocal Album for Continuum, the Black Eyed Peas nabbing Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for "My Humps," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers winning a pair of awards for "Dani California": Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Rock Song.

All that, before we'd even headed inside the Staples Center for the main show. The Chili Peppers already have three awards to their name, followed by Justin Timberlake, Gnarls Barkley, T.I. and John Legend, with two each. Plus, we've already had pirates, Prince and profanity -- who knows what's next?