February 11, 2008

Grammy Awards Light Up With Kanye West's Future-Shock; Hit A Solemn Note With MC's Tribute To Mother Donda

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

Already a multiple Grammy Award winner Sunday night (February 10), Kanye West lit up the Grammys with a future-shock performance that was part swagger and part humble tribute to his mother.

Wearing a jacket with flashing LED lights and light-up shades, a clearly hyped Kanye electrified the show with a flashing post-apocalyptic take on "Stronger," surrounded by a colored-steam-belching set that looked like a Martian moonscape. At one point, the giant pyramid onstage opened up to reveal Daft Punk, the techno source of the song's sample, dressed as two neon-lined spacemen manipulating computers. It was the long-running duo's first-ever TV performance in a career that has lasted almost 15 years. His voice cracking with emotion, West - who shaved the word "mama" into the hair on the back of his head - then took it down as he crooned the lines, "Last night I saw you in my dreams/ Now I can't wait to go to sleep," during an emotional performance of "Hey Mama," an homage to his mother, Dr. Donda West, who died late last year.

West's was one of the few performances in the first half of the golden-anniversary show that paid tribute to the stars of today. One of the night's most surreal sets was a tribute to the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" performed by the cast of Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas Fab Four homage, "Love." The performance mixed a walking umbrella, a priest with an umbrella growing out of his shoulder, a gothy aerialist and an exploding VW bug. That gave way to a gospel choir from the Beatles-based big-screen musical, "Across the Universe," singing a spirit-infused cover of "Let It Be" to an audience that included John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, as well as Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

In an even more jarring throwback, the Recording Academy's chairman, Jimmy Jam, strapped on his keytar for the first performance in 15 years by his 1980s Minneapolis funk group, the Time. Singer Morris Day was in fine form - and, as always, dressed to impress in a gold brocade jacket and yellow pants - during a run through the band's hit, "Jungle Love." The Time also backed Rihanna as she sang "Umbrella" along with a group of dancers in gold and silver miniskirt/shorts combinations holding up leopard-print umbrellas (from the singer's line of parasols, one would assume). They also added some Twin Cities soul to Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music," before it morphed back into "Jungle Love" again.

The show opened with a reel of old Frank Sinatra footage in which the late singing icon discussed the merits of the Grammys, which gave way to a sultry Alicia Keys in a floor-length emerald green gown singing a duet with the virtual Sinatra on the swinging "Learning the Blues."

Next up was former American Idol winner Carrie Underwood in a patent leather-lined black shirt and short-shorts combo doing a beat-heavy version of "Before He Cheats" accompanied by a Blue Man Group-like troupe of percussionists/dancers wielding metal chains and lengths of pipe as instruments.

With most of this year's Grammy Awards handed out before the show even started, the early winners list included Amy Winehouse, Keys, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and more.

Winehouse and Keys were big winners early, taking Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "No One," respectively. Kanye landed a pair of victories before the televised ceremony started, grabbing Best Rap Solo Performance for the hit single "Stronger" and Best Rap Song for "Good Life." Maroon 5, meanwhile, won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for "Makes Me Wonder." The win meant that even though Plain White T's singer Tom Higgenson brought the inspiration for the band's hit "Hey There Delilah" to the show with him, he wasn't going to be able to wave a Grammy in her face at the end of the night. Amy Winehouse also struck early pay dirt with a Best Pop Vocal Album win for Back to Black and a Best Female Pop Vocal Performance victory for "Rehab."

Former and once-again Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant won Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for his song "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. Justin Timberlake scored a Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" and Best Dance Recording for "LoveStoned/ I Think She Knows" and the Beastie Boys beat out a galaxy of jazz stars for the Best Pop Instrumental Album for The Mix-Up, while former American Idol Carrie Underwood won Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Before He Cheats," though former Idol finalist Chris Daughtry's eponymous band was 0-3 in the early running.

Other early wins included Best Electronic/Dance Album for the Chemical Brothers' We Are the Night, and Best Rock Song and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for Bruce Springsteen's "Radio Nowhere," with the latter denying Beck the chance to be the first artist to win a Grammy for an online-only single. The White Stripes struck gold with "Icky Thump," which won for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals and Best Alternative Music Album, the Foo Fighters won Best Hard Rock Performance for "The Pretender," and Slayer took Best Metal Performance for "Final Six."

A pair of R&B legends won awards as well, with Prince nabbing the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Future Baby Mama" and Chaka Khan taking Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for "Disrespectful" (featuring Mary J. Blige); Khan also won Best R&B Album for Funk This, which denied buzzed-about singer Ledisi one of her two potential Grammys. Gerald Levert, who passed away in late 2006, won Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for his tune "In My Songs." Lupe Fiasco made his pal Kanye proud with a Best Urban/Alternative Performance for "Daydreamin' " from his 2006 debut, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor.

Other early winners included Keys for Best R&B Song ("No One"), Ne-Yo for Best Contemporary R&B Album (Because of You) and Common for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("Southside"). Mark Ronson was awarded the Producer of the Year prize for his work on albums by Winehouse, Lily Allen and his own solo album, while controversial director Tony Kaye won Best Short Form Music Video for his stark, star-filled video for the song "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by the late Johnny Cash.

In other categories, "Love" - the Beatles-remix compilation made for the Cirque de Soleil show of the same name - notched the award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For A Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The Dreamgirls track "Love You I Do" was named Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, while composer Michael Giacchino's musical accompaniment to Ratatouille picked up Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

And in a grudge match worthy of the presidential primary season, Senator Barack Obama bested former President Bill Clinton - as well as Maya Angelou and another former president, Jimmy Carter - in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio-book version of his book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming The American Dream.