Holy crap, were the Grammys…good? I think they were – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – good. Like, really good. The opposite of bad. Good. Granted, I watched them on time delay and got to fast forward through all of the commercials, speeches by the recording industry president and performances by male artists. But what I did see was honest to goodness enjoyable.
Like. Wow, that was fun. Let’s watch it again enjoyable. And much of that was thanks to queer female artists. Specifically Janelle Monae, Brandi Carlile and St. Vincent.
These ladies were, well, they were good.
Let’s start with Janelle Monae. The Empress of Bisexual Lighting “The Way You Make Me Feel” with just a touch of “Pynk” thrown in for good measure. And it was a precision clinic on coolness in all of its James Brown/Prince/Full Monae goodness.
And then there was Brandi. Our gal took home three Grammys in the untelevised part of the show (for Best Roots Performance, Song and Album). After an evening of high-octane female performers (admit it, the dudes all sucked in comparison) her raw and powerful vocals managed to still stand out amid the crowd. We gay gals are feeling pretty rightfully smug these days as the rest of the world finally catches on to Brandi’s greatness. Yeah, we knew her before the Grammys.
Also, during one of her untelevised acceptance speeches, she said this which is just another reminder of why we loved Brandi first.
And then, in the most unexpectedly spectacular coupling of the night, queer artist St. Vincent and singer Dua Lipa performed a mash-up of their hits “Masseduction” and “One Kiss,” respectively – with a little Aretha’s “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” thrown in for kicks. But it was how they performed it that was…sexy. It was so, so, so sexy. Like lesbian twinning dominatrixes sexy. I have watched it close to a dozen times and that might be a conservative estimate.
Well, like I was saying, I think the Grammys did not suck. (OK, maybe JLo’s Motown tribute wasn't the best, but still). Between all the above goodness and seeing Dolly Parton and Diana Ross and Michelle Obama kill it on the same stage. Well, yeah, the Grammys were good.
It was so good that I’ll forgive them for choosing JLo when there were at least 10 people in that room that would have been better for a Motown tribute. (But they could have let the winners finish their speeches)
ReplyDeleteBesides what you already mentioned I really enjoyed the Aretha moment that focused on her music and Dua Lipa taking a jab at Porthow by saying something like “I guess women stepped up, right?”
The Empress of Bisexual Lighting might be the best thing you've ever written. I just literally laughed out loud. So, so great. I wept for Brandi more than once this past week. Her speech was earnest and so, so lovely I only wish she would have won one of the big ones so the world could have seen it. So happy and proud for them. Wishing much love to all those jumping on the Brandi bandwagon after all these years.
ReplyDeleteThank You Ms. Snarker for the heads up about the St.Vincent and Dua Lipa duet.
ReplyDeleteThat was all kinds of awesome.
St. Vincent has discussed the performance on Rolling Stone here...
http://tinyurl.com/y3hzt6ny