NOT BACKING DOWN PAYS OFF BIG. Well, at least the Recording Academy electors — not usually the most risk-taking of deciders — found the wherewithal to do what the Senate, so far, has found so impossible: put itself on record against the war.
Even in its most forgettable years, the Grammy Awards show often provides some of broadcast television’s more surreal moments: Madonna‘s and Britney‘s liplock (2003), Sinatra‘s incoherent rambing (1994) and subsequent gonging, an audience full of white people trying not to look scared while tapping their feet to Stevie Wonder‘s ferocious rendition of “You Haven’t Done Nothin'” (1974).
For all of the contrivances (the American Idol-style gimmick that gave Robyn Troup what turned out to be a well-deserved showcase), self-obsessed emoting (Mary J. Blige), and tributes gone bad (Rascal Flatts covering the Eagles, Christina Aguilera‘s earnestly over-the-top take on James Brown‘s “It’s a Man’s World”), this year’s Grammy’s had substance to accompany its surrealness — sometimes in the very same moment, as when Queen Latifiah and Al Gore exchanged dialogue on global warming, even as Latifah fished confetti “snow” out of her cleavage, and just before Al Gore presented the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the “Best Rock Album” award.
For all the issues that peppered the proceedings (don’t forget Ludacris‘s “Runaway Love,” performed with Blige, a brutal exposition of violence against women), the war took center page, beginning with John Legend‘s performance of his beautiful ballad, “Coming Home,” then with the Dixie Chicks taking five awards, including “Best Album” and “Best Song” for the anthem, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” and the the album that yielded it.
The Chicks, of course, are not ready to make nice with the Bush supporters who got them knocked off country music radio when lead singer Natalie Maines criticized the president for his conduct of the war and U.S. foreign policy. Their reward came from the music industry at large.
Maines was unsentimental about the Chicks’ big night. Acknowledging the impressive talent against which they won, Maines said from the Grammy stage that she believed that the electors were “exercising their freedom of speech.”
If only the Senate would do the same.
–Adele M. Stan
