Correct Grammys

An inspiring night.

Woman a run tings.

“From the Motown records I wore out on the South Side to the ‘Who Runs the World’ songs that fueled me through this last decade, music has always helped me tell my story . . . whether we like country or rap or rock, music helps us share ourselves. Our dignity, our sorrows, our hopes and joys. It allows us to hear one another, to invite each other in. Music shows us that all of it matters, every story within every voice, every note within every song.” - Michelle Obama

I am always grateful for tears shed from music, and a big one came bulging out when Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus and Maren Morris sang Neil Young‘s After The Gold Rush. Look at Mother Nature On The Run In The Twenty First Century. 

Drake was just being the humanitarian. Not anti-Grammy, just urging his fellow noms to maintain. Not negative at all. But it was criminal television to cut away from pretty much the most popular musical voice currently performing.

Drake; “I want to take this opportunity while I’m up here to just talk to all the kids that are watching this that are aspiring to do music, all my peers that make music from their heart, that do things pure and tell the truth. I want to let you know we play in an opinion-based sport, not a factual-based sport. So it’s not the NBA where at the end of the year you’re holding a trophy because you made the right decisions and won the games,” Drake said. “This is a business where sometimes it’s up to a bunch of people that might not understand, you know, what a mixed-race kid from Canada has to say or a fly Spanish girl from New York or a brother from Houston right there, my brother Travis.or anybody else."

“The point is, you’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your hometown. Look, look if there is people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows,” he added. The New York Times commented, 

We don’t know what was coming next, though, because his mic was abruptly cut off as he was in mid-sentence . . . which, in a nice bit of irony, helped hammer home his point.

A representative for the Grammys clarified that producers did not intentionally cut off Drake but were under the impression that he had finished his speech.

“During Drake’s speech, there was a natural pause and at that moment the producers did assume that he was done and then cut to commercial,” said Sunshine Sachs’ Michael Samonte. “However the producers did speak with Drake following his speech and did offer him to come back on stage to finish whatever his thoughts were. But Drake said he was happy with what he said and didn’t have anything to add.”

 I was also impressed with that country duo, Dan + Shay, and with Ms.Diana Ross’s voice and self-regard, and Miley and Shawn Mendes singing their hearts out on In My Blood. I might have dropped a tear on that one too. Shawn Mendes and Alessia Cara are the key songwriting voices of this generation (and not just in Canada) and every time they open their mouths it`s beautiful and full of thought. 

And finally some recognition for Donny Hathaway, my dear hero of song. 

Now bring on the Junos.