It was all about the Grammys
in February as the most esteemed awards ceremony in music took place at the
Staples Center, Los Angeles, California. The 59th Annual Grammy
Awards kicked off with Beyonce leading the fray with 9 nominations. However, Adele
was the biggest winner of the night grabbing 5 awards including the coveted
triple crowns for Song of the Year and Record of the Year for Hello and the
Album of the Year for 25. Adele also became the first artist in history to win
all three general field awards in the same ceremony twice, previously winning
all three categories in 2012. She was followed by David Bowie and Greg Kurstin
with four trophies.
The ceremony kicked off with a
stellar performance of Hello by Adele followed by other great performances by
Ed Sheeran with his global hit Shape of You and Bruno Mars’s That’s What I Like. The ceremony had three tributes
wherein Adele sang George Michael’s Fastlove, Demi Lovato, Tori Kelly, Little
Big Town and Andra Day collaborating for a Bee Gees tribute medley, and Bruno
Mars and The Time collaborating for a Prince medley. The other significant wins
of the night include:
·
Best New Artist: Chance the Rapper
·
Best Music Video: Beyonce – Formation
·
Best Dance Recording: The Chainsmokers ft. Daya
– Don’t let me down
·
Best Dance/Electronic Album: Flume – Skin
·
Best Rock Song: David Bowie – Blackstar
·
Best Urban Contemporary Album: Beyonce –
Lemonade
·
Best Rap Song: Drake – Hotline bling
·
Best Country Song: Tim McGraw – Humble and kind
·
Best Country Album: Sturgill Simpson – A
Sailor’s Guide to Earth
·
Best Song Written for Visual Media: Justin Timberlake
– Can’t stop the feeling!
Next up we have the 37th
BRIT Awards. Little Mix opened the show with their hit Shout Out To My Ex which
went on to win the British Single of Year. Other great performances included
Emeli Sande’s Hurt, an extremely politically controversial yet good performance of Katy Perry featuring Skip Marley’s Chained to the Rhythm and also Ed Sheeran with a medley of Castle on the Hill and
Shape of You featuring a guest appearance by Stormzy. The Chainsmokers and
Coldplay collaborated on stage to deliver their surprise new single Something
Just Like This. David Bowie was posthumously awarded both the British Male Solo
Artist as well as the British Album of the Year for Blackstar. The Icon Award
was bestowed on Robbie Williams while the Global Success went to Adele. The
other award winners were:
·
British Female Artist: Emeli Sande
·
British Group: The 1975
·
International Group: A Tribe Called Quest
·
British Breakthrough Act: Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
·
International Male Solo Artist: Drake
·
International Female Solo Artist: Beyonce
·
British Video: One Direction – History
La La Land was the winner of
all the music related awards at the 89th Annual Academy Awards where
Justin Hurwitz won for Best Original Score for the film and Best Original Song
for City of Stars which was performed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in the
film.
Apart from the awards, we have
the jaw-dropping halftime performance by Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl LI. She
started off with a mash up of God Bless America and Woody Guthrie’s This Land
is Your Land before teasing the audience with the first line of the chorus of
her hit Edge of Glory. This leads to a medley of her greatest hits starting off
with her biggest hit Poker Face and going on to sing Born This Way, Telephone
and Just Dance. She then mellows it down with her latest single Million Reasons
for which there was pin drop silence in the stadium. Then she finishes it off
with her second biggest hit Bad Romance. With an intense and astutely
choreographed production, her performance is now ranked among the best Super
Bowl halftime shows of all time.
The International Federation
of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released the biggest music acts in the
world for 2016 and Drake tops the list. Drake achieves this position for the
huge success of his fourth album, Views and the multiplatinum hit One Dance featuring
WizKid and Kyla. At second place is David Bowie who posthumously witnessed
monumental success for his final album Blackstar. The full top 10 are:
1. Drake
2. David
Bowie
3. Coldplay
4. Adele
5. Justin
Bieber
6. Twenty
One Pilots
7. Beyonce
8. Rihanna
9. Prince
10. The
Weeknd
In festival news, Lady Gaga
has officially replaced Beyonce as a headliner of Coachella 2017 where the
latter was advised by doctors to stay away from the stage due to her pregnancy.
It was a no brainer for the organizers of this massive concert to invite Gaga
after her acclaimed performance at the Super Bowl. Eminem has been announced as
the third headliner for the Reading and Leeds Festival 2017 alongside Muse and
Kasabian.
Jay-Z has been inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame and became the first rapper in history to be
bestowed with such an honour. Alongside Jay-Z will see Max Martin and the duo
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis also inducted. Madonna and George Michael were both
nominated but did not make the cut.
Moving onto chart news, in the
US Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert’s Bad and Boujee was replaced in the second
week by Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You returning to the top backed by his Grammy
performance. Meanwhile, The Chainsmokers’ Paris debuted within the Top 10 and
Lady Gaga’s Million Reasons soared to No.4 propelled by her performance at the
Super Bowl and Alessia Cara’s Scars To Your Beautiful also entered the top 10.
In the UK, Ed Sheeran’s Shape
of You remained at the top aided by performances at both the Grammy Awards and
BRIT Awards accumulating six consecutive weeks at the top. Also during the
month Sean Paul featuring Dua Lipa’s No Lie, Dua Lipa’s Be The One, Katy Perry
featuring Skip Marley’s Chained to the Rhythm and Taylor Swift & Zayn’s I Don’t
Wanna Live Forever entered the top 10.
Other songs which became
popular during the month were:
1. Big
Sean – Bounce back
2. Julia
Michaels – Issues
3. Train
– Play that song
4. Major
Lazer ft. Nicki Minaj & PARTYNEXTDOOR – Run up
5. Martin
Garrix & Dua Lipa – Scared to be lonely
6. Stormzy
– Big for your boots
Till the next beat...
At Ease!!!
