{"id":13566,"date":"2015-02-18T07:50:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T07:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/sam-smith-shines-at-the-2015-grammy-awards\/"},"modified":"2015-02-18T07:50:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-18T07:50:14","slug":"sam-smith-shines-at-the-2015-grammy-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/sam-smith-shines-at-the-2015-grammy-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Smith shines at the 2015 Grammy Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Jessica Jacobs<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

artsent.asp@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

February 17, 2015<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: out.com
Sam Smith swept the Grammy\u2019s this year, winning four awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On Sunday Feb. 8, the 57th annual Grammy Awards took place in Las Angeles at the Staple Center. The show attracted 28.5 million viewers according to CNN, which means a lot of people had opinions on the very melancholy award show that took place this year.<\/p>\n

The Grammys had a show filled with a surprising amount of very serious performances, including a Stevie Wonder tribute performed by Usher, and a duet including Jessie J and Tom Jones performing \u201cYou\u2019ve Lost That Lovin\u2019 Feelin,\u201d which led to a very somber night. However, there were a few acts thrown in to keep the party going.<\/p>\n

The Grammys opened with powerhouse AC\/DC, who started with a newer song from their latest album \u201cRock or Bust.\u201d This was followed by the popular 1979 hit \u201cHighway to Hell.\u201d As soon as Angus Young belted out the opening lyrics to the song, the audience jumped to their feet and proceeded to put up their \u201cdevil horns.\u201d The performance was \u201cdevilishly good\u201d according to host LL Cool J.<\/p>\n

Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj were anything but normal when they presented Madonna as\u201ctheir bitch\u201d when introducing her to the stage.\u00a0 Madonna performed a lively version of \u201cLiving for Love\u201d that included many men with horns on their heads. The highly anticipated performance that included Rihanna, Paul McCartney, and Kanye debuting \u201cFourFiveSeconds,\u201d had a very similar vibe to their music video that aired earlier that week, but the performance was fantastic overall.<\/p>\n

Sia took the stage to perform her single \u201cChandelier\u201d with her face turned towards a wall to block it from the cameras, as per usual, but what no one expected was actress Kristen Wiig to join Sia\u2019s sidekick, 12-year-old Maddie Ziegler, dancing in a nude body suit and blond wig.<\/p>\n

Ed Sheeran kept the mellow pace of the night going with his new song \u201cThinking Out Loud,\u201d a beautiful song that left women everywhere swooning. John Mayer added a twist during the performance by providing background vocals and guitar.<\/p>\n

The performance that had everybody\u2019s attention to the screen was the magnificent performance by Sam Smith and Mary J Blige singing \u201cStay With Me.\u201d Smith had a huge night at the Grammys, picking up four awards, three of them being in the major categories of Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. What resonated in the viewer\u2019s minds was his acceptance speech. When Smith picked up his second award of the night his speech touched the hearts of many when he described his journey to the Grammy stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I made this record I was doing everything to try and get my music heard,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI tried to lose weight and I was making awful music. It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to advise people everywhere to be yourself, and you will find success. But that was not the only speech that Smith had gotten attention for. When picking up his final award of the night for Best Record, Smith made it apparent as to where his music came from, and who he was thankful for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys.\u201d The audience roared in applause as he exited the stage.<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett joined together to perform Irving Berlin\u2019s \u201cCheek to Cheek.\u201d The two are known to perform together and are recognized to having a \u201cfriendship,\u201d but everyone was shocked to see Gaga not wearing a meat suit. The random duets continued with Hozier performing his smash single \u201cTake Me to Church\u201d and segueing into \u201cI Put a Spell on You\u201d with Annie Lennox joining him on to stage.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama appeared on the screen during the Grammy awards to bring up a very serious topic of domestic violence. The broadcast was to talk about his new \u201cIt\u2019s On Us\u201d initiative to end sexual assault on college campuses.<\/p>\n

Following Obama\u2019s speech, a domestic abuse survivor named Brooke Axtell shared her story of an abusive relationship. She shared that no one should be afraid to get the help they need and to get out of any toxic relationships. The woman then introduced Katy Perry\u2019s performance of \u201cBy the Grace of God.\u201d.<\/p>\n

Picture a gloomy Perry, dressed head to toe in white, performing her post-divorce tune which was written in her \u201clowest moments after splitting with ex-husband Russell Brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince presented the Grammy for Album of the Year. He opened the award by saying \u201cLike books and black lives, album do matter.\u201d Prince read the nominations and presented the award to Beck\u2019s \u201cMorning Phase,\u201d which had him, and many others in the audience surprised. Although it was a surprise, it was well deserved. What was not deserved was Kim Kardashian\u2019s husband to act like a child when Beyonc\u00e9 did not win, and \u201cjokingly\u201d try to commemorate the stunt he pulled at the 2009 Video Music Awards with Taylor Swift. It seemed like people were amused by this stunt, but Jay-Z\u2019s reaction was caught on camera, and he looked mortified.<\/p>\n

Beck went on to accept the award and thanked everyone involved with the production of the record, including his kids who allowed him to keep them awake while he was recording.<\/p>\n

Eric Church came on stage to perform his song \u201cGive Me Back My Hometown.\u201d Footage of riots from the Ukraine, Iran, and several other locations played on the video screens. According to Twitter users, people were confused about why there was such a serious scene playing in the background while Church\u2019s lyrics included a reference to Pizza Hut. Evidently, the Grammy for Best Country Album was awarded to Miranda Lambert for her album \u201cPlatinum.\u201d Winning was nothing new to Lambert, but she seemed very pleased to be picking up a Grammy for her latest work.<\/p>\n

The Grammys had a very \u201cchurch like\u201d vibe to it, especially since the final eight minutes of the show were straight out of church. Beyonc\u00e9 performed \u201cTake My Hand, Precious Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Common and John Legend took the stage to perform \u201cGlory.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, one of the most talked about things to happen during the Grammys was an ad that included 3\/5 of One Direction, promoting the new talk show featuring James Cordon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Jacobs Staff Writer artsent.asp@gmail.com February 17, 2015 Photo Credit: out.comSam Smith swept the Grammy\u2019s this year, winning four awards. On Sunday Feb. 8, the 57th annual Grammy Awards took place in Las Angeles at the Staple Center. The show attracted 28.5 million viewers according to CNN, which means a lot of people had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[4039,367,4040,3425,261],"class_list":["post-13566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-4039","tag-awards","tag-grammy","tag-shines","tag-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}