Grammy 2016: The stage doesn't prioritize the awards.

This year's awards ceremony seemed to focus solely on performances by young artists singing their own music or paying tribute to and honoring the golden generation of music from the past.

The 2016 Grammy Awards, held on February 15th (local time) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, USA, presented a stark contrast between two elements: award presentations and performances. In over three hours, only seven categories were presented on stage. Meanwhile, 75 other awards were announced online beforehand.

Taylor Swift and her team received the Album of the Year award at the 2016 Grammy Awards for the album 1989.

It's worth noting that all seven awards presented were rather boring and easily forgotten. The public felt a lack of surprise. Furthermore, the awards ceremony seemed to focus primarily on performances, featuring the big names of contemporary music.

Ed Sheeran won Song of the Year for his sweet ballad "Thinking Out Loud." Meghan Trainor was named Best New Artist. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars took home the Golden Speaker for Record of the Year with their hit "Uptown Funk." However, these moments of glory weren't necessarily the most important highlights of the show, and the awards these artists deserved were not.

Perhaps the audience will remember Taylor Swift's acceptance speech when she unexpectedly won Album of the Year with her album 1989. Her speech was quickly misinterpreted by the online community as a veiled reference to Kanye West – the rapper who had just released the song Famous, which contained vulgar lyrics directed at Swift. This time, it wasn't "I made that bitch famous" as West sang, but Swift's statement that became a trending topic on the internet.

Audiences have stopped being moved by Meghan Trainor's tears when she received the Best New Artist award. This is because the Grammys are becoming more superficially staged, focusing on performances and awards, then repeating the process: awards and performances.

Adele's performance of "All I Ask" immediately created a buzz on Twitter. The point isn't the terrible sound quality, but rather her appearance seemingly just to "attract attention." Perhaps the 2017 Grammy Awards were the real stage for the British nightingale, instead of this year's appearance which was merely for the sake of appearances.

Many young singers, both nominated and unnominated, performed enthusiastically on stage. From Carrie Underwood, John Legend, and Lady Gaga to younger artists like Sam Hunt, Ellie Goulding, Demi Lovato, and James Bay, all delivered quite enjoyable performances. The 2016 Grammy Awards also touched the hearts of the public with performances paying tribute to deceased artists – the golden generation of music.

The brilliant careers of names like BB King, David Bowie, and Lemmy Kilmister… all graced the stage. Even Lady Gaga's performance, a tribute to the legendary British musician David Bowie, was perhaps the highlight of the show.

Lady Gaga delivered an impressive performance in tribute to music legend David Bowie at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Avoiding the pitfalls of the Oscars, which only honor white artists, the 2016 Grammys showed due consideration for artists of color. Ken Ehrlich, the awards show's producer, stated: "The music we listen to today isn't just hip-hop and R&B; every genre of music has been shaped and heavily influenced by African American culture."

Therefore, Black artists were also honored in turn at the show. From the performance of the famous contemporary singer Lionel Richie - MusicCares Person of the Year - to legends like BBKing, Natalie Cole... all were mentioned. However, the Grammys forgot one rather basic thing - deserving Black artists seemed to be "overlooked".

Composer Pham Toan Thang once shared with the author: "Kendrick Lamar's album 'To Pimp a Butterfly' is truly excellent and captivating; it speaks volumes about ethnicity and the struggle against discrimination." This album was also chosen by prestigious magazines as the best album of the past year.

Rap talent Kendrick Lamar once again failed to receive the recognition he deserved from the Grammy judges.

However, the Grammys fell into the same trap again by awarding the most important prize to Taylor Swift. This led the public to draw parallels with the 2013 Grammy Awards, which rejected Lamar for Best Rap Album, instead awarding it to the white rapper duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

Sharing his thoughts on this year's awards, musician Nguyen Hai Phong commented: "The Grammys are becoming increasingly younger, both in terms of music and the age of the artists. The Grammys are becoming less strict and more open, but of course, they still maintain their inherent quality standards."

This is an insightful observation because this music award is increasingly aligning with public taste. This is also what will make the Grammy Awards more and more like other music awards such as the American Music Awards (USA), the BRIT Awards (UK), or even the MTV VMAs... by balancing artistic merit and popular appeal, focusing on stage performances.

Therefore, recent awards ceremonies have become more like performance stages than simply awarding deserving names.

According to Zing.vn