They say three times is a charm, but Beyoncé is the one who has it three or four times.
Beyoncé accepts Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter at the 67th Grammy Awards - Photo: Reuters
Beyoncé, after four Grammy nominations for album of the year, finally got the award she should have gotten long ago.
It was in a song by Renaissance that Beyoncé expressed her indifference about being constantly ignored by the Academy: "Album of the year, I ain't gonna win, I don't care about them, take that punch, I turn around and fuck up the pen."
It's been so many years...
There's no arguing with Renaissance. There's no arguing with it—even arguing that it deserves to be classified as country music, since the sounds are so different from traditional white country music that they only make it more unique and historic.
Renaissance is massive in both duration and content, opening up rich, liberal, and constantly changing soundscapes like a sonic epic, both honoring the treasures of American musical heritage and opening up visions and future visions for contemporary music.
Although it's too long for a popular music album, 80 minutes, not a single moment in Renaissance is superfluous, we are completely drawn into its beat.
During her speech, Beyoncé said one line: "It's been so many years...".
"It's been a long, long time" must be the "theme" for this year's Grammy Awards.
Because just as people ask: When will Beyoncé get the big award? And people often ask: When will Kendrick Lamar get the honor he deserves?
Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper who has almost exclusively favored classical and classical music, has never won a major Grammy award. The Grammys' neglect of Kendrick Lamar is representative of the general neglect of rap music even in its most prosperous era.
Although a bit late, after all, this year Kendrick Lamar also received glory when he won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the same time with Not Like Us.
The difference is that everyone is happy for Beyoncé, but with Lamar, there is probably one person who is not so happy. That is Drake, the target of this rap attack. Drake and what Drake represents: the fakeness in music, the fakeness of commercial rap, the fakeness in image...
Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga perform The Mamas & The Papas' song California Dreaming in memory of all those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires - Photo: AFP
Bright musical memories
And as always, the awards show is only part of what makes the Grammys worth looking forward to. For casual fans, it might even be the performances that they look forward to the most.
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' most memorable moment may not have been when they accepted the award for best pop group performance for their hit Die with a smile, but when they took to the stage to cover The Mamas and The Papas' 1960s song, California Dreamin, dedicated to the victims of the historic Los Angeles fire.
California Dreamin' - Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars (Grammys 2025 Performance)
The dreamy melody and sad lyrics about a California of dreams once symbolized the counterculture wave of 20-somethings looking for love, set in a contemporary context, showing that music always comes back when we need it most.
Another touching performance saw Herbie Hancock on piano, Stevie Wonder on harmonica, and younger artists taking turns singing a medley of songs by Quincy Jones, one of the greatest producers of the 20th century, who passed away in 2024.
Hancock's classical guitar playing, Cynthia Erivo's flawless vocals, Janelle Monáe's imitations of Michael Jackson (with whom Quincy Jones collaborated on some of his most brilliant albums of the 1970s and 1980s)... all evoke bright musical memories.
Part of the lyrics in the song We Are The World honoring Quincy Jones' great contributions reads: "We are part of the family of God and truth, you know, music is all we need."
Whether music is really all we need or not, I don't know, but at that moment, when those words were spoken, I knew that at that moment, all I needed was music.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/grammy-2025-am-nhac-luon-tro-lai-vao-luc-ta-can-nhat-20250204082325772.htm
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