The Grammys

We’re well into awards season, ladies and gentlemen, and though the Oscars always garner the most attention, and the Emmys cover the streaming entertainment Americans actually watch, the Grammys have always been among the most controversial awards shows.   The National Recording Academy hasn’t always been up to speed on what musicians are the most influential and deserving. With the Grammys, it seems the mood isn’t excitement about who will win, but anticipatory annoyance at who will be snubbed.   This year’s show was a little different though. Rising stars got the stage, for performances and trophies, and the biggest awards were apologies for the previously snubbed.  And so we get the Best Album of the Year, handed to Beyoncé for her country record, Cowboy Carter.

Major awards ceremonies are unpredictable. The Oscars this year were well-behaved, but recent events have boasted everything from "The Slap" to the Curb Your Enthusiasm­-esque farce of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announcing that the wrong film had won Best Picture. Still, that’s nothing compared to the Grammys this year, in which Killer Mike won three awards and celebrated his victory by being led away from the ceremony in handcuffs. So the hope was, for this year’s Seventy-Seventh Tony Awards, that there would be drama, but rather less drama, if you catch my drift. Certainly, there was event.