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(February 10, 2008; Los Angeles) When Prince is the first presenter at the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards, an evening of once in a lifetime performances, tributes, and surprises are a given. One unexpected win came at the very end of the night when Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters took the highest honor—album of the year—beating out Kanye West and Amy Winehouse, who were faves to take home the award based on earlier wins. Hancock’s unexpected award sent shocks through the Los Angeles’ Staple Center and even caught the renowned jazz artist by surprise until he heard one word. “I didn’t hear my name at first, then I heard “river” and I thought, is this happening?” says Hancock, backstage after his win. When asked about upsetting West, Hancock recalls. “Earlier I said to Kanye ‘good luck tonight’ and he said I don’t want to wish you good luck because I don’t want you to win,” Hancock jokingly recalls, “But we’re cool.”
West shouldn’t be too mad. Leading the night with eight nominations, he won four awards including best rap song, best rap performance, best rap solo performance and best rap album, for The Graduation. Best New Artist Amy Winehouse took home five awards with “Rehab” winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Chaka Khan won best R&B album (Funk This). Backstage, she described tonight’s win as truly special.
“Today I’m in a present time, more so now than ever,” says Khan, as she candidly referred to finally overcoming her long battle with drug abuse. “I can appreciate (my win) in a way I never could, I’m mature, I’m with you, I’m here, for real.” Khan also won best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals for “Disrepectful,” her duet with Mary J. Blige.
Other big wins went to Alicia Keys (best R&B song, “No One”), Ne-Yo (best contemporary R&B album), Rihanna and Jay-Z (best rap/song collaboration, “Umbrella”) and Lupe Fiasco (best urban/alternative performance, “Daydreamin’”). Fiasco, who couldn’t attend the awards due to illness, envisioned Jill Scott to collaborate on his Grammy-winning track.
“Lupe thought my voice would work really well with the song he had already created,” explains Scott backstage. “We got into the studio. He set me free and let me do whatever I wanted to do, and it just worked out to be a really good song.”
While the telecast wasn’t only about the winners, the live performances will live on in music history: Rihanna jamming with Morris Day to The Time’s “Jungle Love”; a diva dream pairing of Tina Tuner and Beyoncé rocking to “Proud Mary”; Herbie Hancock and 25-year-old pianist Lang Lang’s standing ovation after playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”; and Daft Punk’s, West’s “Stronger” collaborators, never before televised appearance. Not to be out done, the gospel performance lead by Aretha Frankin (2008 MusiCares Person of the Year) along with BeBe Winans, Madison Bumble Bees, The Clark Sisters, Trin-i-tee 5:7, and Israel and New Breed nearly started a church revival with their rendition of the gospel staple “Old Landmark.”
But nothing touched the audience and viewers more than West’s heartfelt tribute of the tragic passing of his mother, Dr. Donda West. From the words “mama” etched on his head to his humbled performance of “Hey Mama,” West didn’t hold back his emotions as he sang with a brown angel projection above during his performance. In his acceptance speech for best rap album, he said, “I know you’d want me to be the number one artist in the world and all I want to do is keep making you proud. We run this!” Tonight, Kanye, we believe you.
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