Stevie to perform on this Sunday's Grammy Awards

[vivfox]

Taylor Swift admitted it was an honor to share the stage with Stevie Nicks and although she later indicated in her acceptance speech for album of the year that this is the moment she’ll tell the grandkids about someday when she’s 80, her duet with Nicks was sure one she won’t soon forget.

And the Grammy goes to…
Record of the Year: Kings of Leon, Use Somebody
Album of the Year: Taylor Swift, Fearless
Song of the Year: Beyonce, Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best New Artist: Zac Brown Band
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: Beyonce, Halo
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: Jason Mraz, Make It Mine
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Black Eyed Peas, I Gotta Feeling
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: Kings of Leon, Use Somebody
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals: Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat, Lucky
Best Pop Instrumental Performance: Bela Fleck, Throw Down Your Heart
Best Pop Instrumental Album: Booker T Jones, Potato Hole
Best Pop Vocal Album: The Black Eyed Peas, The END
Best Dance Recording: Lady Gaga, Poker Face
Best Electronic/Dance Album: Lady Gaga, The Fame
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Michael Buble, Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden
Best Solo Rock Performance: Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
Best Hard Rock Performance: AC/DC, War Machine
Best Metal Performance: Judas Priest, Dissident Aggressor
Best Rock Instrumental Performance: Jeff Beck, A Day in the Life
Best Rock Song: Kings of Leon, Use Somebody
Best Rock Album: Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: Beyonce, Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance: Beyonce, At Last
Best R&B Song: Beyonce, Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
Best R&B Album: Maxwell, Blacksummer’s Night
Best Contemporary Album: Beyonce, I Am…Sasha Fierce
Best Rap Solo Performance: Jay-Z, DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West, Run This Town
Best Female Country Vocal Performance: Taylor Swift, White Horse
Best Male Country Vocal Performance: Keith Urban, Sweet Thing

http://www.sheknows.com/articles/813469

[golddustdrummer]

Originally Posted by nofearonlylove

Well, that is your opinion along with everyone else who is sick of her. She wrote 90% of those songs by herself with no aide from anyone, and they are tastefully and maturely done. You are correct in stating that plenty of non-Stevie fans can't stand her, but most of them haven't really given her a chance either since lots of people hate the "hype" and "mainstream" that goes along with her, which isn't really her doing at all, but the media's.

You are correct in stating she was out of her league last night, but even if she was singing alone she would have been off-key, too. Singing isn't really what Taylor is known for. It isn't what A LOT of today's performers are known for, but at least Taylor stays true to herself, she writes her own music and makes her own choices in such a gruelling Hollywood world. I'd take her any day over Britney, or Lindsay Lohan, or Hilary Duff or Miley Cyrus.

I am happy for Taylor, her album of the year win was well-deserved, her themed album was great example of today's songwriting talent. DO NOT GET ME WRONG, I could never sit there and watch that girl perform live or spend money on seeing her live, but I love her songs, her songwriting and her albums, not to mention I just like that she sticks to her guns. Good for her.

But anyway...Stevie is what matters and she did a great job last night regardless, despite all of the little faith a lot of you had in her before the performance occurred last night. I am sure that once all of this Taylor bashing goes away, the ledge will go right back to its usual programming of bashing everything that Stevie does, wears or sings.

Smiles
Erica

what else are singers supposed to be known for?
you just explained why I loathe a lot of today's popular music.

[michelej1]

I doubt Stevie was that mortified about Taylor being off key. She did get a chance to rehearse with the girl first, so it probably came as no surprise to her.

Michele

[vivfox]

And more than ever, today's biggest stars are those who embody powerful archetypes so well that a misplaced note or two may be kindly overlooked.

That last situation applies to Taylor Swift, who continued her winning streak by taking home album of the year for "Fearless," a recording that has seemingly won every available prize in the last year. Swift, 20, is a songwriter; she thanked her record label for "letting me write every song on my album" while accepting one of her awards.

But as well-crafted as her platinum-selling tales of suburban high school life are, it's Swift's persona that really sells. This smart young woman comes across as a perky, living American Girl doll, and that appealing version of traditional young womanhood, not her music, is at the heart of her stardom.

Her singing certainly can't be credited. Appealing enough on record, it always seems to let her down live. Swift gave a strikingly bad vocal performance at Staples Center on Sunday, sounding tinny and rhythmically flat-footed as she shared the microphone with the distinctive Stevie Nicks. Swift's inability to match or support Nicks as they worked through a medley of each woman's hits stood in stark contrast to the evening's other pairings, particularly soul man Maxwell's sensitive response to Roberta Flack and Lady Gaga's bravado turn with Elton John.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/musi...my-awards.html

[vivfox]

Dear Grammys, enough with the kooky pairings! Yes, it worked really well when you united Eminem and Elton John all those years ago. It was a true example of music bringing people together. But this year's many matches felt more like mis-mash-ups. Taylor Swift's duets with Stevie Nicks were embarrassing for both of them, and Lady Gaga's pairing with Elton John — is he now the go-to duet partner? — didn't quite jell.

Worst Tribute: Taylor Swift stumbles through "Today Was a Fairy Tale" before inviting Stevie Nicks to the stage to butcher/duet on Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon." Just when the 35-plus crowd is ready to storm the stage and stop Swift from destroying their memories, Nicks saves the day by adding a dose of musicality to an ill-advised, slowed-down rendition of Swift's "You Belong with Me." Let the grown-up lead, kiddo.

http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/414877_tvgif31.html

[Livia]

Ricketiest, But Still Most Entertainingest Duet
Before she was shocked -- shocked! -- to win Album of the Year, Taylor Swift worked her charming virginal magic alongside Stevie Nicks on the Fleetwood Mac classic "Rhiannon" (not "Rihanna") and a country-fried take on her own "You Belong With Me." That she was painfully out of tune doing so took a backseat to the Tweetsplosion of Taylor-Swift-blowing-coke-up-Stevie-Nicks'-ass jokes that inevitably ensued. Bonus factoid: That emo-bang'd banjo player was, in fact, Butch Walker.

http://www.spin.com/articles/grammys...-worst-moments

[vivfox]

During the Grammy Awards 2010, Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks did a duet performance that has made everyone amazed. It was a great combination between Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks. A legend and a soon to be legend performing. Earlier this evening, Swift has thought of Nicks as her hero. She opened her performance with a song called “Today was a Fairytale,” and after a quick version of it, Nicks came out singing Mac’s “Rhiannon”.

Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks’ duet performance ended after they both sang “You Belong With Me” with a different version. Swift was playing the guitar and Nicks had a tambourine. It was a great team up.

http://www.buzzybloggers.com/enterta...t-performance/

[vivfox]

Grammy performances were nothing memorable
Monday, February 01, 2010
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For better or worse -- mostly, worse -- Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich went out of his way to make sure the Grammy performances were unlike anything we've seen from these artists on all those other shows.

Sorry to be negative, but ...

Best glimpse of dystopia: Lady Gaga and Elton John looked like they were on the way to a Jetsons convention when the apocalypse struck. The music was far more tame, a polite piano face-off of "Speechless" and "Your Song," after a touch of "Poker Face."

Dizziest performer: Pink, a vision in white, was on the way to putting us to sleep early until she turned into a nearly nude member of Cirque, singing, spinning and taking a bath all at once.

Band most likely to star in a remake of the "Sgt. Pepper" movie: The Black Eyed Peas want to be so 3008, with their robots dancers, but those black uniforms also screamed Beatles fetish.

Best posse: Forget the likes of Jay-Z and Kanye. The R&B diva marched down the aisle with the riot squad from the G-20 summit for militant renditions of "If I Were a Boy" and Alanis Morrissette's "You Oughtta Know."

Biggest trainwreck: Jamie Foxx's joint with T-Pain and Doug E. Fresh wasn't chaotic enough, so it needed Slash to lay a screaming guitar on top.

Best bleepin' rap medley: The Eminem/Lil Wayne/Drake/Travis Barker mash-up that kept tripping the censors. Or was that my TV?

Best display of red, white and blue charm: The Zac Brown opening with an a cappella version of "America the Beautiful" before moving on to some serious pickin' and grinnin', with Leon Russell as Father Time mixed in the middle.

Worst audition for Fleetwood Mac: Taylor Swift cracking on the high notes of "Rhiannon" in a duet with Stevie Nicks. Worse yet, Mac diva had to hang around for a duet on "You Belong With Me," even though it was clear she didn't.

Best display of democracy: The ageless Bon Jovi doing, by popular vote, "Livin' on a Prayer," a song that may not have thrilled people but certainly didn't offend them.

Best health update: Soul man Charlie Wilson working "I beat prostate cancer! ... and I'm up for two Grammys!" into his pre-telecast jam.

Most impressive note: Andrea Bocelli outgunning Art Garfunkel on "Bridge Over Troubled Water," with Mary J. Blige as Simon.

Best Joe Cocker impersonation: Dave Matthews elbow-dancing while singing "just you and me baby" with about a thousand musicians behind him.

Schlockiest moment by a formerly credible punk band: Fans of "Dookie" might have hurled watching the once-great Green Day turn an already bland anthem, "21 Guns," into Broadway pap with the cast of the musical. Couldn't they have just done "Longview"?

Best tribute to Michael Jackson: The fact that, with Smokey Robinson, Usher, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson on stage for the 3-D "Earth Song," the best voice by far was Michael's.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10032/1032609-388.stm

[vivfox]

Monday, February 01, 2010
how relevant is Fleetwood Mac?

or maybe the question should be, how relevant is MTV?

when writing about the Taylor Swift/Stevie Nicks Grammy duet (the cover of "Rhiannon" is truly, truly awful), mtv.com called Nicks "the former Fleetwood Mac singer," not only in their text but in the sub-heading as well (remember when MTV stood for Music Television?).

did Stevie quit again and everyone forgot to tell me or does mtv.com have music writers (in this case Eric Ditzian) who fail to possess even an elementary knowledge of music history?

http://dreamsong14.blogspot.com/2010...twood-mac.html

[RockALittle250]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Worst audition for Fleetwood Mac: Taylor Swift cracking on the high notes of "Rhiannon" in a duet with Stevie Nicks. Worse yet, Mac diva had to hang around for a duet on "You Belong With Me," even though it was clear she didn't.

THAT is brilliant!!

[holidayroad]

Originally Posted by StreetAngel95

omg it's the funniest thing! They're like, "he's so old!" whatever.....hes the sexiest man alive! LOL and i dont care what people think so HA

I had the same thing said to me when I first started listening to Lindsey....in 1984!!!
Glad to know we both have good taste!!!

[Livia]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Dear Grammys, enough with the kooky pairings! Yes, it worked really well when you united Eminem and Elton John all those years ago. It was a true example of music bringing people together. But this year's many matches felt more like mis-mash-ups. Taylor Swift's duets with Stevie Nicks were embarrassing for both of them, and Lady Gaga's pairing with Elton John — is he now the go-to duet partner? — didn't quite jell.

Worst Tribute: Taylor Swift stumbles through "Today Was a Fairy Tale" before inviting Stevie Nicks to the stage to butcher/duet on Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon." Just when the 35-plus crowd is ready to storm the stage and stop Swift from destroying their memories, Nicks saves the day by adding a dose of musicality to an ill-advised, slowed-down rendition of Swift's "You Belong with Me." Let the grown-up lead, kiddo.

http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/414877_tvgif31.html

That's my favorite!

[skcin]

From The Buffalo News:

“Music’s biggest night,” they call it. Well, it was big, all right. But size isn’t everything, apparently.

The 52nd annual Grammy Awards brought most of pop’s big guns together inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. Comedian Stephen Colbert put it best when, prior to announcing the winner of the Song of the Year Grammy (to Beyonce, naturally), he praised the evening for celebrating “one of our most important rights as Americans—the right for celebrities to congratulate each other.”

Hilarious! When the camera scanned the first few rows of the crowd, however, no one seemed to think Colbert was too funny.

A sense of humor was hugely necessary to sit through the whole spectacle, though. Within the first 30 minutes of the show, we’d heard rehashed ‘80s dance pop, punk rock played as show tunes, more ‘80s dance pop, and Beyonce covering Alanis Morissette.

If you thought about all of the exciting things that happened in music this year—big movements in electronic sound within a vibrant DJ culture; a host of inventive and incredibly successful jam bands; a burgeoning new singer/songwriter movement, and a niche in alternative music that is marrying pop and rock convention with elements of the avant garde, progressive music, ambient sounds and various indigenous influences —watching the Grammys might have made you wanna cry. It’s always better to laugh, though. This presentation was so far away from anything resembling reality that it’s tough to get too worked up about it.

After all, the show kicked off with a bizarre performance from Lady Gaga, who popped up on a riser looking like the love child of Marilyn Manson and Donatella Versace, performing her multinominated “Poker Face,” and then dueting with Elton John for a truly strange medley of Gaga’s “Speechless” and Elton’s “Your Song.” Personally, I thought Elton was better when he worked it with Eminem a few Grammys back.

Green Day took the stage to perform “21 Guns,” from their excellent “21st Century Breakdown” album, joined by the cast of the musical “American Idiot,” which will open on Broadway in March. In the context of the album, the ballad works quite well, surrounded as it is by some well-produced and polished, but still gnarly, punk rock. Here, however, it sounded like something from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Cats.” The band looked a little bit confused and uncomfortable. Which was nice, because that’s exactly how I felt.

Trotting Stevie Nicks out to sing “Rhiannon” with Taylor Swift was meant, one assumes, to suggest that Swift is to her generation what Nicks was and is to hers. That was tough to swallow once Swift started singing the Fleetwood Mac tune next to the gravel-voiced but still spot-on Nicks—Swift was out of tune and her tone was thin and reedy. Swift fared better on her own when the pair went into the younger singer’s “You Belong To Me,” though the nursery rhyme-like melody left Nicks without much to do.

OK, I quibble, but that’s because I care! One of the themes that ran like a thread throughout the evening was the idea of the “mash-up”—an interesting tangent explored by DJs who would intermingle two widely varied songs with a new beat providing continuity. This was big news about 10 years ago. The Grammys took this idea and applied it to this year’s spectacle, which found artists with little in common joining forces and performing mostly ill-conceived “mash-up medleys” of each other’s tunes.

The nadir of this tendency may well have been the Jamie Foxx-T-Pain-Slash debacle, which found the Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist blowing the solo from that band’s “November Rain” while Foxx cavorted and rapped in some sort of gladiator’s outfit, and T-Pain did his auto-tune thing, resplendent in white tux with tails. Seriously.

This was all immensely entertaining, in a perverse sort of way, and, of course, over-the-top histrionics have always been a big part of popular music. But the Grammys were so pop-centric this year that they offered an unfairly biased view of what happened in music during the year in question.

“Popular music” today is an umbrella term that is meant to cover pretty much any form that isn’t classical or jazz. The Grammys, however, concentrated almost all of their attention on pure “pop” — the most mainstream bubble-gum stuff being made. Beyonce, Swift, Lady GaGa and the Black Eyed Peas are in essence interchangeable — their differences are mainly of the surface variety. All deserve nominations in some category, but stuffing them into nearly every major slot was bogus.

It’s impossible to ignore that the music industry is in shambles. Sales are way down, and most of the truly creative music is being made outside of the mainstream industry itself — on stages, where bands ignored by the Grammys play to large, young, enthused crowds nightly; on independent labels that market directly to the fans through alternative means like My Space and Facebook; through live concert recordings which are traded freely or sold at a fraction of the cost of a major- label release. You never would’ve known this from watching Sunday’s Grammy broadcast, where everyone was partying like it was 1989.

Once again, Colbert hit it squarely on the head. “You may be the coolest people in the world,” Colbert quipped. “But Susan Boyle, a 48 year-old cat lady in sensible shoes, outsold all of you.”

It’s time for the Grammys to hit us where we really live. For once.

[email protected]

[Jondalar]

Gee, you think Taylor will invite Nicks to be on her next album?

[AliceLover]

Wow. Trying to ingest all this.

Ok. Heres how I see it. I don't really listen to that much new music, a little but not too much mainstream. But even I feel like I can see the impact that Taylor Swift has had on the music industry over the past year. Yeah, it may be crap, but people dig it.

I get the point of this performance, it was Taylor singing with her idol and to me it was so special. I got goosebumps when stevie just emerged behind her. I personally, loved it. The even better part: having my college friends raving over Stevie!