Yesterday evening CBS aired “The Grammy Nominations Concert LIVE,” and we here at LATF would sincerely like to congratulate the true winners from last night: the people that went to bed early instead of wasting their time watching the boring telecast drone on for an hour. The concert, co-hosted by the ubiquitous Taylor Swift and the irrelevant LL Cool J was a mix of mind-numbingly uninteresting acts and odd choices. The first of these was the hosting duo. Swift looked as bland as ever in a white lace dress that clearly overplayed the country Nashville vibe. She appeared washed out and old-fashioned, looking just as dull and uninspired as her hosting performance. We have to suggest she find someone that would know how reinvent her look, such image-maker Charlie de PARIS (she’s in town- we can hook you up). And speaking of frustrating style choices… LL Cool J’s obsession with his flat cap is beyond annoying at this point. Clinging to this vestige of hipster-chic coolness doesn’t make you seem any more relatable to the youngsters these days. It simply makes us wonder if you’re hiding something under that peasant hat.
The actual concert portion of the night was no more exciting. Even artists we were looking forward to fell flat. Fun.’s “We Are Young” became so popular because it is a powerful tune, bursting with passion, but last night they kept the tone mellow and missed out on what really made this song so great. Ne-Yo also gave a lackluster performance that left us wondering if perhaps he was bored with the show as well.
Maybe this is just what happens when you take an event like this out of Los Angeles and into a place like Nashville. You get all the polite hospitality without any of the edgy fun that makes a concert like this worth watching. Hopefully they’ll be able to step up their game for the actual award ceremony on February 10th, 2013.
By: Darianne Dobbie
