Suprising

The Grammy's were a fairly pleasant surprise tonight based on the fact that most of the performances were fantastic and most of the awards seemed deserving. A few highlights included U2 with Mary J. singing One and Sir Paul singing Helter Skelter with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. It was also quite nice to see Sir Paul, Linkin Park and Jay-Z (Just great to hear him again) sing a little Yesterday. And although I am not a Kelly Clarkson fan it was a strong performance by a classy (Fully clothed) and talented artist and that was refreshing.

On the low end of the performances, Mariah Carey continues to over-sing, over-act and over-everything everytime she performs and makes me yearn for Whitney Houston. And as much as I respect Bruce Springstein his Dylan imitation is getting a bit old. On a sadder and more suprising note, Kayne West had a bit of a lackluster performance and might want to leave Kato, aka Jaime Foxx, at home occasionally.

On the award side I was pleased to see U2 win a few awards including top honors for Album of the Year for How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. As a huge fan I felt that this latest album was a bit forgotten/critically neglected in comparison to the last one due to the strength of the last albums monster singles and also the general timing involved (All That You Can't Leave Behind coinciding with 9/11) so it was nice to see them win. On the other hand I have no idea how Green Day won for song of the year for Boulevard of Broken Dreams as Gold Digger and Kanye West should have won that award easily. I also would have liked to see the Foo Fighters win, but seeing John Legend win made up for that a bit and you cannot get everything you hope for.

However, it was the best Grammy show I have seen in my lifetime simply based on the performances and it did make me stick around to the end so mission accomplished.