On music’s so-called biggest night, the biggest star in the room at the Grammy Awards was Adele. The British singer performed twice, including a tribute to George Michael that became the ceremony’s most talked-about moment–and she finished the night with two major awards, Record of the Year and Album of the Year for “Hello” and “25,” respectively.
Both put her up against Beyonce, which was not where Adele wanted to be.
“My idol is Queen B,” she said, taking the mic for her Record of the Year win. “I adore you, you move my soul every single day… I want you to be my mommy.” (Beyonce, who brought daughter Blue Ivy to the ceremony and pregnant with twins, performed “Lemonade” tracks “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” in a spectacularly maternal production halfway through the show.)
And moments later, Adele was back on stage, this time unwilling to take the Album of the Year honor.
.@Adele dedicates her #AlbumOfTheYear speech to Beyonce. #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/henSbnxfGP
— BEYONCE LEGION (@Bey_Legion) February 13, 2017
“I can’t possibly accept this award,” she said. “I’m very humbled and I’m very grateful… but my artist of my life is Beyonce and this album for me, the ‘Lemonade’ album is so monumental… and so well thought-out and so beautiful and soul-baring and we all got to see another side to you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. All us artists here adore you, you are our light. and the way you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my black friends feel is empowering and you make them stand up for themselves. I love you, I always have, and I always will.”
Though Adele didn’t step down from the stage to hand over the trophy, it was a powerful moment–and more stirring than another recent Grammy apology over a seemingly unfair award, the text Macklemore sent to Kendrick Lamar and then posted to Instagram after the Seattle MC won Best Rap Album over Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.”
Lamar lost the Album of the Year category in 2016 to Taylor Swift, and a hip-hop or R&B album hasn’t won the Grammys’ top category since OutKast in 2004. With “Lemonade” universally adored, this was another difficult defeat in the category: she drew support from Kanye West when Beck’s “Morning Phase” won over “Beyonce” in 2015, but didn’t join the argument. Although the show had signs of progress–Chance the Rapper won Best New Artist–the Grammys’ continued shut-out of black artists from top categories raises questions about its voting process and, beyond that, its taste. (“25” is fine, but I challenge you to name three songs from it that aren’t “Hello.”)
Adele, to her credit, is a blockbuster star, a gracious winner, and now a history-maker: she joins Taylor Swift as the only two women to win the Album of the Year trophy twice. She picked up five trophies in all on Sunday, including Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.
— David Greenwald
dgreenwald@oregonian.com
503-294-7625; @davidegreenwald
Instagram: Oregonianmusic
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