Backstage at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center was calm at 10 a.m. as the main stage was set and the venue crew awaited the arrival of the talent, which were nominated within the 84 award categories.
By 11 a.m., Adele, who is up for several awards including record and song of the year for “Hello,” and album of the year for “25,” could be heard rehearsing for her big live performance. At 11:30, the artists and their teams began to arrive for the Premiere Ceremony, which was hosted by actress, comedian and best comedy album nominee Margaret Cho and held across the way at Microsoft Theater.
“We need music now more than ever,” Cho said at the top of the show.
There was instant excitement in the air as awards in 75 categories started being handed out, long before the start of the televised broadcast which will only air nine categories.
Winning artists filed back into the media room to share their moment with the press.
The late David Bowie was recognized early on as art director Jonathan Barnbrook scored the Grammy for best recording package with Bowie’s “Blackstar” and he picked up his first music Grammy as the record won best engineered album, non-classical.
“He has this very rare quality of getting people to produce their best work,” Barnbrook said, noting that music is vastly important as it is “there when you’re born, there when you get married and there when you die at your funeral.”
“Blackstar” engineer Tony Visconti added that Bowie “was enthusiastic, he was determined to make this record on his own terms.”
Country star Sturgill Simpson won the Grammy for best county album with “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” during the Premiere Ceremony and thanked his family since “six years ago I was working on the railroad,” he shared. Simpson’s release is also up for album of the year, but he seemed happy just to hold his single Grammy. “I guess the revolution will not be televised,” he quipped.
Country music songwriter Lori McKenna, who inked the track “Humble and Kind” for Tim McGraw won for best country song and admitted that she wrote it on a school day. After dropping off her kids, she sat in her yoga pants at her dining room table and wrote it before dinner time. “I wrote it for my kids,” she said. “I saw it as a single list of things I wanted to tell my kids and (McGraw) saw it in such a universal way. I need to share this with Tim for sure.”
Soul singer William Bell scored a Grammy for best Americana album with “This is Where I Live” and talked about working with Gary Clark Jr. on their collaboration, which will air during the televised ceremony. “When we met we hit it off,” Bell said. “He’s from Austin and I’m a Southerner from Tennessee … so we got along well.
Vocalist and actress Cynthia Erivo, who scored a Grammy for best musical theater album for “The Color Purple” and her role as Celie, talked about her first Grammy win and performance as she will join R&B singer-songwriter John Legend during the in memoriam portion of the broadcast.
“It’s incredible to be able to do something tender for the people we lost this year,” she said.
DJ Andre Allen Anjos, known as RAC, won for best remixed recording with Bob Moses’ “Tearing Me Apart,” and said he started this project in his college dorm room.
“I recorded a lot in that room but sometimes had to go out into the hallways when my roommates were being too loud,” he said with a laugh.
Jacob Collier, a 22-year-old arranger, won two Grammy awards back to back for “Flintstones” – best arrangement, instruments and vocals – and “You and I” for best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella, and showed up in the media room double fisting his trophies.
“My mom taught me to invest in my own imagination,” he said. Collier was discovered on YouTube by Quincy Jones after uploading a video of him doing Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing.” Since then, both Jones and Wonder have served as his mentors.
“I’m unendingly grateful for that,” he added.
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