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Grammys attract conflict as well as fame 

MON.| 03-29-21 | ENTERTAINMENT

     The 2021 Grammys were held this past week on Sunday, Mar. 14 and brought a lot of excitement to America. This event was the 63rd Grammys, making it one of the oldest and most popular award shows. There were performances from some of the top artists of the year and the producers still managed to make an interesting show, even with all of the COVID-19 restrictions in place.

     One of the top ways for artists to showcase their musical talents is through The Grammys. They have the opportunity to win awards and perform in front of millions of watchers both in person and online and can have a great time doing it.

     There were 25 different performers at The Grammys this year. All of them varied in style, popularity and heritage. There were performers from America, Korea and England. Some of these artists included Billie Eilish, BTS, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. Fans were very excited about these performances, but this wasn’t the only source of excitement during the night. History was made in the world of music with Beyoncé winning her 28th Grammy and having the most Grammys of all time. 

     There has been some controversy online regarding the 2021 Grammys because of some of the songs that were performed. For example, Cardi B’s performance resulted in a lot of backlash from parents and other concerned individuals about the inappropriateness of her performance. There were a couple more performances that had inappropriate imagery that some people thought should not have been allowed to be aired since many children watch the show. It brought a lot of arguments to social media and many people thought that the Grammys were just bad overall this year. I think there could have been more thought out monitoring and 

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Graphic by Jake Bradsher

censorship of some of the songs but I don’t think they should have been cut entirely. There was, according to the Washington Post, a record low number of viewers and reviews. Part of this was likely due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place this year. This brought a lack of media coverage and not much knowledge about what was happening for the viewers.

     The differences made by COVID-19 were an interesting addition to the Grammys this year. There were four different performance venues for the 25 different performers. They were both inside and outside of the Los Angeles Convention Center and each one required their own production teams, camera crews and everything needed to make a high-quality show. As expected, these changes cost a lot of money. Having three more performance venues than usual made a huge impact on the budget for the 2021 Grammys and people are beginning to wonder if all of that extra spending was really worth the cost with how unsuccessful the show was in comparison to past years.

     The 2021 Grammys were an ambitious project to say the least. There was a huge amount of extra cost and not a lot of positive response from the audience. This isn’t to say that no one enjoyed this year’s show though. There were still multiple million viewers and lots of amazing performances by artists from all over the world. The producers were smart to have multiple venues to keep everything COVID-19 friendly, but the execution was not as great as it could have been. There could have been better preparation with all the different venues and the COVID-19 restrictions. It is a good thing that they still happened though; the Grammys are an important part of American culture and help keep music alive in a wonderful way.

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