What You Didn't See On TV At The 2018 Grammys
The Grammys are famously known as "Music's Biggest Night," and the 2018 ceremony was no different. While there were a slew of huge moments at the show, only nine awards were distributed during the telecast. In terms of non-televised awards and backstage moments, there was probably more drama behind the scenes than what you saw on air during the ceremony! Here's what the TV cameras missed from the 2018 Grammys.
James Corden learned his lesson
James Corden hosted the Grammys for the second consecutive year, and the 2018 Grammys ceremony was a whopping 3.5 hours long. As a result, Corden admitted he learned that he had to keep everything moving.
"I'm gonna try and do it all a bit quicker, 'cause, you know, it doesn't need to be longer, does it?" he told E! News ahead of the show. "You've got to leave your ego at the door really and you just can't make it all about you ... it's not about who's hosting the Grammys, it's who's performing."
Lorde's silent protest
Though she was nominated for album of the year for the commercially disappointing Melodrama, Lorde refused to perform or walk the red carpet at the 2018 Grammys. TMZ reported that the New Zealand-bred singer had a "heated back and forth" with producers of the Grammys show, who offered to let her perform as part of a Tom Petty tribute performance of "American Girl." Lorde considered the offer a "slap in the face" and refused to perform unless she was doing one of her own songs solo.
Variety reported that Lorde was the only album of the Year nominee in 2018 to not be asked to perform her own material for the show, which Lorde's mother hinted may be the result of sexism. Sonja Yelich tweeted a photo of an article in The New York Times that read, "Of the 899 people to be nominated for Grammy awards in the past six years, only nine percent were women." Yelich captioned the tweet, "This says it all."
Kesha's jitters
Kesha's powerful Time's Up-themed performance of "Praying" with Camila Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Bebe Rexha, and Andra Day was cathartic for the singer, largely in part because of her ongoing legal battle with producer Dr. Luke, who she accused of raping and abusing her. As a result, she was extremely emotional about performing the track live.
She explained on Twitter ahead of the show, "When I wrote 'Praying' with Ben Abraham and Ryan Lewis, I just felt as if I had gotten a huge weight off of my shoulders. It felt like an emotional raw victory for myself, one step closer to healing. I never could have known what would've happened these past few years." She added, "I just want to say that I needed this song in a very real way, I'm so proud and nervous and overwhelmed to be performing it at the Grammys ... and if you need it I hope this song finds you."
Carrie Fisher won
Though the late Carrie Fisher was predominantly known for her acting (hello, Princess Leia!), she won a Grammy at the 2018 ceremony for best spoken word album (which includes poetry, audiobooks, and storytelling formats.) Fisher, who passed away from cardiac arrest in December 2016, posthumously took home the trophy for the recording of her memoir The Princess Diarist.
Avenged Sevenfold sat it out
Avenged Sevenfold were nominated for their its first Grammy for "The Stage," but chose not to attend the ceremony. Frontman M. Shadows told Trunk Nation, "F**k 'em," explaining that because the band is currently on tour, it would cost $150,000 for flights and hotels for the band members their wives to travel from South Dakota to New York to attend the ceremony and then to Oklahoma for the next gig.
"And then they go and pull the rock song of the year award from TV and put us in some side venue no one gives a f**k about? F**k that waste of time and money," he said, adding that rock music gets "no respect" from the Grammys. "I mean, how marginalized has rock become when rock song of the year can't get two minutes?"
Ed Sheeran won something (and got booed)
Ed Sheeran was shut out of many of the major Grammy categories when the nominations were announced in November 2017, but he did win best pop vocal album for Divide and best pop solo performance for "Shape of You."
When the nominations were announced, Sheeran told Billboard, "There's a very clear reason why that happened and it's bigger than me, like much bigger than me ... I'm not dying, it's not like I'm never gonna be nominated for a Grammy again ... The week after [nominations], I get an MBE from the palace, I go No. 1 on Spotify, I go No. 1 on Billboard, I'm about to have my second ever Billboard No. 1 ... there's so many other things in the mix that counterbalance it." He added, "That's just the way I live my life ... I'm just so easy going when it comes to that."
He may not be too easy going. "'Shape of You' is probably the most successful single in the whole world last year. That it wasn't nominated, is, to me, a travesty," Sheeran pal Elton John griped to The Sun, adding, "It's all about politics ... I think Ed was extremely upset."
Maybe more so now that People reported he got booed for beating out a bunch of women for best pop solo performance.
Katy Perry's bitterness
Katy Perry, who's been nominated for 13 Grammys but never won a single trophy, wasn't nominated at all for Witness. Perhaps feeling prophetic about having sour grapes this year, she told The New York Times in summer 2017, "All the awards shows are fake and all the awards that I've won are fake." She said the awards don't represent music audiences. "They're constructs."
Billboard editorial director Jason Lipshutz disagrees, telling the New York Daily News, "It's the ultimate honor, especially because it's voted on by peers. In the same way that an artist still strives to be No. 1 on the Hot 100 or have a No. 1 album, artists and managers and labels care a lot about the Grammys."
Lady Gaga had a lot of help
Witnesses told People that Lady Gaga got help from two men to carry the massive train on her stunning black gown on the red carpet when she arrived at Madison Square Garden. Later, Entertainment Tonight reported that Gaga needed the help of four people to unravel her pink gown for her performance.
Mother Monster was also photographed packing on the PDA with boyfriend Christian Carino, reported E! News, and even had some plebeians clear out an elevator so she and her crew could ride with some peace and privacy.
Taylor Swift's sour grapes
Taylor Swift's Reputation was shut out of the 2018 Grammy race, though she was nominated for her duet with Zayn Malik, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," and "Better Man," which she wrote for Little Big Town. Some have suggested she may have self-sabotaged her standing with the awards show community.
A source told The Sun in November 2017, "A lot of the [Grammy] jury members have worked with Katy [Perry], Calvin [Harris] and Kanye [West], so when Taylor has tried to humiliate them ... She may pay for that when it comes to winning awards ... Taylor has to understand that the industry is small, and moves like sabotaging Katy's album hurt people behind the scenes who work hard to make an album happen. How Taylor thinks the industry is going to give its full support to her after she's tried to damage so many people is mad."
Swift neither showed up for the Grammy's nor took any awards home for her writing or performances.
Beyoncé showed her disappointment
Jay-Z was nominated for eight Grammys but didn't take a single one home. This was not lost on wife Beyoncé: Entertainment Tonight reported that when Bruno Mars took home the trophy for album of the year, Bey stood up for Mars' speech, but did not applaud. (This may also have something to do with the Grammys awarding Adele over Bey last year, which even Adele protested.)
SZA didn't let her losses get her down
People reported that even though SZA lost all of her nominations, she was still the first to get up and cheer for the artists who won, including Kendrick Lamar and Alessia Cara. No sore losers here!
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend had a ball
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend announced that they're expecting a baby boy, but their fun didn't end there. People reported that Teigen danced her butt off to Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi's performance of "Despacito," with spies telling Entertainment Tonight that she also got down to Kendrick Lamar and U2's opening number, Cardi B and Bruno Mars' performance of "Finesse," and DJ Khaled and Rihanna's live rendition of "Wild Thoughts." However, she and Legend were home by 10:30 p.m., when she snapchatted a selfie in a bathrobe.
Pink's daughter had the best night ever
Pink toted her daughter, Willow Sage Hart, around the show and introduced her to Rihanna backstage, writing on Instagram, "My daughter lives for this woman. So do I." Pink also reportedly gave huge hugs to several others at the show, including the sign language interpreter with whom she performed "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken."
Also adorable? E! News reported that Pink's husband Carey Hart was overheard talking about his wife during the show and saying, "It's her night." Aw!
Childish Gambino wants to go out on top
Donald Glover inhabited his Childish Gambino persona and won the best traditional R&B performance Grammy for "Redbone" during the pre-telecast. Despite the victory, he plans on retiring the name, which he initially announced in summer 2017 at the Governors' Ball Awards.
"I stand by that. I'm really appreciative of this. I'm making another project right now," Glover said backstage at the Grammys. "But I like endings, I think they're important to progress ... I think if a lot of things had death clauses in them, we wouldn't have a lot of problems in the world, to be honest. I think ending are good because they force things to get better."
DJ Khaled's son remains the cutest
DJ Khaled's 1-year-old son, Asahd, played peekaboo with Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet. Yes, it was everything.
Jerry Seinfeld couldn't contain himself
E! News reported that after the "consolation puppy" gag, Jerry Seinfeld just couldn't stop laughing — even long after the joke was over and the cameras had moved on from him. Seinfeld's wife, Jessica, kept holding the puppy given to them for the sketch until someone finally took the poor pooch away from her.
Politics played a big role
Of course you saw the Fire and Fury audition sketch, but People, Entertainment Tonight, and E! News all reported that Hillary Clinton's cameo in the recorded bit got standing ovations and the loudest applause break of the night.
People also reported that when host Corden faked out about former President Barack Obama presenting an award, the entire live audience was gasping and audibly disappointed.
There may have been Russian interference
During the pre-telecast, Randy Newman won a Grammy for best arrangement, instrumentals and vocals for a song called "Putin." It's as amazing as you'd expect.
For all the white roses, was sexism alive and well?
When called out for the lack of female winners at the 2018 Grammys — the only televised win for a female artist was Alessia Cara's best new artist trophy — Recording Academy President Neil Portnow told Entertainment Tonight, "It has to begin with ... women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level. [They need] to step up, because I think they would be welcome."
He added, "I don't have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face, but I think it's upon us — us as an industry — to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists." He also noted that Swift, who's previously won 10 Grammys, was "kind of off cycle [this year] ... Hopefully we'll see her next year."
Grammy Awards Executive Producer Ken Ehrlich sidestepped a question about Lorde's absence from the stage. "It's not for me to talk about. I produce the TV show ... I don't know if it was a mistake. These shows are a matter of choices. We have a box and it gets full. She had a great album. There's no way we can really deal with everybody."
Sure, but this show was almost four hours long. You couldn't throw "Green Light" a bone?