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      How the Harp Got Hip

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      An instrument long associated with angels and virtue plucks its way across musical genres and social media.“I am not the quintessential image of a harpist,” said Brandee Younger, 37, a classically trained harpist, composer and educator. Ms. Younger, who lives in Harlem, smiled audibly as she enumerated the common stereotypes of the stringed instrument. “You’re blond, your eyes are blue … little naked baby angels,” she said, joking. “It’s just so not down to earth.”Bringing the harp to the masses has been a central goal of Ms. Younger’s career. Her jazz-infused compositions have been featured on works by pop and R&B’s most recognizable names including Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Lauryn Hill.For centuries the harp has been lodged in the domain of “serious” music — a niche instrument, perhaps dusted off for weddings and bottomless mimosa brunches. With such an entrenched reputation, could the harp ever be hip?Ms. Younger in performance at the Blue Note Jazz Club.Erin Patrice O’BrienIt’s not without precedent. Lizzo gave the flute a boost back in 2018 when she declared on Instagram “HO AND FLUTE ARE LIFE.” Videos of the singer twerking while flawlessly tooting rap melodies quickly went viral, challenging stereotypical connotations of the flute as an instrument of purity and innocence.Thanks to a collection of emerging independent artists and social media musicians, the harp is also finding a new audience. And the instrument is turning up in some unexpected places, including PornHub movie soundtracks and heavily engaged TikTok posts.Ms. Younger’s love affair with the instrument began when she was a girl growing up in the suburban enclave of Hempstead, N.Y., and heard a father’s colleague play; she started lessons as a teenager. “The harp is one of the few instruments that creates sound with direct touch,” she said. “There’s no barrier between you and the sound.”But as her musical career progressed, instead of solemnly plucking chamber music by Claude Debussy or Carlos Salzedo, Ms. Younger wanted to play the soulful music of her idols Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, two Black female jazz harpists she has called the “lodestars” of her career.“Not only are they playing this music that is just killing, but I want to play this stuff because it’s so cool,” Ms. Younger said. “They were women. They were Black. I was just connected to them on so many different levels.”If Ms. Coltrane’s liquid glissandos provided Ms. Younger ways to make harp music youthful and fresh, it was Ms. Ashby’s transcendence of genre that set the blueprint for her career. Fans of rap and hip-hop have been unwittingly listening to Ms. Ashby’s music for decades, with samples of her work used by Jay-Z, Mac Miller, Drake and other big names.Ms. Younger’s most recent album, “Force Majeure,” is a collection of livestream performances recorded with her longtime collaborator bassist Dezron Douglas. The album features an original jazz- and gospel-tinged composition, as well as covers of hit songs from Kate Bush and “Sesame Street.”“We’re making music for people,” Ms. Younger said. “Sometimes you have to branch out of what you are used to doing or what you’re trained to do.”The StringfluencersThe harp is one of the oldest known instruments, and was widely played in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures. Later it became popular among the royal and aristocratic classes of Europe — Marie Antoinette regularly entertained guests at the French Court with her ornate gilded harp — and became a fixture in Victorian-era salons. Exhibiting proficiency in musical instruments like the harp was one way for women to prove they were worthy marriage material.The association of the harp with chastity and virtue has dogged modern players. Joanna Newsom, the indie singer-songwriter who catapulted the harp onto Billboard music charts with her acclaimed 2006 album, “Ys,” has fought the stereotype of its music being all fairy tales and unicorns.“It’s an infantilizing thing that happens,” Ms. Newsom told the British press upon the release of her 2015 album, “Divers.” “The language is minimizing and narrowing of possible narrative depth.”“People would spill their beer on my harp,” said Marilu Donovan of her time touring.Serge SerumMarilu Donovan, 33, a harpist in New York, is also over the instrument’s prudish rep. “It just becomes exhausting,” she said. “It’s an instrument. It’s multifaceted. It can have so many different feels to it and still be beautiful.”Ms. Donovan performs with Adam Markiewicz, a violinist and vocalist, under the name LEYA. The duo brings a punk mentality to their experimental work, which has been described by Pitchfork as “eerie, beckoning and tinged with horror.” Ms. Donovan achieves this effect through unorthodox tunings and amplifications. The result creates an unearthly dissonance: the auditory equivalent of awakening in the fog of a bad dream only to discover you’re still trapped in the nightmare.LEYA collaborates with their peers in the experimental music scene, recording tracks with Eartheater, a musician in Queens, and the Brooklyn black metal band Liturgy. Mary Lattimore, another contemporary harpist, also collaborates with musicians from other genres, including prominent indie rockers like Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and the Violators’ Steve Gunn and Kurt Vile.“When I started playing with LEYA we were playing these little noise shows in basements,” Ms. Donovan said of the band’s early touring appearances, giving a virtual tour of her apartment over Zoom.She stopped next to two towering pedal harps — one ivory and one walnut — made by the famed Lyon and Healy music company in Chicago. A harp from the manufacturer can weigh more than 80 pounds and costs, on average, over $30,000; $50,000 if it’s gilded. It’s the older ivory harp that Ms. Donovan takes touring. “People would spill their beer on my harp,” she said. “People have fought during our shows.”This same harp also makes a surprising cameo in the 2018 PornHub film “I Love You,” directed by Brooke Candy, a stripper turned rapper who hired the band after seeing the video for their single “Sister.”Cloaked under veils of crimson tulle, Ms. Donovan and Mr. Markiewicz play haunting melodies as artfully choreographed erotic scenes unfold onscreen. LEYA used several songs from that production for their 2020 album, “Flood Dream.” “Brooke is just such a positive, good energy person,” Ms. Donovan said of her experience on set. “It was so much fun.”The harp’s delicate curves have also found a wider audience on social media. Hannah Stater, a music student at the University of Michigan formerly known as @hannah_harpist on TikTok (she now uses her full name), has accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of likes on the platform.

      @hannahstater here’s a little treat for all my @charlixcx fans #charlixcx #party4u #howimfeelingnow #hannahharpist ♬ original sound – Hannah Stater (she/her) Kristan Toczko, a Canadian harpist, was praised by the gaming community after Reddit went wild for her rendition of the Halo video game’s theme song.Plenty of PluckWhen Madison Calley, who is in her 20s, started posting videos of her own harp performances to her social media profiles, she didn’t expect to have even a fraction of that success.A typical video shows Ms. Calley in her spacious living room, dotted with various greenery and flooded with natural light.Rikki D Wright for The New York TimesMs. Calley, who lives in Los Angeles, had completed a recording session for Ariana Grande’s “Positions” album. Then came the coronavirus and canceled concerts. Ms. Calley turned to Instagram to keep her skills sharp.A typical video shows Ms. Calley playing pop and R&B on a towering champagne-hued pedal harp in her spacious living room, dotted with various greenery and flooded with natural light. One of her earliest clips, a cover of Alicia Keys’s song “Diary,” was noticed by Ms. Keys, who reposted Ms. Calley’s rendition to her millions of followers.“I think once the pandemic hit everyone was on their phones looking for some escapism from all the craziness going on in the world,” Ms. Calley said. “I had no idea it would take off the way it has.”Soon, producers from the Latin Grammys were calling with an offer to play in the 2020 awards show. Ms. Calley shimmers in a glittering gold evening gown as she initiates the orchestral opening for the Colombian singer-songwriter Karol G’s performance of “Tusa,” which was nominated for Song of the Year.Ms. Calley also appeared onstage for the rapper Roddy Ricch’s musical performance of “Heartless” on Sunday’s 63rd annual Grammy Awards broadcast. “A lot of interesting and amazing opportunities have come from social media,” Ms. Calley said. She has taken on a small group of students — all women of color — hoping to instill enthusiasm for the harp.If social media has made the harp more approachable to music fans, then advances in production that make the instrument more portable — and affordable — have also lowered the barriers to entry for beginning players.One such purveyor of budget-friendly harps is Backyard Music in Willimantic, Conn., owned by David Magnuson. The Fireside Folk Harp, which costs $169 and can be shipped ready made or as a D.I.Y. kit, has become a popular choice among harp hobbyists and beginner musicians.Mr. Magnuson said he began to notice a shift in harp sales within the last few years, a trend that accelerated with the onset of the pandemic. Last year alone, he said, his Etsy store sold some 300 harps. “It was shocking to me,” Mr. Magnuson said. “It has really picked up and hasn’t slowed down at all.”Antonio Arosemena, 35, is one of Backyard Music’s customers. Mr. Arosemena, who teaches music at the East Ramapo School District in New York, needed an affordable practice instrument he could use with his 6-year-old son, Luca.As a toddler, the young boy gravitated toward his father’s harpsichord — but he wasn’t interested in touching the keyboard. He wanted to get at the strings underneath the hood.“He was looking inside the instrument more and wanted to touch the strings,” Mr. Arosemena said. “I was like, ‘If you want to touch the strings, we’re going to get you an instrument where you can touch all the strings that you want.’”His search for a suitable starter harp initially led him to a manufacturer in Pakistan. But as his son’s playing progressed, Mr. Arosemena realized he needed something more portable that he could bring with him on road trips to keep up his practice routine.So Mr. Arosemena ordered the Fireside harp kit. He documented the entire process on Instagram and said it took him only a few days to build the three-piece hardwood kit; the most difficult part was installing the 22 strings. “That went from being my instrument to help him with rhythm to being his practice instrument,” he said.A recent Instagram post shows Luca, who started kindergarten last fall, dutifully reading sheet music as he practices arpeggios on the harp from the comfort of his living room couch. As he cleanly plucks the last note, he turns toward the camera and shyly reveals a smile, celebrating his musical triumph. More

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      Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion Slammed for Glorifying Prostitution With 'WAP' Grammys Performance

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      The National Center on Sexual Exploitation claims in a statement that the two raptresses’ performance at the award-giving show was too racy, likening it to a ‘cut from a hardcore pornography film.’

      Mar 17, 2021

      AceShowbiz –
      Cardi B and her “WAP” collaborator Megan Thee Stallion brought heat at the 63rd Grammy Awards on Monday, March 14 with their performance of the racy song. While some were impressed by the spectacular performance, some others criticized the two raptresses and the Grammys for allegedly contributing “to the sexual exploitation of women by glamorizing prostitution and stripping.”

      The National Center on Sexual Exploitation claimed in a statement that Megan and Cardi’s performance was too racy, likening it to a “cut from a hardcore pornography film.” Dawn Hawkins, the Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the group, also believed that CBS should have not air the performance “despite the ‘popularity’ ” of the song.

      “Prostitution and stripping are never empowering for women, as they set up systems that exploit and oppress women,” read the statement. “CBS has contributed to furthering the sexual exploitation of women and contributed to the ‘normalization’ of porn culture.”

        See also…

      This is hardly the first time for Cardi and Megan to receive backlash for the raunchy song. During her appearance on Australian radio show “The Kyle and Jackie O Show” back in August 2020, Cardi defended the chart-topping track, saying, “The people that the song bothers are usually conservatives or really religious people, but my thing is I grew up listening to this type of music.”

      She went on to say, “Other people might think it’s strange and vulgar, but to me it’s almost like really normal, you know what I’m saying.” Referring to her and Offset’s daughter Kulture, Cardi added, “No, of course I don’t want my child to listen to this song and everything. It’s for adults.”

      Megan also blasted critics during her appearance in a December 2020 episode of “The Jonathan Ross Show”. “All the male rappers I know love WAP. I feel like, for a long time, men felt like they owned sex,” she said at the time. “Sometimes when women speak about sex, I feel like it makes other people uncomfortable because it’s like, ‘How dare you talk about your own vagina? You’re not supposed to be talking about a vagina.’ But, I mean it’s frickin’ 2020, why am I not allowed to talk about my body? It’s my goddamn body.”

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      The Grammys, Improbably, Made It Work

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      So the Grammys this year were … good? Given the persistent clouds of uncertainty and scandal that have hovered over the ceremony and the voting process behind the awards in recent years, compounded by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it was a welcome surprise that the ceremony was, more or less, a success.There were big wins for Megan Thee Stallion, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift. Hip-hop stars DaBaby, Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, and Megan all had impressive performances. Mickey Guyton, Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris showed the power of women in country music. With her four wins, Beyoncé is now tied for the second-most Grammys of all time.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about how the Grammys navigated a year of crisis, the minting of a new generation of stars, deserving downballot winners and what happens when the Grammys doesn’t invite the boomer generation?Guests:Jon Pareles, The New York Times’s chief pop music criticCaryn Ganz, The New York Times’s pop music editorJoe Coscarelli, The New York Times’s pop music reporterBen Sisario, The New York Times’s music industry reporterLindsay Zoladz, who writes about music for The New York Times and others More

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      The Best and Worst of the 2021 Grammy Awards

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      Megan Thee Stallion owned the stage, struggling indie venues got a much needed spotlight and the event proved a pandemic awards show doesn’t have to look like a video conference.The 63rd annual Grammy Awards promised to be different: There was a new executive producer at the helm for the first time in decades; a new host; and a new challenge — assembling a pandemic awards show that didn’t feel like a video conference. With a small audience of nominees outside in Los Angeles, the show highlighted the contributions of women and the impact of Black Lives Matter protests, offered screen time to workers at independent venues crushed by the pandemic and extended tributes to musicians we lost during this challenging year.Here are the show’s highlights and lowlights as we saw them.Best M.V.P.: Megan Thee StallionThough she didn’t win the night’s final and biggest category, record of the year, Grammy night belonged to Megan Thee Stallion. She took home the three other awards she was nominated for: best new artist and, for the remix of “Savage” featuring Beyoncé, best rap song and best rap performance. Each speech was a wholesome gift: words of exuberance from an artist experiencing the first flush of truly widespread acclaim. But her self-assured performance was the loudest statement of all. It opened with a bit of “Body,” and pivoted into her part from the “Savage” remix. But the main focus was a performance of “WAP” with Cardi B that was wildly and charmingly salacious, frisky and genuine in a way that the Grammys has rarely if ever made room for. That it took place on CBS, historically the most conservative of all the broadcast networks, was chef’s kiss. JON CARAMANICABest Accessory: Harry Styles’s Boa“Watermelon Sugar” never sounded better than when Harry Styles and his boa performed it on the Grammys stage.Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyThe first-time nominee Harry Styles kicked off the show with a groovy, casually charismatic rendition of “Watermelon Sugar,” complete with an excellent backing band (Dev Hynes on bass!) and an instantly iconic feather boa. Styles often gets the knee-jerk Mick Jagger comparisons, but Styles possesses a much more laid-back — if no less magnetic — stage presence. “Watermelon Sugar” never sounded better than it did during this performance, which made its subsequent surprise win for best pop solo performance all the more understandable. Something tells me boa season is approaching. LINDSAY ZOLADZWorst Twist Ending: Billie Eilish’s Record of the Year Win“This is really embarrassing for me,” said Billie Eilish, accepting record of the year with her producer brother Finneas O’Connell.Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyAt the very end of a Grammys ceremony that did its best to pretend like the Recording Academy has always supported and centered Black artists, women and especially Black women, Billie Eilish was put in an impossible position that we’ve seen too many times before. Awarded record of the year for “Everything I Wanted,” a mid tempo in-betweener of a track, only a year after sweeping the top four categories with her debut album, Eilish could only gush over Megan Thee Stallion.“This is really embarrassing for me,” Eilish, a white teenager who — like many in her generation and beyond — worships Black culture, said. “You are a queen, I want to cry thinking about how much I love you.” She went on. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of Adele praising Beyoncé when “25” beat “Lemonade” for album of the year in 2017, and also of that infamous Macklemore text to Kendrick Lamar. Some online bristled at the performative white guilt on display, while others applauded Eilish’s apparently sincere fandom. But only a stubbornly old-fashioned voting body that still just honors rap when it’s convenient could be blamed. JOE COSCARELLIBest Reality Check: Presenters From Shuttered VenuesThe Apollo in Harlem, which has been closed for a year during the pandemic.George Etheredge for The New York TimesNeither musicians nor fans can forget that the pandemic has shut down live music. Sprinkled among the awards presenters — instead of the usual actors promoting CBS shows and stray sports figures — were people who work at long-running clubs and theaters: the Station Inn in Nashville, the Troubadour and the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They spoke pretaped from their empty music halls and announced the winners live. Billy Mitchell, who started working at the Apollo in 1965, recalled that James Brown had demanded to see his report card, insisted he improve his grades, and later gave him money that Mitchell put toward business school and a lifelong career at the Apollo, where he eventually became the official historian. Music changes lives offstage, too. JON PARELESBest Disco Fantasy: Dua LipaDua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” has lived its entire life in quarantine, but it begs to be let loose into the night and onto dance floors around the world. At the Grammys, the British pop singer and songwriter gave us a glimpse of the other side — glitter, flashing lights, throbbing bass lines, people dusting off ’70s dance moves, slight awkwardness. Her two-song set started with “Levitating,” a funky roller-rink jam with a charming DaBaby feature, and ended with “Don’t Start Now,” the powerhouse kiss-off that was nominated for both record and song of the year. The track didn’t take home either prize, but Lipa left with a trophy for pop vocal album and the honor of coaxing the most at-home viewers into a few minutes of spirited couch dancing. CARYN GANZBest Confrontational Politics: Lil Baby and DaBabyLil Baby released “The Bigger Picture,” a stream-of-consciousness, autobiographical protest song, less than three weeks after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last summer, on the very day that Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot by police in the rapper’s native Atlanta.With appearances by the actor and activist Kendrick Sampson, who reenacted Brooks’s killing; the organizer Tamika Mallory, who addressed President Joe Biden in a speech; and Killer Mike, who added some Run the Jewels to the mix, Lil Baby’s performance managed to invoke the despair and anger of that moment without it feeling co-opted by the institutions that were playing host.Earlier in the show, DaBaby did the same, adding a new verse to “Rockstar,” his sneakily wrenching ode to firearms, and making eye contact with America as he rapped in front a choir of older white people in judge’s robes: “Right now I’m performing at the Grammys/I’ll probably get profiled before leavin’.” COSCARELLIWorst Queen Worship: The Grammys to BeyoncéBeyoncé won four awards at this year’s Grammys ceremony, bringing her lifetime total to 28.Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyDid you know that Beyoncé has now won more Grammys than any other female artist in history (28)? Of course you did; the Grammys could not stop reminding you. To be clear, this is a monumental achievement, and one that goddess among mortals Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter absolutely deserves. But there was a Grammys-doth-protest-too-much quality to the way Trevor Noah and the show’s presenters kept reminding us of this fact over and over, almost as though the Recording Academy was trying to make amends to Beyoncé for its past transgressions on live television. (Those transgressions include, but are not limited to, icing the woman who has basically redesigned the modern pop album over the past decade out of wins in the big four categories since 2010.)It was awkward. Even Beyoncé’s recognition for “Black Parade” — a good song, sure, but hardly among her best or most impactful work — felt strangely conciliatory, a mea culpa for not giving “Lemonade” its proper due several years ago. The always gracious Beyoncé certainly made the most of it, though, and her acceptance speeches were among the night’s highlights — especially her beaming big-sister energy as her “Savage” collaborator Megan Thee Stallion accepted their shared, very deserved award for best rap song. ZOLADZBest Use of Quarantine Time: Taylor Swift’s Album of the Year ‘Folklore’Taylor Swift is now the only female artist in Grammy history to win album of the year three times.Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated PressGoing into Grammy night, album of the year was Taylor Swift’s award to lose. Perhaps no other LP has come to symbolize our pandemic year more thoroughly than “Folklore,” which Swift created entirely during quarantine and embellished with a warm and woolly homebound aesthetic. Her Grammy performance — a medley of the “Folklore” songs “Cardigan” and “August,” along with “Willow” from her second 2020 album, “Evermore” — relied perhaps too literally on that aesthetic.The flickering visual whimsy all around her and her producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner (who both joined her onstage, in a set made up to look like a one-room cottage) detracted a bit from the direct power of her songcraft, which was more easily appreciated in the other awards-show performance she has given in support of “Folklore,” a beautifully bare-bones interpretation of “Betty” at last year’s Country Music Awards. But Swift, a one-time Grammy darling who before tonight had not had a win since 2016, has been out of the show’s spotlight for long enough that her win felt triumphant. In keeping with a night defined by female artists’ achievements it added an impressive feather to her cap, making her the only female artist in Grammy history to win album of the year three times. ZOLADZBest Blasts (and Ballads) from the Past: Silk Sonic and In MemoriamBruno Mars is nothing if not a diligent archivist, digging into the details of vintage styles, and Anderson .Paak joins him on the retro quest in their new project Silk Sonic. They went all in on “Leave the Door Open,” a period-piece homage to smooth 1970s vocal-group R&B. In three-piece mocha suits and shirts with collars that spread almost shoulder-wide, they traded off gritty leads and suave backup harmonies, choreography included. From another time capsule, Mars and Paak returned for the In Memoriam segment, paying raucous tribute to Little Richard with Mars whooping it up into an old-fashioned microphone and Paak slamming a kit of tiger-striped drums. The memorial segment continued with tasteful modesty: Lionel Richie delivering Kenny Rogers’s “Lady” with elegiac melancholy, Brandi Carlile singing John Prine’s last song, “I Remember Everything,” with affectionate respect.The closing tribute probably made more sense in the United Kingdom. With Coldplay’s Chris Martin on piano, Brittany Howard worked up to belting “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel”) over a country shuffle. It was a convoluted memorial to Gerry Marsden, of Gerry and the Pacemakers, who remade the song in 1963 and saw it adopted as the Liverpool Football Club’s anthem. Even odder, the song reappeared moments later, with Howard singing over a better backup track, in a commercial. PARELESBest Juggling Act: Trevor NoahChris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated PressHosting an awards show during pandemic season is a job without precedent, or sturdy rules. At this year’s Grammys — a mélange of live performances, pretaped segments and award presentations handed out on a downtown Los Angeles rooftop — the remit of the job was deeply confused. And still Trevor Noah proved mostly adept: vibrant energy, a little bit of awe, some topical-humor fluency and a bit of cheek, but not too much. Occasionally he literally inserted himself into the end of a performance, or purposely overlapped with something happening elsewhere onstage, which in moments felt awkward, but actually helped to add glue to a patchwork affair. There were some lumpy spots, and his cringey joke about sharing a bed with Cardi B felt like an attitudinal relic of the 1980s, but on the whole, Noah made something that could have felt like several competing shows feel like one. CARAMANICABest Self-Criticism: Harvey Mason Jr.“We hear the cries for diversity, pleas for representation and demands for transparency,” said Harvey Mason Jr., interim president and chairman of the Recording Academy.Rich Fury/Getty Images for the Recording AcademyThe obligatory Grammy speech by the head of the Recording Academy tends to mingle platitudes about the power of music with mild lobbying. Harvey Mason Jr., who took over as interim president and chairman after the academy fired Deborah Dugan just before last year’s Grammy Awards, offered something different: the closest the Grammys have gotten to a mea culpa. “We hear the cries for diversity, pleas for representation and demands for transparency,” he said, over a soundtrack of earnest piano. “Tonight I’m here to ask that entire music community to join in, work with us not against us, as we build a new Recording Academy that we can all be proud of.” He added, “This is not the vision of tomorrow but the job for today.” Promising sentiments — will they be enough? PARELESBest Overdue Nomination: Mickey GuytonTrevor Noah awkwardly introduced Mickey Guyton as “the first Black female solo artist ever nominated in a country category” — far more a reflection on country music and the Grammys than on her own clear merits. (She lost best country solo performance to Vince Gill in the pre-telecast ceremony.) But Guyton, who will be co-hosting the Academy of Country Music Awards in April, gracefully seized this prime-time moment, singing “Black Like Me,” a blunt indictment — “If you think we live in the land of the free/You should try to be Black like me” — that strives to end on a hopeful note. It’s a hymnlike song that welcomed a backup choir and a big buildup on the way to a climactic, “Someday we’ll all be free.” And it made Guyton a very hard act for Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris to follow. PARELESBest Mixed Emotions: HaimDanielle Haim started “The Steps,” nominated for best rock performance, seated behind the drums, with a pugnacious look on her face and a beat to match. She was singing about being underestimated and misunderstood, and the Grammys simply stuck the three-sister band — Danielle, Este and Alana — in the middle of the floor. But Haim switched instruments as well as moods mid-song; Danielle moved from drums to guitar and back while her voice briefly changed from annoyed to wounded; it can hurt to be misunderstood. By the end she was back on the counterattack, but the song was no longer simple. PARELES More

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      Drake Celebrates Making Billboard Hot 100 History With Three Top 10 Debuts

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      Instagram

      The ‘Hotline Bling’ hitmaker links up with Bow Wow and throws a small party after his song ‘What’s Next’, ‘Wants and Needs’ and ‘Lemon Pepper Freestyle’ start at No. 1, 2 and 3 respectively on the chart.

      Mar 16, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Drake has set a new Billboard record. The Canadian star made history as the first artist to have three songs debuted in the top three spots of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time.
      Drizzy’s “What’s Next”, “Wants and Needs” with Lil Baby and “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross entered the chart at No. 1, 2 and 3 respectively. All three songs are lifted off his fourth and latest “EP Scary Hours 2”, which was released on March 9.
      With this feat, Drake also matches The Beatles and Ariana Grande’s achievements as the only acts ever to rank at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the Hot 100 simultaneously. The 34-year-old singer/rapper has eight Hot 100 No. 1 and 45 top 10s so far.
      Drake has taken to Instagram to mark his new record-breaking achievement. He posted an image of this week’s rank that has his songs on the top three and simply wrote in the caption, “SPLASHY.” He further expressed his feelings with a photo of Stephen Curry shouting in joy while sitting on the basketball field.

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      The “In My Feelings” hitmaker also linked up with Bow Wow to celebrate his feat. In Instagram Story videos, he said, “I didn’t know how to bring in one, two, three,” before he panned to the side and showed Bow standing next to him.

      Drake teased Bow with lyrics from his 2001 track “Thank You”. Bow said, “That’s what you wanna do?” as he and Drizzy laughed. Bow then congratulated his pal as the camera recorded their friendly exchange.

      Drake threw a party to celebrate making Billboard Hot 100 history.

      The Canadian star received congratulatory messages from his celeb pals.
      In another clip, Drake appeared to throw a small celebration with his pals as he showed his dining room decorated with “123” balloons to represent his three top 10 debuts. He also re-posted shout-outs from his celebrity pals and fellow hip-hop stars, including Quavo, DJ Khaled and London on da Track, congratulating him on his record-breaking feat.

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      Eddie Van Halen's Son Says Grammys 'A Bit Out of Touch' Over Disappointing In Memoriam Tribute

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      After watching how his late father was honored at the 63rd annual awards show, Wolfgang Van Halen reveals that he was actually invited to play ‘Eruption’ for the special segment.

      Mar 16, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Eddie Van Halen’s son turned down the chance to play his dad’s most famous guitar track at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, March 14. Wolfgang Van Halen was invited to play “Eruption” as part of the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment, but admits he didn’t think it was appropriate for him to play the guitar great’s rock anthem.
      Instead, Eddie was honored with an archival clip at the 63rd annual Grammys, while John Prine, Little Richard, and Kenny Rogers received full tributes, prompting former Van Halen singer Gary Cherone to tweet, “Maybe an Artist that reimagined how one plays an instrument, who continues to influence generations of musicians and, literally changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll deserves more than fifteen seconds at the Grammys?”

      On Monday, Wolfgang, who replaced Michael Anthony as Van Halen’s bass player in 2007, issued a statement criticising the way his father was saluted at the prizegiving, confirming he turned down the chance to honor him.
      “The Grammys asked me to play ‘Eruption’ for the ‘In Memoriam’ section and I declined,” he wrote. “I don’t think anyone could have lived up to what my father did for music but himself.”

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      “It was my understanding that there would be an ‘In Memoriam’ section where bits of songs were performed for legendary artists that had passed. I didn’t realize that they would only show Pop for 15 seconds in the middle of 4 full performances for others we had lost.”
      “What hurt the most was that he wasn’t even mentioned when they talked about artists we lost in the beginning of the show. I know rock isn’t the most popular genre right now, [and the academy does seem a bit out of touch] but I think it’s impossible to ignore the legacy my father left on the instrument, the world of rock, and music in general. There will never be another innovator like him.”
      “I’m not looking to start some kind of hate parade here, I just wanted to explain my side. I know Pop would probably just laugh it off and say, ‘Ehh who gives a s**t?’ He was only about the music anyway. The rest didn’t matter.”

      Wolfgang hopes the backlash linked to his father’s Grammys tribute will open lines of communication between himself and Grammy bosses about the future of rock music. “I’d love to get the opportunity to speak with The Recording Academy not only about the legacy of my father, but the legacy of the Rock genre moving forward,” he added.

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      Cardi B Rips Comedian Out for Shading Her Hit Song 'WAP'

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      Conservative comedian Tim Young takes to Twitter to apparently throw shade at the Grammy-winning raptress for her raunchy song and liken it to books by children’s author Dr. Seuss.

      Mar 16, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Cardi B was hitting back at a comedian who wrote a subliminal tweet about the raptress’ hit track “WAP”. In a post on Monday, March 15, conservative comedian Tim Young appeared to shade and liken Cardi’s raunchy song to books by children’s author Dr. Seuss.
      “The lyrics to ‘Wet A** P***y’ are more welcome in some schools than Dr. Seuss books,” so the comedian wrote on the blue bird app. He went on adding, “just let that sink in for a minute.”
      Cardi caught wind of the tweet and didn’t hesitate to fiercely respond. “When has a school made kids read the lyrics to wap?” the “Bodak Yellow” hitmaker wrote in a quote-retweet. “I get it wap might be a lil vulgar but stop comparing a sensual song to books that has RACIST content! How can ya not tell the difference?I see that common sense aint that common.”

      Cardi B clapped back at Tim Young for the shady tweet.

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      The wife of Offset didn’t stop there as she continued to rant, “By the way Dr Seuss publishing company made the decisions to remove those books on their own .Black people are not the one telling these companies to do things that they think Is ‘progressive’ black only ask for equal justice.”
      She went on attacking conservatives, “Conservatives been making viral tweets comparing WAP to the banning of some of Dr Seuss books as if there’s any correlations between the two ….Well I can DEFINITELY tell some of ya ONLY read dr Seuss books. cause ya mind lacks comprehension.”

      The rapper further slammed conservatives.
      Fans rallied behind Cardi following her clapback tweets. “It’s the dumbest take ever. Comparing a rap song to a children’s book,” one person commented. “They really will say anything and not stop to think if it makes sense. Your target audience is adults who want to dance and listen to music. Suess target audience is children. CHILDREN.”
      “Imagine hating female sexuality that much. Imagine negatively obsessing over a song so much that everything you disagree with it becomes the measure. Imagine how empty their life really is. We love you, Cardi. #WAPForever,” another person wrote to the Bronx star. Meanwhile, someone advised Cardi to just ignore haters, writing, “stop giving the attention they’re looking for miss girl.”

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      JoJo Siwa Turned Down DaBaby's Offer to Join Him for 2021 Grammy Performance

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      According to the ‘Bob’ hitmaker, he invited the ‘Dance Moms’ alum to share the stage with him at the Grammy Awards following song controversy but she said no.

      Mar 16, 2021
      AceShowbiz – DaBaby reached out to JoJo Siwa to join him for his Grammys performance after he was criticised for seemingly dissing the teen in one of his songs.
      The 29-year-old rapper told Entertainment Tonight he was keen to prove there was no bad blood between the pair by having JoJo, 17, appear on stage during his “Rockstar” performance.
      “I actually reached out to see if she wanted to perform with me at the Grammys,” he explained. “But I heard she’s somewhere working on a project of her own. I won’t say too much. I don’t want to put her business out there.”
      “She’s somewhere filming something, though, but I definitely reached out.”

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      He added, “My baby loves (JoJo). That’s how I know who JoJo Siwa is, from buying all the stuff for my baby, so, you know, we are 1,000 per cent JoJo Siwa fans. We love her.”
      In February (21), DaBaby dropped a freestyle titled “Beatbox”, which included the lines, “N****, you a b**ch / JoJo Siwa, b**ch / She let the wrong n**** get rich.”
      After receiving backlash online, DaBaby clarified his lyrics, tweeting to the star directly, “@itsjojosiwa my 3 year old princess is your number 1 fan. I bought her every product you have out. She think she you.”
      “Don’t let em trick you into thinking id ever have a problem with you. My word play just went over their heads. All love on my end shawty, Keep shinning! (sic)”

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