Grammys on the Ground: BTS Groove to Silk Sonic, Olivia Rodrigo Shut Out of Spotify Party, Execs Party Like It’s 1999
variety.comGrammys touched down in Las Vegas for a weekend of events leading up to the main event on Sunday. While typically, Grammy week stretches over five days and dozens of functions, the abridged version felt like a much more manageable agenda — and awards show veterans, out of practice after two years of lockdown, were thankful for it.At the same time, a return to normalcy meant plenty of music industry chatter as artists and executives mingled excitedly all over the strip.Et tu Kanye? Will he or won’t he show was the question on many attendees’ minds when it came to Kanye West.
Publicly disinvited from performing, sources told Variety that the producer-rapper-turned-mogul — who’s up for multiple Grammys, including album of the year — was still permitted to attend the ceremony and the red carpet.
But as April 3 approached, and on the heels of the Oscars’ Will Smith-Chris Rock flap and rumors that West could stage a competing livestream at the same time as the Grammys, the Recording Academy restarted talks to have West take the stage.
Ultimately, though, West decided to sit out the Grammys entirely. As of Sunday morning, there were no plans for him to attend. The Ripple Effect Sources say the Grammys’ cancelation of a planned Kanye West performance last month did cause problems in the Black music community, as it essentially forced artists to pick a side: Between a wildly unpredictable yet extremely popular and deeply influential artist, and a Recording Academy that has a history of snubbing performers of color, despite their considerable recent efforts to change that history.
Read more on variety.com
