Los Angeles (AFP)
From basketball legend Kobe Bryant to funk Prince, to Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle who left too soon, the 62nd Grammy Awards have been celebrated. A look back at the key performances of the evening.
- "For Kobe" -
"Tonight is for Kobe". From the first minutes of the prestigious music industry awards ceremony, rapper Lizzo set the tone.
After performing her hits "Truth Hurts" and "Cuz I Love You", enamelled with flute tunes, the singer, shunned by the queen categories, passed the baton to the evening's emcee, Alicia Keys. In turn, the latter paid a poignant tribute to the basketball star, who died on Sunday in a helicopter accident, singing a particularly sentimental version of "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye" (It is so difficult to say to the goodbye), accompanied by the soul group Boys II Men.
Sad irony of fate, it is the ground of Staples Center, where the Grammys took place, that the star of the Lakers has trodden for years.
Rappers of Run-DMC brandished a Los Angeles Lakers jersey flocked with Kobe "24" during their interpretation of "Walk this Way" with Aerosmith and the sportsman's face appeared next to that of Nipsey Hussle, another missing star from the city of Angels, to whom an XXL cast (John Legend, DJ Khaled to name a few) paid tribute, before receiving the "Grammy" for the "best rap song" posthumously.
- Cardi 2020 -
Between scandals in the Grammy Academy and the death of Kobe Bryant, "it's been a hell of a week". It is with these words that Alicia Keys summed up the heavy atmosphere that reigned in the public of Los Angeles, before proposing to breathe a little sweetness.
"Tonight we must all unite," she invited, installed in front of a piano and launching a serenade of her own composition, to the tune of "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi.
With tasty puns, she greeted Ariana Grande, the Jonas Brothers, Tyler the Creator before sending a spade to the tenant of the White House.
"The commander-in-chief indicted (...) let Cardi B enter," she trumpeted with a smile in reference to the trial for the impeachment of Donald Trump and the political ambitions of which the rapper from the Bronx recently announced.
- Usher the Prince -
Tight high-waisted pants, shirt with raised collar and swaying series. Sunday evening, Usher was - for a tribute - transformed into a great Prince.
The American rapper, best known for his R&B hits, took on the audacious bet of interpreting the classics of Prince, master of funk, who died in 2016.
Flourishing on Little Red Corvette "," When Doves Cry ", and a sensual" Kiss ", the star of the 2000s made the show, to the delight of a delirious crowd.
- Rap, country and ... K-Pop -
We thought that by beating the longevity record at the head of the musical classification of the United States with "Old Town Road", a piece neither entirely rap, nor entirely country, all while openly assuming his homosexuality, Lil Nas X had already broken down its barriers.
On Sunday evening, the unlikely hero of 2019 continued to blur genres. All alone in a room - where a Kobe Bryant jersey had also been placed there -, he began to hum the first notes of his song become legendary, rocked by the airs of banjo and heavy bass. Wearing a cowboy hat, he was joined by the Korean pop stars BTS who sang his planetary tube in their sauce, with an intriguing rap, country and K-Pop cocktail.
© 2020 AFP