Entertainment

65th Annual GRAMMY AWARDS Behind The Scenes Live with Moshe Lewis

Published

February 6, 2023

The excitement is palpable. This is music’s biggest night. The nominees, the legends, the fans all assembled in one place to honor the best in music. As I worked my way through the layers of security, it was amazing to appreciate the complexity of this production. I saw every major media outlet, backstage performer, crew, and media personnel gearing up to give their all. Even realizing the importance of the sign language team helps one to understand that putting this together requires incredible planning to have everyone feel included.

As you step onto the red carpet, one appreciates the importance of creatives everywhere. There are teams, entourages, handlers, publicists, and agents that help the artist achieve and maintain their greatness everywhere.

There are roses everywhere and the red-carpet hall is simply gorgeous. The prestige of winning a Grammy is only mirrored by the anticipation that the artists must feel right before their name is called. In addition, it is musicians that help to nominate and vote for the ultimately winners. This year over 16,000 submissions were received for nominee consideration. Now, that’s a lot of music.

And of course, there is always some controversy when a group is trying ot make everyone feel included. Some amazing artists don’t garner a nomination and other well deserving creatives may not take home a win. However, what truly makes the Grammy’s incredible is that it propels our appreciate of music forward and opens the dialogue with every new category. This year 5 new categories were added. And while, many may not know these creatives, we all can agree that at one point, everyone was an unknown. Music is a universal language that can allow us to cross cultural divides and ideally allowing us to understand one another better.

As the program begins there are so many first-time nominees, performers, and hosts that you can see the Academy’s efforts to continue to spread new music, new songs, and new conversations. For artists who have spent years, and, in many cases, decades dedicated to expanding our auditory smorgasbord, we must be forever grateful.

65TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS WINNERS before the live show

GRAMMY Winner Viola Davis wins a GRAMMY for Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording, making her an EGOT winner. Viola states: she states to her family ” You are my life and my joy and the best chapter in my book”.

Photo of Samara Joy (Red Dress)

Samara Joy just delivered the performance of her life at her first Grammy’s before taking home the award for Jazz Vocal Album of the year. As she shed tears of joy she reminded us of the dreams of a young girl from the Bronx taking home America’s most prestigious award that so many of us can relate to.

Samara has a contralto voice and delivers her songs with a level of composure that moves your heart that introduces you to jazz in a warm way. It is reported that Ms. Joy was on a train from Washington D.C. to New York when she found out that she had been nominated for a Grammy. Paradoxically she couldn’t express her true excitement as she was on a subway train. She was ultimately able to post her true reaction on Tik Tok that has garnered almost 4 million views and counting.

Going Virtual Takes Red Carpet interviews to the News Level

When I grew up our television transported us to far away lands, make believe homes and of course up close and personal with the stars. In this post COVID era, virtual media continues to grow its influence, and the Grammy’s have recognized and embraced this trend.

This year, media affiliates all over the globe had the opportunity to conduct interviews with the favorite musicians as well as experience the red carpet through some of the latest technologies and cameras all over the place. Even though there may be nothing that mirrors rubbing elbows and shoulder with lyrical BEST IN THE MUSIC Business, the reality is that there are now more media outlets than ever before. Accommodating all of them simply would not be possible given time constraints and logistics.

To prove that this medium could excel the intensity of actually being on the carpet, several media personnel were provided a direct feed to interact with artists and ask the questions of their dreams. Artists went out of their way to be gracious and embrace this growing trend. Considering the cost and limitations inherent for many outlets being able to participate in person, this approach gave much smaller entities the chance to run with the big dogs without being a big spender. We extend our thanks for this amazing opportunity that exceeded our expectations and may us feel welcome and included.