Gaga Steals Show (and Gets F'ing Robbed!)

I'll give you Pink, not that she won anything. Singing that well while suspended upside down with water dripping off your body is freaky and hard to do. The Peas, as much as their flash performance on Oprah was the single coolest thing I saw this year, disappointed. Fergie has a great voice but she sure didn't show it last night.

Then let's get down to the award winners. Anyone announcing from the podium, "I'm not going to lie I'm more than a little drunk" (Kings of Leon) should immediately have their statue revoked.

I hate to admit the fact that I did buy Taylor Swift's album. The girl has pipes. She's not high on personality or performance charisma. She's not breaking any molds. But she does what she does well.

My biggest complaint is Beyonce. The darth vader song was plain weird. She has a nice voice but we didn't hear it. To me as a performer she is so ... been there, done that. So 2009. I mean, she really never recovered from that slap down with Jennifer Hudson (who looked radiant last night, you go girl!) in Dream Girls. Jenny made the model's soul sound positively tin in comparison to the real deal.

Then there's Gaga. Last night's performance is right there with Melissa Ethridge's comeback performance from chemo, belting out a defiant "Piece of My Heart" with Joss Stone. Those are the only two times a shiver went up my spine watching the silly award show. Okay, Ethridge sent my wife into spontaneous labor, so she still takes the poll position:

Seriously, can you see Beyonce or Fergie or Taylor or the Kings of Leon dueling pianos and vocals with Elton John just after turning in the performance of the night?

The thing is, getting snubbed last night only serves to amplify the Gaga wave. It's like Congress debating just how much pork they can cram into the health care bill when the country is falling apart.

Anyone with a pulse could tell who the real winner was last night. And it had nothing to do with hardware.

Tom Matlack is the co-founder of THE GOOD MEN PROJECT and a fan of all things cool and good.

 

Follow Tom Matlack on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tmatlack

Comments

[NicoleA19]

12:15 AM on 02/03/2010

The best grammy performance and the show stealer in my opinion was Pink. I looked at different Polls around the internet and this seems to be the general consensus. Pink won in every one of those polls. Gaga Steals Show?? What about "Pink steals the show from Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga"

[Chuckjones]

05:07 AM on 02/02/2010

I felt sad that Gaga didn't get best album. She was sitting there holding her dad's hand and dressed to the nth degree. Her acceptance speech would have been awesome. There's no doubt she would have spoken for gay rights. She deserved the award in my opinion. Let's remember thought that this is the Grammys. How many great artists have never received a Grammy? The Who? Diana Ross? The Four Tops? Buddy Holly? The list is deep. In terms of the performances, I liked Pink's (I always enjoy her aerial shows) but 10 years from now people will be referencing the John/Gaga duet. I hope they collaborate again and again. A duet album of their ballads in a few years would be sweet.

[Tom Matlack]

06:38 PM on 02/02/2010

totally agree chuck. great comment

[RedsnGreens]

10:25 PM on 02/01/2010

Mr. Matlack, kudos to you!!! Totally agree with you about Gaga. I loved your sentence: "Anyone with a pulse could tell who the real winner was last night" After the show was over, I kept repeating, "What a waste." I sat through 5.5 hours (2 hrs was for E!'s red carpet show) of anxiously waiting for Gaga's name to be called for Best Album of the Year. And when Swift's name was called, I exclaimed some expletives in my utter disbelief and disappointment.

I'm not defending Gaga just because I'm a fan of hers, but c'mon. FOUR #1 singles off The Fame, a DEBUT album no less, and she gets snubbed, gypped, robbed of Album of the Year. Granted, Swift's Fearless cd sold more, but Gaga's cd was of a higher caliber in terms of quality.

And talk about talent, look up on Youtube any of Gaga's songs done on piano. She is able to render them in a new way that's amazing and displays her talent. It doesn't take a genius to see that she is continuously changing and improving her game. She never performs a song the same way for long.

exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KrXxaTOAG4
exhibit B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laIr_d0hFB8

I'm wondering what's next, though? Now that she got gypped of Best Album, is there a way to address this disgression? Or do aggreived Gaga fans just hafta suck it up when we know it wasn't fair.......

[Tom Matlack]

06:41 PM on 02/02/2010

Gaga will do just fine...don't worry about her!

[NoSillyName]

09:13 PM on 02/01/2010

I've seen Gaga do better than that chaotic performance.

I expected that glowing intro by Ryan Seacrest (of all people) to be for GG. Everything he said could have been applied to her. I bet she thought her name was about to be spoken instead of that of Miss Sweetness & Light.

As for the Ethridge & Stone reference... I thought it was awful. Neither should attempt a JJ song.

[RobinJoJo]

08:29 PM on 02/01/2010

That performance of swifts was terrible.

[Irin Andriks]

08:21 PM on 02/01/2010

Sorry, but Lady Gaga makes me roll my eyes every time she
attempts to shock & awe! It has grown old.
Her outfit was silly.All of them.She tries too hard.
Having grown up in the 70's in the West Village NYC
with the "cute"at the time "Theatrics" of gay & transgender etc..
We used to rent those costumes (even better) from Broadway
& 41st Street, for Halloween,once a year...
Her gig has a very* short shelf life in Music Main Stream.
Same goes for "wrong decade " Adam Glambert...
That "Theatrical value" is all
gaga has ever done. Interesting in some Mardi Gras or Halloween
Party in the Village (N YC) but tiresome for most.

[eliteandproud]

08:02 PM on 02/01/2010

I am more than somewhat disheartened that the same woman who sang "Independent Woman" is now winning awards for a song about "[putting] a ring on it". Whatever happened to "I depend on me"?

It's also a crying shame that the Olympics pushed the Grammys up and disqualified Jay-Z/Alicia Keys "New York State of Mind".

I didn't watch last night, but I'm amazed that we've yet to fully pass the crown to Gaga in terms of the recognition she's due. Her international sales are phenomenal, but she gets treated like she's just another pop star among so many....

[NoSillyName]

09:29 PM on 02/01/2010

She's too edgy for that saccharine mess of pop & country.

[stevefromkelso]

06:35 PM on 02/01/2010

I get Gaga's appeal. She just wants to let teens know it's OK to let your freak flag fly. But as far as originality, this love child of Madonna and Marilyn Manson fails to connect with me the way Pink or the Kings of Leon do. Beyonce oversings and her performance production gets in the way. When she left the big stage to cover Alana M was the best part from her. Swift's singing is fine in the studio, but live she's weak and off-key. LOVED Jeff Beck.

[NoSillyName]

09:27 PM on 02/01/2010

Agree on Jeff Beck. Love him since the Yardbirds.. Wish he's had more time, tho I realize it was a tribute to LP. Saw him during the "Who Else" tour in '99. Fantastic.

None of those people connect with me. I was curious about the MJ tribute so I was recording the show and barely paying attention till I heard JB was there. Had to call my brother across the country and tell him to turn it on.

[keene]

05:19 PM on 02/01/2010

True dat

[dannyo152]

03:46 PM on 02/01/2010

Didn't watch. Looking at Pink's photo and seeing the comment today, the thought occurs: imagine rehearsing the thing.

[Norm]

03:11 PM on 02/01/2010

I love Lady Gaga, but I don't think her performance last night was a personal best.

[keene]

05:31 PM on 02/01/2010

Lady GaGa, didn't think she was all that

[OGoodGrief]

03:09 PM on 02/01/2010

Sorry, but Taylor Swift does not have a "set of pipes." Ugh. She was flat and tone deaf last night and thankfully Stevie Nicks helped rescue the songs they sang together. I can't imagine how Swift won except with the help of AutoTune in the studio. True test of a singer is if they can sing live...Swift failed.

[esgabel]

03:56 PM on 02/01/2010

Swift and Nicks should not have been paired together...that was the problem. Taylor has a great voice and she knows how to use it, as does Stevie--love both of them separately but we can't all sing in each other's register...

[JimR]

02:30 PM on 02/01/2010

Why do I get the feeling that if someone approached you and told you that Lady Gaga sucks, you'd beat them savagely?

[doglove]

06:04 PM on 02/01/2010

because they would be oh so wrong.

Take it from Sir Elton, she is the bomb!

[JimR]

02:27 PM on 02/01/2010

"Anyone announcing from the podium, "I'm not going to lie I'm more than a little drunk" (Kings of Leon) should immediately have their statue revoked."

Really? I think they should get an extra award for being honest.

[Beka13]

12:16 PM on 02/01/2010

An awards show that allows a Snooki onto the red carpet cannot be taken very seriously.