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Tag: Tori Kelly
#TisTheSeason: Musical Notes: Christmas Music Edition
The Highs and Lows of the 2016 #Grammys
I’ll be honest. The Grammys actually rank low on my own personal totem pole when it comes to music award shows just because they are equivalent to the academy awards where they are boring as hell and very very dry. Now I know a lot of people just side-eyed the screen but let me explain why:
The Grammys are one of the highest accolades a musical artist could hope for but that doesn’t mean the show is exactly entertaining.
Last night in Los Angeles, the show was opened by Taylor Swift singing her newest single off her album 1989, “Out of The Woods.”
This performance was followed by Sam Hunt and Carrie Underwood doing a mash-up medley of their hits. Some fans say Sam butchered “Heartbeat” but I thought they both did a great job.
Some lows of the Grammys were definitely Adele having technical difficulties during her return performance on the Grammys stage.
Another low was speculation that Taylor Swift robbed Kendrick Lamar of an Album of the Year win. I feel that last night proved that the country as a whole is sick of Taylor Swift because I saw memes making fun of her haircut and the above picture of Tori Kelly went viral because that was the face she was giving Taylor during her acceptance speech. I was happy for Taylor because she got to acknowledge Kanye West’s claims that because he interrupted her acceptance speech at the VMA’s back in 2009, he made her famous or relevant. Let’s get real here, Kanye. Taylor’s talent alone speaks for itself. You haven’t released anything of value since Stronger. Please stop the Twitter rants in an effort to publicize your album because I’m sure plenty of people will buy it simply because you are Kanye West.
Some highs at the Grammys
Demi Lovato slaying during the Lionel Richie tribute.
Kendrick Lamar put on a crazy poetic performance highlighting racism while performing his single, “Alright”
Lastly, my girl Tori Kelly did a mash-up performance with James Bay. And they both sounded way too good not to make us all hope for a future collaboration
Congratulations to all the winners! This means you are officially the best in your genre.
As much as I’m excited for a lot of my favorites in pop finally getting acknowledged by the Grammy Foundation, I really hope they will get a little more lively next year.
.@ToriKelly deserves a Grammy for new single, #SomethingBeautiful
Tori Kelly is an amazing songwriter but as far as the music industry goes, she is only known for her angelic vocals. See, I was late to the Tori Kelly fan party. I happened to see a tweet from someone I followed on Twitter (isn’t this how all good stories start nowadays) talking about Tori Kelly. Then, a few days later, I saw her on the Radio Disney music awards and I started to take notice but it wasn’t until I wrote my first ever article for Outloud.com reviewing her debut album, Unbreakable Smile, that I realized how amazing of an artist she really is.
Her new single, “Something Beautiful” is no exception. The song gives a positive spin to what others consider beautiful as well as tackling themes of confidence, self-esteem, and belief in oneself and the strength one holds inside. I can’t stop listening to it. And when I’m not listening to it, I find myself humming it or singing it to myself because it gave me an earworm. My favorite thing about the song is that it’s the perfect remedy when you are having a bad day, a bad week, or heaven forbid, a bad year. The single was released as part of her Unbreakable Smile repackaged edition.
Tori Kelly is scheduled to perform this upcoming Monday February 15 with fellow breakout artist James Bay (and my British bae) on this year’s Grammy Awards. You can bet I’ll be tuning in and singing along.
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