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What to Expect From the Show
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
Sunday's Grammy forecast: a sprinkling of acceptance speeches and a downpour of musical muscle-flexing.
The Grammy Awards may exist to disburse music's most coveted prize, but the trophies usually play second fiddle to the night's entertainment.
The three-hour marathon, airing on CBS at 8 p.m. ET live/PT taped from Los Angeles, opens with nominees Franz Ferdinand, Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, the Black Eyed Peas and Los Lonely Boys performing across three stages.
Also on tap:
• Individual performances by U2, Green Day, Usher, Tim McGraw and Alicia Keys.
• Kanye West in a rap-gospel segment with Mavis Staples, John Legend and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
• A tribute to Ray Charles with Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston.
• A toast to Southern rock by, among others, Gretchen Wilson and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
• A fundraising sing-along of The Beatles' Across the Universe, featuring Bono, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, McGraw and Velvet Revolver. Viewers can download the live track from iTunes for 99 cents; proceeds go to Asian tsunami relief.
• Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony in their first public performance together.
Despite TV's jittery state after Janet Jackson's peek-a-booby scandal last year at the Super Bowl, Grammy execs have imposed no rules on profanity or wardrobe glitches.
"We don't take the position of telling artists what they can or can't do," says Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy. "Since last year, the climate is such that there's an increased awareness (of moral boundaries) in corporate America and in the artistic community. But we've done nothing different this year, and we've had no particular communication from the network. I guess we'll see how it turns out."
The academy does ban lip-syncing and singing to prerecorded tracks.
"We are a live TV show," Portnow says. "And that's what you're going to see and hear. Talk about live music: this show uses more than 250 musicians in one night. We write those checks, and we're proud of it."
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
Sunday's Grammy forecast: a sprinkling of acceptance speeches and a downpour of musical muscle-flexing.
The Grammy Awards may exist to disburse music's most coveted prize, but the trophies usually play second fiddle to the night's entertainment.
The three-hour marathon, airing on CBS at 8 p.m. ET live/PT taped from Los Angeles, opens with nominees Franz Ferdinand, Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, the Black Eyed Peas and Los Lonely Boys performing across three stages.
Also on tap:
• Individual performances by U2, Green Day, Usher, Tim McGraw and Alicia Keys.
• Kanye West in a rap-gospel segment with Mavis Staples, John Legend and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
• A tribute to Ray Charles with Bonnie Raitt and Billy Preston.
• A toast to Southern rock by, among others, Gretchen Wilson and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
• A fundraising sing-along of The Beatles' Across the Universe, featuring Bono, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, McGraw and Velvet Revolver. Viewers can download the live track from iTunes for 99 cents; proceeds go to Asian tsunami relief.
• Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony in their first public performance together.
Despite TV's jittery state after Janet Jackson's peek-a-booby scandal last year at the Super Bowl, Grammy execs have imposed no rules on profanity or wardrobe glitches.
"We don't take the position of telling artists what they can or can't do," says Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy. "Since last year, the climate is such that there's an increased awareness (of moral boundaries) in corporate America and in the artistic community. But we've done nothing different this year, and we've had no particular communication from the network. I guess we'll see how it turns out."
The academy does ban lip-syncing and singing to prerecorded tracks.
"We are a live TV show," Portnow says. "And that's what you're going to see and hear. Talk about live music: this show uses more than 250 musicians in one night. We write those checks, and we're proud of it."
