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Check OUt www.dailyemerald.com
I DDE online edition
‘0 Brother,’ Alicia Keys,
112 top Grammy Awards
By Brian McCollum
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
We were supposed to remem
ber it as a bad year for the music
business.
But the Grammy Awards just
couldn’t help themselves
Wednesday night, honoring qual
ity artists from front to back and
leaving a glowing mark in the
history books next to the entry
for 2001.
The biggest heart-warmer came
courtesy of “O Brother, Where
Art Thou?” — the bluegrass
soundtrack that finally, officially,
shook off its underdog status,
grabbing the vaunted Album of
the Year trophy. That startling
victory was one of five wins for
the blessedly traditional country
album, which was last year’s
biggest surprise commercial hit.
But the bulk of attention
wound up where expected: on
U2 and Alicia Keys, who
matched the classy showing of
“O Brother.”
For U2 — eight-time nominee,
four-time winner — that meant
opening the show with a rousing
rendition of “Walk On” and clos
ing with a rousing victory speech
when that tune captured Record
of the Year. It was a second con
secutive win in that category for
the Irish band, which last year
won for “Beautiful Day.”
No artist could top the occa
sionally wide-eyed Alicia Keys,
the neo-soul newcomer who
started the night with six nomina
tions and left with five awards,
including three of the biggies:
Best New Artist, Best R&B Album
and Song of the Year.
With her handful of golden
gramophones, Keys tied Lauryn
Hill’s single-night mark for most
Grammy wins by a female artist.
Hill, who set the stage for Keys’
blend of organic soul and cosmo
politan decorum, won five
awards in 1999.
It got to the point where Keys
seemed to run out of acceptance
speeches. “You don’t know how
much this humbles me,” she said.
This year’s Grammys arrived
with plenty of baggage: Music
sales are down, labels are hurting
and few new stars emerged in
2001. Grammy chief Michael
Greene stepped to the stage
Wednesday night to make a seem
ingly desperate plea against illicit
music downloads online.
But for all the negative vibes
lurking around the music indus
try, Wednesday night was a tri
umph for those who champion
the good stuff popular music has
to offer.
Gone for good, it seems, are the
Peter Utsey Emerald
Lionel Hahn Knight-Ridder Direct
Nelly Furtado (left) and Alicia Keys, who won the gramophone for Best New Artist, arrive
the 44th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Galif., on Wednesday night.
days when the Grammys gave us
more reason to jeer than cheer.
Wednesday highlighted what was
roundly considered some of last
year’s best work — music that
came with the bonus of wide
sales appeal.
The biggest beef could be di
rected at the shutout of
India.Arie, a Keys peer whose
eclectic take on neo-soul is con
sidered superior by many critics.
Arie was nominated seven times;
she left empty-handed.
It was the longest Grammy
show in history, with an extra 30
minutes tacked onto the standard
three hours to accommodate
record executives’ demands for
artist airtime. But host Jon Stew
art — consistently spry and funny
— helped keep a brisk pace, and
despite live performances that
seemed to spill into each other,
the show rarely lagged.
“O Brother” produced the
night’s finest live performance, a
medley of songs eloquently deliv
ered by a coterie of artists that in
cluded 75-year-old Ralph Stanley,
who earlier took his first-ever
Grammy win.
©2002, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.