Sam Smith Wins Big As Fans Slam ‘Boring And Predictable’ Grammy Award Ceremony
English soul singer Sam Smith was the big winner in last nights Grammy awards. The 22-year-old grabbed four of the top prizes in what many have called a boring and predictable awards ceremony. Breakthrough artist Smith bagged awards for best newcomer, best song and best record for “Stay With Me”, and best pop vocal album for his debut In the Lonely Hour.
Sam Smith was the only artist to sell one million albums on both sides of the Atlantic in 2014, so it was a surprise that he failed to win the “Best Album” prize which went to Beck for his lyrical, melancholic Morning Phase.
Smith was hotly tipped to win the awards but according to the Guardian his success in the record industry’s biggest night capped Smith’s breakout success since appearing as a guest vocalist on Disclosure’s “Latch” and winning last year’s Brit Critics Choice award.
Smith, who is openly gay, dedicated his wins to a man who broke his heart saying “Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammy’s.” Smith told the gathering of music industry royalty at the Staples Center in L.A. that “Before I made this record I was doing everything to try get my music to the world. I tried to lose weight and was making awful music. It was only when I started to be myself that the music flowed.”
While Smith was clearly enjoying collecting his awards, the television audience was less impressed with the proceedings. Many took to social media to slam the ceremony for being dull, boring and predictable.
Is it me or just majority of performance in #GRAMMYs is a bit boring..too many sad songs..make it pop a little bit..
— SyafiqJohnAzhar (@syafiq_azhr) February 9, 2015
Even Kanye West was boringly predictable when he made to crash the stage in a repeat of his infamous interruption of Taylor Swift in 2009’s VMA’s. According to the Hollywood Reporter West made for the stage before Beck’s acceptance of his Best Album award. Beck had claimed the award ahead of Sam Smith, but West was upset that it had not gone to Beyonce.
He said “I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists, to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us. We ain’t gonna play with them no more, and Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyonce.”
According to the Mail the Grammy ceremony featured a number of collaborative performances, Beck sang onstage with Chris Martin, Common and John Legend performed the Oscar-nominated “Glory” from Selma, and Rihanna performed “FourFiveSeconds” with Paul McCartney and Kanye West.
The Guardian recently named Sam Smith along with, Ed Sheeran and George Ezra, as one of the kings of “Bland Pop” so perhaps the Grammy’s simply reflected the current state of the industry. Overall it was all very safe, inoffensive, bland and predictable.
[Image via AP/voanews.com]
