Best Moments of The Grammys

The 59th Grammys were filled with crazy, funny, and interesting moments. A large topic of conversation was the current political state of America. A Tribe Called Quest’s performance was especially telling of how some feel about, in their own words, “President Agent Orange.” Laverne Cox was praised for her overwhelming support of #StandWithGavin, a hashtag in support of a 17-year-old named Gavin Grimm in a Supreme Court case coming up on transgender rights. Beyoncé was also in the spotlight, not only for her outstanding performances of “Sandcastles” and “Love Drought,” but for her double baby bump, and her composure and great handling of getting over looked for Song and Record of the Year. Speaking of performances, Lady Gaga and Metallica, or Lady Gag-tallica”s performance was better than expected. If we ignore one of the microphones not working, the performance overall was great. Katy Perry also killed it during her performance of her new song “Chained to the Rhythm,” my dad said, “[Katy Perry’s] performance was probably the best Grammy performance I’ve ever seen.” While accepting the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Stressed Out,” the dynamic duo dropped their pants. Singer Tyler Joseph said that they had agreed that if they ever won a Grammy, they would accept the award pantless, and that is exactly what they did. Joseph’s wife,  Jenna Joseph, said that she had no idea they were going to do that until she heard his pants unzipping. Their speech was especially inspirational, ending with the line, “Anyone, from anywhere, can do anything.”

Awards

Record of the Year: Adele, “Hello”

Album of the Year: Adele, 25

Song of the Year: Adele, “Hello”

Best Rap Album: Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book

Best Urban Comtemporary Album: Beyoncé, Lemonade

Best Country Solo Performance: Marengo Morrison, “My Church”

Best Rock Song: David Bowie, “Blackstar”

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: Twenty One Pilots, “Stressed Out”

Best New Artist: Chance the Rapper

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Willie Nelson, Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin

Best Pop Vocal Album: Adele, 25

Best Pop Solo Performance: Adele, “Hello”

Best Alternative Music Album: Cage the Elephant, Tell Me I’m Pretty

Best Rock Performance: David Bowie, Blackstar

Best Rap Song: Drake, “Hotline Bling”

Best R&B Performance: Solange, “Cranes in the Sky”

Best Reggae Album: Ziggy Marley, Ziggy Marley

Best Country Song: Tim McGraw, “Humble and Kind”

Best Country Duo/Group Performance: Pentatonix, “Jolene (feat. Dolly Parton)”

Best World Music Album: Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble, Sing Me Home

Best Musical Theater Album: The Color Purple

**These are only some of the awards won at the Grammys, for a full list of winners and nominees, go to: https://www.grammy.com/nominees

Best Moments of The Oscars

This year’s Oscars were full of great moments, many of which were based off the recent election of Donald Trump. The winner for Best Foreign Film didn’t come to personally accept his award out of respect for all the people affected by the recently implemented travel ban from countries such as Iran. Jimmy Kimmel had a fun time picking at Matt Damon over the course of the whole night, including once when Damon was presenting an award and Kimmel conducted the band to “play him off” the stage. Lin Manuel Mirada and Auli’i Cravalho performed “How Far I’ll Go” from the Disney movie Moana and John Legend performed a mash-up of “City of Stars” and “Audition (Fools Who Dream)” from LA Lakers Land; both performances were amazing and they all did amazing. A busload of tourists from a Hollywood tour bus were surprised when they were brought into the theater and got to meet some of the best actors in the world. The whole night was great; however, it ended on a mix up when the announcer incorrectly announced La La Land for Best Picture instead of Moonlight.

Awards

Best Picture: Moonlight

Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Best Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land

Best Director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman

Best Animated Feature Film: Zootopia

Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Best Original Song: “City of Stars”, Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, La La Land

Best Original Music Score: Justin Hurwitz, La La Land

Best Writing Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins

Best Cinematography: Linus Sandborn, La La Land

Best Film Editing: John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge

Best Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Best Animated Short Film: Alan Barillaro, Marc Sondheimer, Piper

** For a full list of winners and nominees, go to: http://oscar.go.com/winners