DAVID TESIC
A&E Assistant
While many people were glued to their television sets watching the biggest music event of the year, some Pepperdine students and faculty members were enjoying themselves in the front rows of the Staples Center with all the entertainers and celebrities.
Junior broadcast journalism major Sarah Perkins, Seaver communication graduate students Alisa Bartholomew, Joanna Lord, Yvette Lormier and Keith Gormley and adjunct speech professor Kathy Kelley were some those people lucky enough to be within a couple feet of all the action.
“There were lots of celebrities around the entire night,” Kelley said.
Bartholomew said she bumped into Joss Stone and saw hip-hop artist Ludacris.
“I met everybody,” Gormley said. “Joss Stone was sitting directly across from me. I met Jay-Z and Beyonce. I congratulated Kanye West on his award and shook hands with Usher.”
Normally, getting front-row tickets to the Grammy Awards is no easy task.
The graduate students got their tickets from Laura Gulbrandson, another Seaver graduate student who works as an intern for the Grammy’s. Kelley got her ticket from her roommate who works for the payroll company that covers the Grammy Awards Show.
The attendees said they were surprised at the low ratings the show received Sunday night. An estimated 18.8 million people tuned in, a 28 percent drop from the 2004 Grammys. After two years on a ratings upswing, Grammy ratings sunk to their lowest level since 1995, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“The organization of the event was amazing,” Gormley said. “I can’t believe that it had the lowest ratings since 1996.”
Bartholomew said there was always something going on during the show, even while the commercials were running.
Every element of the show was timed carefully, including the hostess, hip-hop star Queen Latifah.
“Queen Latifah was a great hostess,” Perkins said. “I thought she was really entertaining.”
Even Gormley, who said he thought that she wasn’t really the right person for the job, said she did a good job entertaining the audience.
The biggest winner of the night was music legend Ray Charles.
While the attendees felt the tribute to Charles was very touching, some questioned whether he would have won them all if he was still alive.
“We will never know if he would have won the Grammys if he were still alive, but I’d like to think he would have,” Kelley said.
There were many memorable speeches given by award winners.
“Kanye West definitely had the best speech,” Gormley said. “It was full of emotion. Some people seemed to think that he was acting, but I was really close and could tell he was real honest.”
West, who led the nominees going into the ceremony with 10 nods, received the award for Best Rap Album for “The College Dropout.”
West gave an emotional acceptance speech that touched on his near-fatal car crash in 2002.
“When I had my accident, I found out at that moment, nothing in life is promised except death,” West said in his acceptance speech. “If you have the opportunity to play this game of life, you need to appreciate every moment.”
Kelley agreed that Kanye West gave one of the best speeches of the night.
“My favorite speeches were Kanye West’s, because it had a great climactic element, and John Mayer’s for its sincerity,” Kelley said.
But the Grammy’s are not only about giving and accepting awards.
The show is also the largest concert of the year, and it hosts many of the most popular artists from a wide variety of musical genres.
There are always a couple of Grammy performances that stand out among the rest.
“My top-two performances were Kanye West and Usher,” Kelley said.
Perkins said she enjoyed Kanye West’s performance of “Jesus Walks” with the gospel choir.
Perkins added that Alicia Keys and Jamie Foxx’s duet performance of “Georgia on My Mind” was a highlight of the show and a fitting tribute to the Charles.
Duets were not in shortage at the 47th annual Grammys. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony also teamed up for a duet, which was the first public acknowledgement of their marriage.
Latifah introduced the performance as “a love song about escaping from the glare of a watching world.”
“My favorite performances were by Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge,” Bartholomew said.
Bartholomew also said she felt U2’s tsunami-relief performance was well-done.
The real surprise of the evening came when the group of graduate students received free tickets to the official Grammy after-party in the Staples Center.
“The after-party was really cool because we got to see Black Eyed Peas perform,” Bartholomew said. “There were only about a 1,000 people there, so I got to be really close.”
The after-party featured gourmet food and 10 open bars.
“They even had a make-your-own ice cream bar with a huge selection of flavors,” Gormley said. “It was really classy and intimate.”
Perkins also attended an after-party hosted by P. Diddy in Beverly Hills.
Overall, the students and faculty members said their Grammy awards show experience was a memorable one.
“It was a breathtaking show, with an eclectic group of presenters and performers,” Kelley said.
Gormley said attending the 47th annual Grammys was one of the most enjoyable nights of his life.
“I can die a happy man now,” he said. “The only thing I have to do now is to get up there and give my own award-acceptance speech.”
02-17-2005
