Sometimes these things happen: Sunday’s Grammys favor music over awards

Sunday’s Grammys favor music over awards

BURBANK, Calif. ? Viewers tuning in to the 3½-hour Grammy Awards will be spared endless podium speeches and shout-outs to Mom. About 10 of the 108 trophies will be dispensed on the telecast Sunday (CBS, 8 p.m. ET/tape delay PT).

• By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

  Grammys show producer Ken Ehrlich, left, Martina McBride, Jennifer Hudson, Yolanda Adams and Florence Welch rehearse a salute to Aretha Franklin.

By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Grammys show producer Ken Ehrlich, left, Martina McBride, Jennifer Hudson, Yolanda Adams and Florence Welch rehearse a salute to Aretha Franklin.

Instead, expect wall-to-wall performances in a revue that spans genres and generations.

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Legends Mick Jagger, Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan are on tap, along with contemporary hitmakers Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Muse, Arcade Fire and Lady Antebellum. They could all be upstaged by the long-awaited return of Dr. Dre, making his Grammy stage debut to premiere I Need a Doctor with Eminem.

Forming one of the traditional magical combos are Cee Lo Green, Gwyneth Paltrow and, no joke, the Jim Henson puppets.

The show that annually honors music is far more obsessed with showcasing talent than applauding it.

“I really believe this is the only place left where it’s about career-building, not just about your sales the next week, though for the labels it is,” says co-executive producer Ken Ehrlich, mastermind behind the show’s collaborative “moments.”

He promises a night steeped in melody and musicality, anchored in the sounds of the day but without the modern tendency toward too much tinsel.

“Some of the younger acts making noise now seem more interesting musically,” says Ehrlich, who has produced the show since 1980. “In Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, I see a return to acoustic music. Maybe I’m wishing it’s so, but I talk to 15-year-olds who know the whole Mumford album. I’m really energized by that.

“On the other side, Bruno Mars, B.o.B and Janelle Monáe have an old-school, old-soul feel, an appreciation of where music came from, and they add some layers to it. Eminem’s always been musical. And Lady Gaga’s extremely musical.”

‘Valentine’ to Aretha

Oh, there will be flash and glitz and dancers. After all, Gaga is coming to the party. But even the frothiest hits are steered toward more substantial arrangements, and pop stars are urged to test less obvious material.

Ehrlich persuaded Perry, who ruled summer with California Gurls, to tackle her poignant Not Like the Movies.

“She will do a good chunk of Teenage Dream as well, but people will see there’s more to her. I’m sure most producers would say, ‘Just jump around and have fun; we don’t want the ballad.’ We’re never going to say, ‘Do the hit, thank you very much.’ Artists can be more adventurous here.”

Ehrlich chats while overseeing an ambitious rehearsal Wednesday night at CenterStaging studios, where a hug-fest ensues when Yolanda Adams, late after battling traffic from the airport, finally arrives to meet singing partners Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine. (Fifth member Christina Aguilera has begged off until Thursday.)

They’re prepping a show-opening “valentine” medley to Aretha Franklin, winner of 18 Grammys. She’s recovering from surgery in Detroit.

“Aretha’s the original Grammy girl,” Ehrlich tells the assembled singers and musicians, noting that the musical montage has Franklin’s blessing and that a message she taped at a neighbor’s home will air on the telecast. “She lost 100 pounds, and she’s feeling great.”

All ‘attitude and sass’

The vocal quintet’s salute opens with Natural Woman and culminates in a rousing Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves, with solo turns on Aretha signatures in between.

Adams tears into Spirit in the Dark. Welch wraps up a soulful Think before dancing blissfully as Hudson belts out Respect.

“It’s one of Aretha’s most popular songs, and I feel extra special to be able to do it for her,” Hudson says later, adding playfully, “It fits me all around, vocally and the attitude and sass.”

Joining a throng of divas is fun, stressful, a little intimidating, “but the honor of the Grammys outweighs everything else,” Hudson says.

Is it daunting to undertake the Queen of Soul’s catalog?

“Yes!” Welch blurts. “But it’s a privilege. I have to give it all the feeling I have. I grew up with these songs, and I love singing with other singers, especially such accomplished women.”

McBride appears unflappable but anticipates an attack of nerves before Sunday.

“I’m very flattered to be a part of this,” she says, “but I have to shut out the voice that says, ‘Millions of people are watching on TV!’ We all want to do these songs justice.”

Such an ensemble venture may be riskier than reprising your own tunes, “but it adds an interesting, different dimension,” McBride says. “It’s one reason I love watching the Grammys.”

Dylan’s influence

When the women finish a clean run, band leader Greg Phillinganes cracks, “Well, I believe we’ve all passed the audition!”

Ehrlich is beaming.

He’s also proud of luring Dylan into a three-part acoustic tribute with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, two acts that reject synthetic pop and embrace folk-rock and singer/songwriter traditions of the ’60s and ’70s.

“I started thinking how all this came from Bob Dylan,” Ehrlich says. “He agreed to do it and suggested Maggie’s Farm, but that could change. Obviously, you won’t see this anywhere else.”

Mumford will perform The Cave, followed by Avett’s Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise and Dylan’s contribution.

Other highlights:

•Jagger, strutting on Grammy’s stage for the first time, and Raphael Saadiq sing Everybody Needs Somebody to Love in a tribute to soul great Solomon Burke, who died in October.

•Lady Gaga’s live debut of new single Born This Way. Secrecy shrouds her staging, wardrobe and Grammy arrival. “It will be pretty cool,” Ehrlich says. “The saga of Gaga continues.”

•Kris Kristofferson, Streisand’s co-star in A Star Is Born, will introduce the diva, a dead giveaway that she’ll sing theme song Evergreen.

•Rihanna and Drake reprise their hit, What’s My Name, and she’ll join Eminem on his Love the Way You Lie.

•Justin Bieber and Usher perform medleys, separately and together. Watch for a reference to their first meeting in a parking lot of the studio where Usher was recording. Plus, an appearance by Jaden Smith.

•Cee Lo, a Muppets fan, cooked up the highly anticipated number with Paltrow and the band of Henson puppets, plucked from the New York theater show Stuffed and Unstrung. They’ll do a newly retooled and sanitized version of F—- You with a spaceship motif and “little tinkly piano,” Ehrlich says.

•Bruno Mars, B.o.B and Janelle Monáe link voices for Nothin’ on You, before Mars’ solo turn on Grenade and a group effort on Monáe’s Cold War.

•Miranda Lambert sings The House That Built Me.

•Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, ChocQuib Town, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Kirk Whalum, Maria Muldaur and Betty Wright will perform on the pre-telecast, which doles out about 98 awards. It streams live 4-7 p.m. ET/1-4 p.m. PT on grammy.com/live and youtube.com/thegrammys.

Generating sales and buzz

A performance slot on the Grammys ranked No. 1 on Billboard‘s 2010 Maximum Exposure list of the 100 best ways to generate sales and buzz.

Industry experts placed the show’s spotlight ahead of a song placed in a hit movie’s opening credits, a slot at a huge sporting event, a tune covered on American Idol or Glee, a headlining arena tour or an Apple TV ad.

After her airborne rendition of Glitter in the Air last year, Pink saw sales of her Funhouse album jump 1,100% in one week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Other performers saw similar gains.

The show drew 25.8 million viewers, up 35% from 2009, its largest audience since 2004.

Confirmation and cachet

The breadth, depth and caliber of Grammy’s lineup is unmatched in the industry, says Gail Mitchell, senior editor at Billboard.

“It’s a great cross section of acts that people are listening to and buying, and I can’t believe how packed it is this year,” she says. “There’s a lot of excitement behind this show.

“For artists, this is the show you want to be on. Not to take away from the American Music Awards, but the performances on the Grammys mean more. It’s a confirmation. There’s that cachet.”

Ehrlich is unfazed by competing shows.

“There are more outlets for artists to be on, but fewer places for them to be on in an important way,” he says. “Other shows have become about spectacle and the red carpet and the post-show. MTV is about Jersey Shore. We still stand for something. It’s an honor to be on the Grammys.”

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