Another West tirade spoils Grammys
The 57th Grammys may have belonged to UK crooner Sam Smith, but all the drama centred around – no, not Rihanna’s humungous and much-mocked pink Giambattista Valli dress – but Beyoncé.
he Drunk In Love singer took home three gongs, but it wasn’t good enough for her BeyHive – they wanted the biggest award of the night, Album of the Year, which was won by veteran Beck, 44, for Morning Phase.
But 21-time winner Kanye West, who famously crashed the MTV Video Music Awards stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to say Beyoncé “had one of the best videos of all time” with Single Ladies, threatened to repeat his controversial act, only to walk back to his seat, leaving the audience in stitches.
West’s behaviour in 2009 prompted US President Barack Obama to label him a “jackass”.
But West wasn’t kidding – he later told E! News: “We ain’t gonna play with them [the Grammys judging panel] no more. And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should’ve given his award to Beyoncé.
“Because when you keep on diminishing art and not respecting the craft and smacking people in their face after they deliver monumental feats of music, you’re disrespectful to inspiration. And we as musicians have to inspire people who go to work every day, and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place.”
For her part, the songstress was apparently shocked and pleading with the rapper not to repeat his stunt.
A classy Beck was quoted as saying to US magazine: “I thought she [Beyoncé] was going to win. Come on, she’s Beyoncé.
“You can’t please everybody, man. I still love him [Kanye] and think he’s genius. I aspire to do what he does,” he said.
But the controversy followed Beyoncé. She performed the gospel song, Take My Hand Precious Lord, before introducing Common and John Legend to perform Glor y, their Golden Globe-winning song from the soundtrack of the film Selma.
Ledisi, also a nominee, plays Mahalia Jackson in the Martin Luther King jnr film and sings the song in the film, but was sidelined for Beyoncé.
She told ET she had “no clue” why she was replaced, despite being “in the building”.
Legend said: “We were actually approached by Beyoncé. She wanted to do an intro to our performance. You don’t really say no to Beyoncé if she asks to perform with you.”
-Andile Ndlovu
