Member Since: 3/30/2009
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JT opening Grammys with new song and “Suit & Tie”
Grammys producer: Justin Timberlake among show's 'keepers of the flame'
Justin Timberlake will be up first today as rehearsals continue for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, and the singer will know he’s good to go when he gets an approving nod from Ken Ehrlich, the executive producer who is calling the tune for Sunday night’s show just as he has for past 33 years. No, that’s not a typo – Ehrlich has been the gatekeeper of the Grammys stage since the 1980 edition of the show, and he’s the guiding hand behind the show’s signature mix-and-match approach to putting artists and songs together in fused fashion.
Justin Timberlake is opening the show. I know he’s one of your favorites…
It’s great seeing Justin back. The last time he was on, he literally saved the show. We had a gaping hole in the show [after the Chris Brown and Rihanna incident] and he jumped in at the top of the show with Al Green. It was fantastic of him to do it. And then, I hope we didn’t cause it, but he left music for a while and became a movie star of sorts. It was really exciting when we got the call that he was back and doing music. I don’t know how many people even knew until a few months ago that he was back and making music. He was incredibly quiet about the fact that he was working on an album. And to me it’s not just an album, it’s a great album. He played five or six tracks for me just two or three weeks ago, and the great thing is not only is he doing a song that everybody has heard by now, but he’s also going to tack on to that something that nobody has heard. So we’ve got a nice little world premiere going with him that’s very, very exciting.
Fans of Mars and fun. might be surprised to hear them linked. Their music seems fairly different.
What they both do extremely well – and it’s also what Justin does extremely well, and it’s funny because we were just talking about him – all three of these acts have a great ability to go back and borrow from previous incarnations of pop music but also add a layer to them and make them their own in a way that feels natural. I mean, Bruno does it, like the song he’s going to do on the show, ”Locked Out of Heaven.” And he isn’t shy about acknowledging that. “Locked Out of Heaven” grew out of his admiration for the Police and for Sting. And Sting and the Police grew out of the music of the Marleys. It’s all generational and they know it.
It’s not a surprise that appeals to you – that’s the signature of your Grammy shows, connecting generational dots like that, like [the 2006 pairing of] Stevie Wonder with Alicia Keys or [on last year’s show] with the Beach Boys and Foster the People, and Maroon 5 representing a Southern California harmony and pop falsetto and pop youth, too, I’d guess.
Well, that’s it. That’s why those three acts – Bruno, Justin, and fun. – they are a story in and of themselves to me, because in a way they kind of do what I try to with the show. They’re the keepers of the flame. In the face of radical shifts in a musical landscape – hip-hop in particular – they harken back to a retro feel and they respect it. I love the things off of Justin’s album that I have heard so far and I love this Bruno album, Unorthodox Jukebox. Those three acts are going to be a real force over the next several years.
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