ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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Nicki Minaj C-
Nicki's ostentatious, conceptual debut of new single ''Roman Holiday'' fell flat, surely one of the night's worse performances. Still, props for trying to bring a thematic, narrative-driven concept to an otherwise bland night.
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Adele A
The night's Grammy Queen ended her surgery-induced hiatus with a powerful, unfussy vocal performance of ''Rolling in the Deep.'' Breathe easy, music industry — she's hasn't lost a thing.
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Katy Perry B
Rather than shooting fireworks from her boobs, as LL Cool J promised, Perry brings ice, fire, and an unfortunate blue hairdo on stage for an unintentional tribute to Madonna's Super Bowl performance.
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Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars A-
Civil Wars did exceptionally well for a pair of newcomers, and T-Swift further folked up the house with a playful, banjo-driven ''Mean.''
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Rihanna + Coldplay B
RiRi stunned with a version of ''We Found Love'' that, improbably, was as theatrically mesmerizing as its video. Coldplay, on the other hand, dropped the ball with grandiosity and a couple of dropped notes. B
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E! ONLINE
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Biggest Payoff: Adele's performance was about as anticipated as they get, and the singer didn't disappoint. She kicked off "Rolling in the Deep" a cappella, and her soaring voice made the well-played tune sound brand-new.
And the Best Part? The super-long applause that showered Adele once the performance was finished.
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Worst Trick: Katy Perry's performance seemed to break down in the middle, but it was just a clever ruse that turned into a flame-thrower of a performance.
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Worst Spectacle: As much as we like the rap pixie, Nicki Minaj offered up a Lady Gaga-lite scary religious movie that was way too long, kinda silly and way annoying coming so late in the show. But hey, at least she can always ask her Pope-date for absolution!
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http://www.eonline.com/redcarpet/201...he-rest/293726
TVGUIDE
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Adele - Best comeback
After weeks of hype following her vocal surgery, Adele let her powerful pipes do all the talking in the opening lines of "Rolling in the Deep." Even though it's a song we've heard so many times – probably too many times before – the richness in her vocals and the conviction in her performance made it sound all new again and reminded us why we fell in love the first time. Now this is what standing ovations are for. Grade: A
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Jennifer Hudson - Most poignant tribute
Just hours after Whitney Houston had been found dead, Jennifer Hudson was pulled in to prepare a tribute to one of her heroes. The result? A restrained yet striking take on Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," the song made even more famous by Houston's own powerful pipes on the soundtrack for The Bodyguard. In short: It was beautiful. Grade: A
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Nicki Minaj - Slightly better pretender to the Lady Gaga throne
Nicki Minaj arrived at the Grammys escorted by a priest and dressed in scarlet, oversized nunwear. On stage, she confessed her sins, got exorcised and levitated above dancing clergymen to "Roman's Revenge." Do we wish she sang one of her better songs? Yes. Was she trying too hard? Perhaps. But we award brownie points for trying, misguided or not. Grade: C
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Coldplay - Biggest letdown
After Rihanna's heavily choreographed and highly energized performance of "We Found Love," her melodramatic duet with Chris Martin was OK, but it's Coldplay's performance of "Paradise" that was, well, anything but. They may have glowed in the dark, thanks to some very talented street artist stagehands, but Martin's whiny, off-key vocals hardly glowed. Grade: C-
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Chris Brown - Weirdest standing ovation
So, um, yeah, that was really… geometric? Chris Brown's performance of "Turn Up the Music" and "Beautiful People" transformed the Staples stage into a PG-rated nightclub, which is about as much as we'd expect from Justin Bieber. Not sure why the generic dancing, not to mention tunes, earned him a standing O. You guys in the audience didn't even stand for Bruce. Grade: C-
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Katy Perry - Worst replacement for Lady Gaga
The truth is Katy Perry has (only) one really good song in her arsenal – her collaboration with Kanye West about alien sex, "E.T." So, yes, we feel your horror. To hear the first 20 seconds of that song only to have it cut off and replaced by ""Part of Me," the umpteenth Dr. Luke-Max Martin bit of radio pandering? Ugh. Oh, and her hair was blue. Who cares. Grade: F
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Source:
http://www.tvguide.com/special/gramm...043273#1043277
The Best
Adele: Everything we could have hoped for. Well, that’s not exactly true. A second song would have been nice.
Rihanna: “We Found Love” — this song is as irresistible as it is inescapable, and Rihanna made it come to vibrant life.
Bruce Springsteen: The Boss’s new single, “We Take Care of Our Own,” is unspectacular, but the E Street Band’s power-in-numbers performance got the show off to a roaring start.
Glen Campbell: A touching public farewell for the Alzheimer’s-stricken singer who elicited plenty of smiles with a fun romp through “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
Good Enough
Bruno Mars: He’s no James Brown, but it’s not for lack of effort. All those fleet-footed moves and that pompadour still didn’t move.
Alicia Keys & Bonnie Raitt: With tributes, you want tender and classy. These two personify those qualities, and their version of Etta James’s “Sunday Kind of Love” was just that.
Foo Fighters: Despite plenty of energetic head-banging, hand-clapping and Slayer T-shirt wearing from frontman Dave Grohl, this performance still felt perfunctory.
Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson: Put Clarkson in a duet with any dude — Aldean will do — and she has the voice to make it work.
Maroon 5/Foster the People/Beach Boys: A head-scratching combination of bands to join the reunited pop icons, but you can’t argue with hearing Brian Wilson singing “Good Vibrations.”
Paul McCartney: His mid-show performance of “My Valentine” from his new standards album didn’t hit the spot, but a show-closing jam on the Beatles’ “The End” with Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen made up for it.
Taylor Swift: A fine live performance of a song written about writers who criticized her voice in live performances.
Jennifer Hudson: Her tribute to Whitney Houston wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t need to be. It was touching, heartfelt and well done.
The Civil Wars: Country newcomers seemed to zip through their performance, but they’ll be back in future years.
Blake Shelton: Nothing spectacular, nothing embarrassing.
Tony Bennett & Carrie Underwood: It would have been nice to see Lady Gaga — who was also on Bennett’s “Duets II” album — up there instead.
The Worst
Chris Brown: Lots of gyrating, thrusting, jumping, flipping and even more lip-synching. At least he didn’t get the standing ovation he seemed to be expecting.
Coldplay: Sometimes Coldplay gets a bad rap for being a boring band. They earned that rap tonight, though.
Katy Perry: Fake technical difficulties for a fake singer.
Deadmau5/Chris Brown/Lil Wayne/Foo Fighters: Chris Brown — Chris Brown — gets two performances? This was as much of a mess as you’d expect it to be based on this combination of artists.
A Category of Her Own
Nicki Minaj: Even after sleeping on it, it’s hard to comprehend what we witnessed with this performance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ertainment_pop
@ the katy and nicki shade.
I think they were too harsh on Katy. I'd give her at least a C just for looking like she walked straight out of Evangelion.
