GRAMMYS

CBS Is Reportedly Reviewing Its Closed Captioning Practices For Live Events Following Bad Bunny’s Grammy Performance

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Bad Bunny‘s performance of his hit singles “Tití Me Preguntó” and “Despues De La Playa” was one of the most talked about of Grammy night last Sunday (February 5). However, despite the positive reception the performance received, many fans were frustrated by what appeared to be a technical era.

During the broadcast, the closed captions that appeared onscreen as Bad Bunny was performing read “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” and “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH].” The captions also read “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH]” later in the night, when Bad Bunny accepted the award for Best Música Urbana Album.

Following the show, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) wrote a letter to CBS’ President and CEO and George Cheeks, according to Variety. In the letter, Garcia wrote that the error. “displays a lack of sensitivity and foresight. For too many Spanish-speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture. For the hearing impaired community, this failure was hurtful.”

Cheeks has since responded to the letter, noting that CBS is taking measures to make sure no similar incidents take place in the future. According to a report from Variety, CBS is set to review its practices for close captioning live events.

“Regrettably, errors were made with respect to the closed captioning of his performance and subsequent acceptance speech,” Cheeks said. “We worked with a closed captioning vendor that did not execute at a standard to which we should rightfully be held. Regardless, we should have monitored the situation more closely. A bilingual (English and Spanish-language) real-time live captioner should have been utilized and the words used on the screen were insensitive to many.”

He continued, saying, “our teams are now re-examining the closed captioning process for all live entertainment events on the network to ensure we properly caption Spanish-language content. We will keep you updated regarding our efforts on this matter.”

Lizzo Finally Spilled About How She And Adele Got ‘Lit’ Together With ‘Two Flasks’ At The Grammys

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Lizzo is still on cloud nine over her Grammy win. Last Sunday (February 5), the hitmaker took home the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year for her hit single, “About Damn Time.”

Today (February 10), she appeared on The Graham Norton Show to discuss the events that went down when the cameras weren’t rolling. As one can expect, waiting to hear if you won an award can be anxiety-inducing. Luckily, Lizzo had just the fix to calm her nerves.

During Lizzo’s appearance on the show, Norton pointed out a jewelry-studded flask at Lizzo’s table in a picture taken at the awards ceremony.

“I had two flasks for me, and one for Adele,” she revealed. “It was lit.”

Norton then asked, “Why did you have to bring a hit flask?”

Lizzo replied, saying, “Because there’s not, like, a bar. I’m like, ‘Come on, y’all, we need more alcohol.’ It’s Grammys night, we’re all stressed.”

Shania Twain, who also appeared on Norton alongside Lizzo, and was seated at the same table as Lizzo during the Grammys, complimented Lizzo’s “shiny” and “bedazzled” flask.

You can check out the clip above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

50 Cent Puts Grammys On Blast For Failed Closed Caption During Bad Bunny’s Performance

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Bad Bunny’s impact is undeniable but the Grammys didn’t necessarily accommodate his performance the way they should’ve — an issue that 50 Cent, among many others, pointed out recently. The Puerto Rican rapper became a groundbreaking figure in the American music industry for the Spanish-speaking community around the globe. This was as evident in his appearance at the Grammys, where he was nominated in three categories, including Album Of The Year and Best Música Urbana Album, while also hitting the stage.

Bunny performed “El Apagón” and “Después de la Playa,” along with a live band and traditional dancers. Unfortunately, his fans weren’t happy with CBS’s effort to provide Spanish closed captions during his appearance. Bunny delivered a bilingual speech but when he spoke Spanish, the closed captions read, “[SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH].” Then, during his performance, it similarly read, “[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH].” This caused an uproar on social media among fans who labeled it racist. 

50 Cent Chimes In 

50 Cent also felt a type way about CBS’s broadcast of Bad Bunny’s appearance at the Grammys. Describing the “Yonaguni” artist as one of the biggest artists right now, he went in on the Recording Academy. “The Grammys need to be check about this, Fvcking @badbunnypr bigger than everybody right now and you can’t pay for closed caption. Wtf is this speaking Non-English,” he wrote. “FIX IT.” Though Fif isn’t the first person to bring up this issue, he might be the most prominent.

The Bad Bunny mishap hardly scratches the surface when it comes to 50 Cent’s issues with the Grammys. As “In Da Club” reached 1.5B views on YouTube alone, he recalled the Grammys snubbing him in the Best New Artist category in 2004. At the time, Evanescence took home the awards and Fif suggested that he was “cheated” out of a Grammy that year. “Still no best new artist. I don’t know why people always want to cheat me man,” he wrote on IG. “They are counting from 2009, that song came out in 2003 Damn it Man !” It seems as though Fif has a list of grievances with the Grammys that continues to build up every year. Check his post above.

Diplo Clarified What He Really Said After Beyoncé’s Grammy Win

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Beyoncé took home three awards from the 2023 Grammys last Sunday, February 5, bringing her career total to an all-time most 32. She won Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Plastic Off The Sofa”), Best Dance/Electronic Recording (“Break My Soul“) and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album (Renaissance). And many people feel strongly that she should have also won Album Of The Year, but that’s a discussion for a different article.

The Best Dance/Electronic Music Album victory broke the record, and because Beyoncé was nominated, the category was televised. On the CBS broadcast, Diplo was seen in the audience saying something after Renaissance was announced as the winner. Some fans speculated that he said, “They bought that.” He was also nominated in the category for his self-titled album.

Diplo set the record straight on Instagram this week. The final slide of the Instagram carousel is the same clip that’s been making the rounds online, except Diplo included a closed-captioning of “I’m glad to be a part of this.”

Diplo’s lengthy caption gushed over Beyoncé. Read it below.

“This is a post to honor the dance music community. Thank your for being my purpose in this life and shaping my career .. and much love to all the wonderful people that worked on my album 🧡.. Grammy night was great night for all of us. Dance music has and will be the most Inclusive music of our generation .. I have been in the industry for over 20 years releasing club music ..djing over 1000 different clubs and cities – u can find me everywhere, the slums of Rio, warehouses in North Philly where I started to the fanciest night clubs and yachts in st tropez, ibiza.. Our community has always been gay / straight, but icy , poor.. white black brown purple .. it’s the music that had united the world during my lifetime and i’m glad to just be one part of it🌎 you don’t need to be a savant or a great musician to be part of dance music u just have to love to move and have confidence.

“Tonight was the first time the dance / electronic category was televised and it was rightfully so.. between me, rufus beyoncé, odesza bonobo… was one of the strongest years for electronic music. Beyoncé album was legendary (i’m a beyonce a stan remember I produced some classic dance songs for her like ’til the end of time’ and ‘girls run the world.’ what’s important to understand was that her intention was 100%. she did the work found the real producers and she made classics .. so she deserves her flowers . and when she won i was just proud to see my nomination on the screen in the huge arena.. (swipe to the end to see what i said) but the best part was my friends and the other artists in the genre still out raving until sunrise somewhere in La : that’s what’s the music is really about 😎”

During her acceptance speech, Beyoncé was visibly emotional and paid homage to “the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre.” Watch the historic moment above.

Grammys Ratings Experience Significant Increase

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The 65th annual Grammy Awards telecast brought in 12.4 million in total viewers on Sunday night. Per Nielsen’s time zone-adjusted national ratings, the show’s viewership spiked approximately 30% from last year’s Grammy awards ceremony. The 2022 Grammys had 9.6 million in total viewers after Live+Same Day tallies came in later that week. The impressive ratings made it the most viewed show of the ceremony’s evening across television networks. 12.4 million is also the largest audience for the Grammy awards since 2020.

Online and on social media, the broadcast hit 66 billion potential impressions. Thus, it is “the #1 social entertainment event of 2023,” according to CBS. By Monday morning, the world had consumed 53 million video clips of Grammy awards ceremony content across CBS and Paramount’s social media platforms. The CBS broadcast took place at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and streamed on Paramount Plus. The live-streaming ratings were also up 33% from last year. The show broke its own record for the largest live-streaming audience in history across CBS and Paramount Plus platforms.

Grammys 2023

(FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Thundercat attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Trevor Noah hosted the Grammy awards ceremony for the third year in a row. The star-studded performance list included Quavo, Lizzo, Harry Styles, Sam Smith and Kim Petras, Bad Bunny, and more. Beyoncé made history as the most grammy-awarded artist in the history of the program. Lizzo also made history as the first black woman to win Record of the Year since Whitney Houston in 1994. Kim Petras made history as well, becoming the first openly transgender woman to win the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance Award for “Unholy” with Sam Smith. Additionally, Styles took home the Grammy for Album of the Year for “Harry’s House.” The Recording Academy also gathered artists to celebrate 50 years of hip-hop.

In comparison to other award shows of the year, the 2023 Golden Globes had 1.1 rating with 6.3 million viewers. NBC broadcasted the show and streamed it on Peacock. However, these ratings show a 26% and 9% drop, respectively, from last year’s Golden Globes in 2022. On social media, Golden Globes content ranked in almost 11 million digital page and video views across E! News and NBC, according to NBC. The difference in ratings between the Golden Globes and the Grammys was drastic.

[Via]