Given that the coronavirus pandemic is still far from over, most news we get about music festivals is negative. Just this morning, it was reported that Coachella and Stagecoach may be pushed back to 2022. The good news is that another major California festival, Outside Lands, still intends to make its 2021 event happen, albeit with some tweaks.
When Outside Lands canceled its 2020 festival, they set their sights on early August for the 2021 installment. They’ve revealed today, though, that they’ve had to slightly delay the event, which is now scheduled from October 29 to 31, aka Halloween weekend.
ranger dave hopes you’re ready for the ultimate halloween weekend – outside lands is moving to october 29 – 31, 2021! 3-day tickets are on sale now. https://t.co/wMSL1BSTYUpic.twitter.com/9BVA7QSH8M
The new dates mean that some artists can’t make the festival now, so artists like The 1975, Beach House, Polo & Pan, Big Thief, Parcels, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, The Beths, and others won’t be at Outside Lands this year. They’ve got some solid replacements, though, as added to the bill are Glass Animals, Kaytranada, Lord Huron, Claud, Bartees Strange, Sofía Valdés, 24kGoldn, SG Lewis, Flo Milli, Cannons, Jessia, Q, Brijean, and Shilan.
Allen Scott, President of Concerts & Festivals at Another Planet Entertainment and Co-Producer of Outside Lands, says, “We have been eagerly anticipating our return to Golden Gate Park for over a year now and although we have to wait a few months longer, we couldn’t be more excited to present an epic Halloween edition of Outside Lands. The shift in dates allows us to work collectively to determine any new safety measures necessary to implement during the festival weekend. We ask fans to use this time before the festival to continue exercising common sense COVID safety practices and we look forward to being together again soon.”
Coachella is one of the world’s biggest music festivals, but the last time an iteration of the event was actually hosted was April 2019. Since then, the pandemic has forced the fest — along with its country-oriented counterpart Stagecoach — to be postponed multiple times. Now it appears that is happening again: Variety reports that according to “two industry sources with knowledge of the situation,” that Coachella is moving from April 2021 to April 2022. Additionally, Stagecoach, which traditionally takes place the weekend after Coachella’s two weekends, will be similarly postponed.
As Variety notes, if this move is official, this will be the fourth set of dates the festival has had: First April 2020, then October 2020, then April 2021, and now April 2022. There were previously reports that the festival was pushed back to October 2021, although that news was never confirmed by promoters.
So far, most of the news about music festivals has been regarding cancellations and postponements. Events that have changed plans this year include Glastonbury, Boston Calling, and Primavera Sound. There are some silver linings, though. At the start of the year, Governors Ball declared its intention to host its 2021 festival in September. Life Is Beautiful is also set for September and organizers announced this year’s lineup last week.
With anticipation for his new album Justice reaching its peak, Justin Bieber delivers a stripped-down, at-home Tiny Desk Concert to preview one of the most eagerly anticipated songs from the upcoming album. Although Daniel Caesar and Giveon were unable to appear, fans get to hear a version of “Peaches” featuring Justin on keys and some light scratching from his DJ, Jay James. The performance also opens with a Chance The Rapper-less version of “Holy” and features “Hold On” and “Anyone,” also from Justice.
Justin previously revealed the latter two songs during the months-long rollout for his new album, debuting “Anyone” in a livestream concert for Spotify and releasing a neo-noir-styled music video for “Hold On.” He also later released a video for “Anyone,” harkening to classic boxing dramas in a narrative video that required three hours of makeup to hide his tattoos. “Holy” is, of course, the best-known track he performs here, after Justin used the new song and its cinematic music video to usher in a “new era” back in September of 2020. He also performed the song during his October appearance on Saturday Night Live and offered an acoustic remix with an accompanying, bare-bones video. Now, the wait is nearly at its end; Justice drops 3/19 via Def Jam.
It was reported in 2019 that the average length of a song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was three-and-a-half minutes and that songs that run for under three minutes are becoming increasingly common. So, in general, songs are getting shorter, but now meditation app Calm and Universal Music Group (UMG) taking things in the opposite direction, as they have announced a series of remixed songs that will push their lengths up to an hour.
This Friday (March 19, which is World Sleep Day), Calm will release seven extended tracks: Ariana Grande’s “Breathin’,” Jhené Aiko’s “While We’re Young,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Golden Hour,” Katy Perry’s “Double Rainbow,” Luis Fonsi’s “Sola,” Post Malone’s “Circles,” and Shawn Mendes’ “Wonder.” For three months, the hour-long tracks will be exclusive to the app, but after that, UMG will be allowed to share the songs to streaming platforms.
Calm co-founder and co-CEO Michael Acton Smith told Rolling Stone, “The problem with most music is it’s quite short: When built for the streaming era or even the radio era, it’s three or four minutes long. Even if something is really soothing, you can’t always get into a flow state and drift off to sleep. You have a song for a few minutes and then you go onto the next one and the next one.” He added of the new remixes, “If they’re boring, you’re [less likely] to play them in the first place, and we want your attention. We want you stop thinking about your to-do lists and that silly comment you made at work.”
Courtney Phillips, Calm’s Head of Music also noted, “I was just on a call with an artist’s team talking about tracks. I asked, ‘Would it be cool if he made longer versions?’ And they were like, “Oh my god, he’s been killing us! We keep trying to get him to shorten these down because they’re so long. He would love to make a longer version.’ That’s what we want to be here for. We want to give artists that creative freedom, let them think out of the box and go, ‘Yes! I get to make something really weird, long, and beautiful.” She added, “We didn’t have any comments at all from any of our artists not liking the final mixes. Not one.”
Between the pandemic and the barrage of artists criticizing them, the past few months have presented challenges to the Recording Academy. Despite all the hurdles they faced, though, they managed to put on a Grammys broadcast this year that was imperfect but still quite entertaining and about as good as could be done given the circumstances.
As was probably expected, the broadcast had fewer viewers than usual, as has been typical with big events during the pandemic; This year’s Super Bowl had its lowest ratings in over a decade. The Grammys also experienced a drop-off and it was significant.
Variety reports that per Nielsen Live+Same Day fast-affiliate numbers, the show had an average of 7.88 million viewers, earning a 1.9 rating with adults 18 to 49. That makes this year’s show the lowest-rated in Grammy history. For reference, last year’s Grammys managed to draw 18.7 million viewers and achieve a 5.4 rating in the aforementioned demographic.
The publication also notes that these numbers are not final and that final figures that take into account live West Coast viewing will be available soon. With that in mind, the final figure is expected to rise by about 15 to 20 percent in the official national ratings. That said, even if the 7.88 million viewer count rises by 20 percent (the generous end of the estimate), that would elevate it to about 9.46 million viewers, which is still around half of the count of 2020 Grammy viewers.
At every Grammy Awards ceremony, there are winners and losers.
Here, though, “loser” is a relative term. If you’re an artist who is doing so well that you’re at the Grammys at all, it’s hard to imagine that you’re anything but a winner. That said, if you’re particularly confrontational, “loser” might be what you call somebody who was nominated for an award and did not win that award. On the flip side, you could say that some artists didn’t lose: they won the right to keep their title of nominee (at the cost of not getting promoted to winner).
Then there are cases where you don’t need to glass-half-full the truth to declare somebody was a winner, whether they went home with a trophy or two or otherwise excelled during music’s biggest night. Last night’s Grammys ceremony was full of people who had different levels of success, so let’s get into who thrived and who didn’t quite do that, as well as who offered some of the evening’s biggest surprises.
Winner: Megan Thee Stallion
Getty Image
Meg had one of the best winning percentages of the night, taking home three of the four Grammys for which she was nominated — she won Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song (both for “Savage”), and Best New Artist, but didn’t claim Record Of The Year.
Outside of the awards themselves, Meg was notary-like with how she put her stamp on the evening. She and Cardi B made more modest-minded music admirers mad with a performance of “WAP” (more on that in a second). Even the Grammy Meg didn’t win, she kind of did win it. While Billie Eilish accepted the Record Of The Year trophy, she got behind the podium and mostly spoke about how Meg should have won it instead of her.
Loser: The structural integrity of “WAP”
Getty Image
It’s true that “WAP” was probably the biggest song of 2020. It’s also true that it wasn’t made for TV (or for any audible medium at all, according to Ben Shapiro). So, when it was revealed that Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion would be performing the hit during the Grammys broadcast, fans were ready to see a non-insignificant portion of the song left on the cutting room floor. That was true to the extreme. The lyric sheet for this version of the track looked like a brand new Madlibs book. I’m sure Cardi and Meg did all they could to bring “WAP” to the Grammys and they still delivered an entertaining few minutes of television, but the performance came across like they didn’t secure the rights to the song, so they got as close to actually performing it as they could without getting into legal trouble.
Loser: Jhené Aiko
As is tradition, the Grammys took a very long time. Even before the actual ceremony, there was the also-lengthy Grammy premiere ceremony, which the Recording Academy roped Aiko into hosting. Between that and the actual show, it was a long, grueling day for Aiko and she didn’t even end up winning any of the three Grammys for which she was nominated.
Thankfully, Aiko is an optimist. The hosting gig was a personal triumph for Aiko, as she wrote on Twitter, “i conquered a major fear of public speaking today by hosting the freaking Grammy Premiere Ceremony!!” She was even cool with not taking home a trophy, as she tweeted, “i know what its like to lose… do u? do u?! lol,” later adding, “what a crazy day! but its all good. love you all so much.”
i conquered a major fear of public speaking today by hosting the freaking Grammy Premiere Ceremony!! thank you @RecordingAcad for having me!! see u at the show after i take this lil cat nap
In some ways, the Grammys are a popularity contest: If some no-name (not Noname) from the middle of nowhere made one of the year’s best songs, they’re probably not going to win a Grammy for it. The Recording Academy further proved that with their pick for Song Of The Year, as HER took home the prize over people like Beyonce, Roddy Ricch, Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Dua Lipa, and Billie Eilish. While HER is certainly a successful artist and “I Can’t Breathe” is an impactful song built on meaningful social justice themes, she’s not exactly a household name and her victory certainly left many viewers feeling like Michael Bluth:
Winners: Fans of normalcy
Getty Image
Over the past year-plus, pretty much every aspect has been entirely different than it was pre-pandemic. That includes The Grammys, but the fact that the ceremony even happened at all is a grounding force. Yes, the show wasn’t really like previous broadcasts in any way, but it was also as close to normal as any sort of live music event has been since early 2020. Considering the circumstances, the Recording Academy excelled with their broadcast. Delayed ceremony aside, one thing music fans have been able to count on towards the start of the year is finding out what music and artists the Recording Academy “secret commitees” deserve to be honored, for better or worse.
Losers: Fans of normalcy
That said, the whole thing was a bit weird, right? During performances, there were probably too many cuts to Trevor Noah and other artists in the room to forcefully drive home the point that everybody was actually there IRL. Those shots just hit different when it’s just one or two people side-stage instead of a big seated audience. Then, when the performances were done, the golf-level applause didn’t make the Grammys seem as epic as they usually do. Going the NBA route and piping in artificial fan noise wouldn’t have been a bad move.
The Recording Academy faced an impossible problem, but they still managed to put on a functional and entertaining show that offered plenty of highlights and made you forget this is an atypical Grammy year. Ultimately, though, it often felt less than grand, which, again, is really nobody’s fault.
Winner: Performance aesthetics
Getty Image
Sure, let’s flip this topic of Grammy normalcy around one more time. Usually, artists and their crews only have a few minutes to get an elaborate performance set-up onto the singular Grammy stage at the Staples Center. This year, though, the set-up made things different, arguably better. The multiple stages on-site allowed for performers to get their own look going in their own space, all with minimal time between performances. In an aesthetic highlight, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner were all able to take to a mini cabin in a mystical-looking forest, for example, it feels like that something that gorgeous may not have been possible in a traditional Grammy year. Lil Baby’s cinematic performance that addressed police brutality definitely wouldn’t have been an eighth as impactful on a traditional stage.
Surprise: Jojo Rabbit
Getty Image
Taika Waititi himself would agree with this pick, as it seemed like he didn’t really expect the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack to win Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media over films like Frozen 2 and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga. Waititi offered a simple “Lol wtfffff” on Twitter in reaction to the news, and during his acceptance speech, he noted, “I guess they’re just giving Grammys to anyone now! I’ll take it, thank you.” He went on, “It was so long ago, I can barely remember anything about making that movie — but it seems like it’s never going to go away, and I’m happy about that.”
So, if you don’t remember the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack, it’s OK because Waititi probably doesn’t either.
Winner/Loser: Masks
Getty Image
Whether this is a winner or loser is a matter of perspective. Audience shots at awards shows are usually the most fruitful vine from which to pluck plump, dank memes of celebrities who didn’t expect the camera to be on them at a share-worthy moment. In that regard, music fans and internet jokesters lose. Masks could be seen as a major victory for artists who didn’t pick up a trophy, though, considering a wearable specifically made to cover the lower half of your face makes it a heck of a lot easier to hide your disappointment when you come away from a category empty-handed. Frustrated cursing no longer has to be under your breath!
Winner: The entire Carter family
Getty Image
The Beyhive would never let me hear the end of it if I declared Beyonce a loser, so thankfully, she had an amazing night. For years, she has been climbing up the all-time Grammy wins list, and she made history this year by picking up more trophies to become the woman and singer with the most Grammy victories.
That would have been enough to get her on this list, but that was just one aspect of a multi-pronged night for Bey. She and Megan Thee Stallion became the first women to win Best Rap Performance with “Savage,” and on top of that, her daughter Blue Ivy managed to become one of the youngest Grammy winners ever. Jay-Z was the only member of his immediate family to not directly win a Grammy this year, except even that’s not quite true since he has a writing credit on the “Savage” remix.
So, in what was perhaps the least surprising takeaway from the evening (or from any day, really), the Carter family is doing quite well.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Considering the “Savage” remix already picked up a win tonight for Best Rap Performance, making Beyonce and Megan the first two women to ever win in that category, and the Houston rapper also won Best New Artist, another victory would’ve been huge for Meg. But after HER won Song Of The Year earlier in the night for her protest song collaboration with Tiara Thomas “I Can’t Breathe,” it seemed like anyone’s game. But, Grammy favorite Billie Eilish came through in the end, picking up her second win of the night. She spent the vast majority of her speech dedicating the award to Megan Thee Stallion. But don’t worry, Billie, Megan had a great night too. Check out the full winners list here and check out Billie’s speech below.
During the lead-up to this year’s Grammys, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak made it clear that they wanted their new supergroup, Silk Sonic, to perform during the broadcast. They made a big stink about it on Twitter, trying to convince the Recording Academy to give them a performance slot during the 2021 ceremony. As many surely suspected, it seemed the pair’s faux-bellyaching seemed to have been a ploy to drum up attention for their performance, which the Academy announced days later was locked in.
So, Mars and .Paak took the stage tonight and busted out a rendition of their sole single so far, “Leave The Door Open.” The duo was joined by a pair of background singers and they all made perfect use of the stage, with .Paak and Mars joining their backing cohorts towards the back of the space when they weren’t on lead vocals.
Mars has been relatively quiet over the past few years and consequently, he doesn’t have any Grammy nominations this year. .Paak has a couple of nods for 2021, though: “Lockdown” was nominated for for Best Melodic Rap Performance while that song’s visual is up for Best Music Video.
Watch Silk Sonic’s Grammy performance above and find the full list of this year’s Grammy winners and nominees here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Although another remixed version of the track includes Madonna and Missy Elliott, as part of Dua’s Club Nostalgia remix album that doubles as a love letter to the classic electronic music and club scene, DaBaby’s version is still the one that fans gravitate toward the most. She’s up for six nominations this year, including Album Of The Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance and Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year for “Don’t Start Now.”
For tonight’s performance she sported a massive, fluffy pink princess dress replete with sparkles and massive sleeves, matched with pink eyeshadow and a pink mic, before ditching it for a sparkling pink blazer when DaBaby casually strolled back onstage to deliver his verse. After rejoining him, she pulled off yet another outfit change, stripping down to a pink sparkling bikini to launch into “Don’t Start Now.” A fitting medley for a star who should’ve been performing in arenas all year, Dua proved she earned that Best New Artist Grammy last year over and over again. Watch below.
Popstar and actress Jennifer Lopez has reportedly broken up with Major League Baseball player Alex Rodriguez, according to Page Six. The gossip site’s sources say that the former couple has canceled their wedding as Rodriguez prepares for spring training and Lopez shoots her next movie — ironically titled Shotgun Wedding. The former couple previously postponed the wedding twice, apparently got things back on track, but ultimately decided that a split was for the best. They originally announced their engagement in 2019, after dating for two years.
J-Lo told Access Hollywood about the postponements in December, telling the show, “We had to cancel the wedding because of COVID, because of the quarantine. And we actually did it twice, which people don’t know.”
At the time, she said the goal was to “wait it out,” insisting “everything’s cool and it’ll happen when the time is right. I feel like it’s not a huge priority to go and have a big wedding right now, that’s not what life is about.” Page Six posits that the breaking point was a rumor of infidelity between Rodriguez and reality-show star Madison LeCroy. LeCroy appears on Bravo’s Southern Charm.
Lopez, meanwhile, has been shooting Shotgun Wedding in the Dominican Republic. The film has undergone some controversy of its own after previous lead Armie Hammer was replaced in the wake of a scandal involving some untoward text messages.
love you all so much 
