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We have, by and large, in this pandemic year, lost our grip on time, throwing out advertised routines and watching a few minutes go by while others seem to drag on endlessly. And yet, Clive Davis remains unfazed. The 88-year-old music director’s famous pre-Grammy bash, which he hosted in virtual form on Saturday night, lasted a terrific five hours – almost as long as his counterpart in person. Davis, however, swapped the usual ballroom appetizers, champagne flutes and gossip on the side of the room for a medley of home artist performances, interviews, and gossip. memories of several decades.
In the non-Covid era, Davis’ annual party sees hundreds of tuxedo artists, music directors, politicians and other well-known names requisition the Beverly Hilton Hotel on the eve of the Grammy Awards for performances, toast and chatter. in abundance. This year’s evening online – which will be followed by a second show in the spring due to the Grammys moving from their original date from January to March – was part a musical showcase, part dinner, a dig of the Vault of Davis’s career memories. . The show aired to an invitation-only group of industry insiders on Moment House, a premier live-streaming platform backed by investors such as Scooter Braun, Troy Carter and Jared Leto; “Behind the Scenes,” a small subset of some 200 VIP guests hooked up in a Zoom group, some opting for evening wear, others wrapped in blankets and T-shirts.
The impromptu jibes and moments of drama scattered on stage were absent. (Last year’s in-person gala, which took place amid the brutal and controversial ousting of CEO Deborah Dugan by the Recording Academy, was a little more ridiculous.) But the Saturday show drew some dozens of artists for one-on-one chats: Chance the Rapper has developed his lasting emotional connection to his hometown of Chicago; John Legend has hit on the political and social conflicts of recent months; Bruce Springsteen remembered his early years before he started making music (“I was a bit of a monster”) and Rickey Minor paid tribute to Aretha Franklin. Legend sang with a grand piano set up directly in front of his five Grammy Awards, while Jennifer Hudson sang “Amazing Grace” from a studio. Audience celebrities featured on the livestream shook their heads, synced to their favorite lips and stretched out in bookcases at home or on designer sofas with goblets of their liquor of choice in hand.
“I know we might be in the 45% tax bracket here,” Jamie Foxx said during his performance, speaking to the group via a studio set up inside his house, in response to a question. de Clive on maintaining his momentum in a number. different entertainment industries. “But we’ve all knocked on someone’s door with a mixtape once. I am still the starving artist. I go there hungry.
Merck Mercuriadis, Carl Bernstein, Nile Rodgers, D-Nice, Tyra Banks, Dionne Warwick, Quincy Jones, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban, Rob Stringer, Kathy Griffin, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Jack Antonoff and Sir Lucian Grainge were part of it floating in and out of the Zoom VIP room, which unfortunately had the chat feature turned off. (One can only imagine the conversations that, say, Diddy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have had there.) Throughout the long night, Dan + Shay’s Dan Smyers huddled on a couch. with several dogs, while Joni Mitchell could be seen sipping a generous glass of white wine, dressed in black.
When it comes to presentation of speakers and performers, Davis had no shortage of material: he boasts of a musical career studded with C-suite tracks at Arista Records, RCA, BMC and Sony Music, carries four Grammys as producer, and has personally signed or coached a league of superstars that includes Billy Joel, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith and Santana. At the opening of the show on Saturday, Davis was keen to point out that his pre-Grammy gala is attended by “the heads of all the major labels in the United States” – and that he would also be bringing up a number of personalities who have shaped entire generations. music, like Berry Gordy and Carole King. “I know I use a lot of superlatives tonight, but what can you do when you’re dealing with old-fashioned artists at their best?” Davis said.
Davis shot a reel of his favorite historic live performances – weaving in clips of Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston at the 1994 American Music Awards, the Bee Gees performing “Stayin ‘Alive” in a breathless arena, a young Jay-Z and Alicia Keys serenades the night air in Times Square in New York City with “Empire State of Mind” (Alicia, on the livestream, mused about the team with Jay: “The song is like coming home – when we play it together, it’s just easy ”), and Aretha Franklin singing“ Natural Woman ”so perfectly in 2015 that it made audiences cry, including Barack Obama, (Clive’s 2021 comment on the performance:“ Si you don’t get goosebumps because of this, you should check pulse carefully. “)
Harvey Mason Jr., who has been the acting CEO of the Recording Academy for the last year since Dugan left, joined Clive on stage towards the end of the show to point out the singular influence of the annual pre-Grammy party. . While Saturday’s event was collected for the Recording Academy MusiCares charity, the next show in March will be dedicated to the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Davis said Variety last week, invitations to both shows totaled about 2,000 each, compared to about 1,000 attendees at previous in-person.
“Beware of your March 13 invitation,” Davis promised in Saturday night’s closing speech. “Frankly, I can’t wait to be with you again. While the well-choreographed show felt stiff at times, its contrived character was also an inevitable juxtaposition with the weird, grim present moment, as well as a testament to Hollywood’s determination to continue its own island rites and rituals. At midnight – the show’s exact five o’clock – Davis closed the stream with an old clip of Beyoncé, courting with synchronized backup dancers in matching gold costumes, feasting on a happy pre-pandemic crowd somewhere in a less busy moment in time, with “Single Ladies”.
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