We have generally lost our grip on time in this pandemic year, throwing out proclaimed routines and passing a few minutes while others seem to be dragging on endlessly. And yet Clive Davis remains undisturbed. The 88-year-old music manager’s pre-Grammy bash, which he presented in virtual form on Saturday night, lasted five hours – almost as long as his personal counterpart. Davis, however, swapped the usual hors d’oeuvres, champagne whistles and gossip for a pot portion of home artist performances, interviews and memories over decades.
In non-Covid times, Davis’ annual festival sees hundreds of award-winning artists, music directors, politicians and other household names on the eve of the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s Grammy Awards commissioned performances, toasts and shows. in abundance. This year, the online party – followed by a second performance in the spring due to the Grammys shifting their original date from January to March – was a part-time music show, a part-time party, part of Davis’ vault career memories. The program was sent to an exclusive invitation group from the insiders at Moment House, a live-streaming platform backed by investors, including Scooter Braun, Troy Carter and Jared Leto; ‘Backstage’, a smaller group of 200 VIP guests joined in a Zoom group, some prefer to wear formal wear, others wrapped in blankets and T-shirts.
Absent were the improvised jibes and scattered moments of drama on stage. (Last year’s personal gala, amid the sudden and controversial dismissal of CEO Deborah Dugan’s recording academy, was a bit doozy.) But the Saturday show drew dozens of artists for one-on-one chats: Chance the Rapper honed about his lasting emotional connection to his hometown of Chicago; John Legend has struck the political and social controversy of the past few months; Bruce Springsteen recalls his early years before he ever started making music (‘I was a little freak’) and Rickey Minor paid tribute to Aretha Franklin. Legend sang with a grand piano set right before his five Grammy Awards, while Jennifer Hudson crowned ‘Amazing Grace’ from a studio. Public celebrities in the live stream waved their heads, lip-synced to their favorite lines, and spread out in home libraries or on design benches with tumbles of their liquor in hand.
“I know we’re probably in the 45 percent tax rate here,” Jamie Foxx said during his performance, chatting with the group in a studio in his home in response to a question from Clive about maintaining his momentum in a number. of various entertainment industries. “But we all knocked on the door once with someone with a mixture. I’m still the hungry artist. I’m going hungry up there. ”
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 among those who VIP Zoom room flashes in and out, which unfortunately turned off the chat feature. (One can only imagine what conversations Diddy and the speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi would have had there.) Dan Smyers of Dan + Shay curled up on a couch with several dogs during the long night, while Joni Mitchell could be seen sipping on a spacious glass of white wine, dressed in black.
As for the launch of speakers and artists, Davis has had no shortage of material to exhaust: he boasts a music career with C-suite titles at Arista Records, RCA, BMC and Sony Music, carries four Grammys as a producer , and has personally signed or coached a league of superstars including Billy Joel, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith and Santana. In the opening of Saturday’s show, Davis pointed out that his Grammy gala will be attended by ‘the heads of every major label in the United States’ – and also that he will raise a number of figures who have shaped generations of music. , such as Berry Gordy and Carole King. “I know I’m using superlatives tonight, but what can you do if you’re dealing with old artists at their best?” Davis said.
Davis played a role in his favorite historical live performances – he weaved in the tracks of Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston at the 1994 American Music Awards, while the Bee Gees performed ‘Stayin’ Alive ‘in a breathtaking arena,’ a young Jay-Z and Alicia Keys serenading. the night sky in New York’s Times Square with “Empire State of Mind” (Alicia, on the live stream, reflects on the collaboration with Jay: “The song is like coming home – if we perform it together, it’s just easy”) , and Aretha Franklin, who was so perfectly crowned for ‘Natural Woman’ in 2015, that it brought audiences, including Barack Obama, to tears (Clive’s 2021 commentary on the performance: ‘If You Don’t Have Chicken Out of It’s) , you need to look carefully for a pulse. ”)
Harvey Mason Jr., who has been the interim CEO of the Recording Academy for the last year since Dugan’s departure, joined Clive on stage towards the end of the show to highlight the exceptional influence of the annual pre-Grammy party. mark. While Saturday’s event for the charity MusiCares is being collected, the upcoming show will be dedicated to the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles in March. Davis tells Variety last week, the invitations for both shows involved about 2,000 each, compared to about 1,000 participants in the personal precedents.
“Beware of your invitation on March 13,” Davis promised in the closing remarks Saturday night. “Honestly, I can not wait to be with you again.” If the well-choreographed series felt tight a few times, its artificiality was an inevitable contrast to the strange, cruel present moment, as well as a testament to Hollywood’s penchant for continuing its own insular rituals and rituals. At midnight – the exact point of five hours of the program – Davis shuts down the stream with an old clip from Beyoncé and keeps the court in sync with rugby dancers in matching gold costumes, and somewhere a happy crowd from the pre-pandemic. a less powerful moment, with ‘Single Ladies’.