Odds On

Ray Charles Leads Way at Surprising Grammys

I'm not quite sure what that headline means. Are we still supposed to be surprised that the Grammys like to give a whole bunch of awards to a single album or artist after Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, and Santana achieved similar sweeps in the last few years? I may not have liked it, but I went into last night resigned to the fact that Ray Charles wasn't likely to lose anywhere he was nominated. I suppose the fact that Prince beat him for the traditional R&B award counts as a minor shocker. But come on: the album even won the inaugural "best surround sound" award over the divine Avalon from Roxy Music. I guess I'll have to buy the SACD version of Genius Loves Company if I want to be the judge.

So what was surprising? That Kanye West didn't win best new artist? Oddsmakers actually had Maroon 5 winning it, and why not? "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love" get a lot more play on the kind of radio stations most Grammy voters hear than the sort-of-creepy "Jesus Walks."

I suppose the fact that "Yeah!" lost to Charles and Jones in the record of the year category is a bit surprising. And the victory of "Daughters," the weakest John Mayer track yet, over "If I Ain't Got You," perhaps the best song Alicia Keys has written, was a sad way to prevent Kanye from winning one of the major awards.

The biggest surprise, for me, was seeing Melissa Etheridge perform with Joss Stone. I knew she was in treatment for breast cancer, but seeing her bald was still a stunner. Maybe this will revive interest in her.

Nothing surprising about seeing Loretta Lynn win best country album for Van Lear Rose, though, except that she wasn't also nominated for the overall album award.

And the best Grammy moment of the night? Before Green Day launched into "American Idiot," Quentin Tarantino introduced them, saying, "In the '90s, three punks from the Bay area popped into our lives in a big, loud way. Instead of fading away, they've grown up, releasing a concept album with a very novel concept: All the songs are good!" Truer words weren't spoken all night.