The 2014 Grammy Awards and Your Library

      The Grammys are the biggest night in music. While the show has become more performance oriented than reward oriented, the Grammys are to music what an Oscar is to acting and film.

While the show on January 26  opened with a powerhouse performance by one of the most musical couples around, Jay Z and Beyonce there were many other artists who were rewarded for their efforts. Jay Z was a winner for Best Rap/Sung Performance along with Justin Timberlake for “Holy Grail”.

The night truly belonged to French electronic duo Daft Punk. The helmeted “robots” as they are sometimes called took home five Grammys including those for:

                1.Record of the Year “Get Lucky” (“record” refers to one track/song

                 in this case)

                2. Album of the Year for "Random Access Memories"

                  http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4629806~S50

                3. Best Pop Duo/Group Performance- “Get Lucky” featuring Pharrell

                 Williams and Nile Rogers

                4. Best Dance/Electronica Album- "Random Access Memories"

                5. Best Engineered Album Non-Classical.

They do not appear in public without their faces concealed and do not speak in public. For their acceptances they had collaborators Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers speak on their behalf.

Grammy Night was also  a big night, for seventeen year old New Zealander Ella Yelich O’Connor, who is better known as Lorde (pronounced Lord- the e is silent). She won Song of the Year for her catchy single “Royals” (watch the video here: http://youtu.be/nlcIKh6sBtc). She also won Best Pop Solo Performance for her performance of “Royals”. Royals and all her other songs can be heard on her debut album “Pure Heroine” https://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4668999~S50

New artist duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was crowned Best New Artist for 2014. The duo also won Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for their single “Thrift Shop” from their debut CD “The Heist” https://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4587232~S50 They stole the Grammys by having thirty three couples married while they performed one of their other hit singles “Same Love”. Queen Latifah officiated after having been certified earlier in the day.

        Super Bowl halftime performer (who had the most watched Super Bowl Halftime performance with 115.3 million viewers tuning in) Bruno Mars won Best Pop Vocal Album for “Unorthodox Jukebox” https://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4584801~S50

Taylor Swift had been the favorite to win in several of the country categories, but rising Country star Kasey Musgraves won Best Country Song for her single “Merry Go Round” and Best Country Album for “Same Trailer Different Park” https://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4622577~S50

The Grammys do more than just focus on popular genres and artists. Broadway got its due with the soundtrack for the musical “Kinky Boots” which won Best Musical Theatre Album https://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4629677~S50 The hit musical is based on the movie of the same name. The music and lyrics were written by Cyndi Lauper.

For a complete list of every 2014 Grammy winner and the nominees in each category please visit: http://www.grammy.com/nominees

While the Library holds CDs of the most recent Grammy winners as noted above, we also have an extensive collection of CDs featuring both artists new and old. From Mozart to Megadeath we have music to suit nearly every taste. As always if you need any help locating CDs by these award winning artists or anyone else please feel free to stop by the Reference Desk. We are always happy to help!