Batiste wins album honor, Zelenskiy makes appeal at Grammys By Reuters

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© Reuters. Musician Jon Batiste accepts the Grammy for Finest Music Video for Freedom, on the sixty fourth Annual Grammy Awards Premiere ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. April 3, 2022. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

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By Lisa Richwine

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -Multi-genre artist Jon Batiste received album of the yr and R&B duo Silk Sonic took two of the highest honors at a Grammy awards ceremony that featured a shock attraction for help from wartime President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine.

Batiste landed the evening’s greatest prize for “We Are,” an album impressed by the Black Lives Matter motion.

“I consider this to my core – there isn’t a finest musician, finest artist, finest dancer, finest actor,” Batiste mentioned. “The inventive arts are subjective … I simply put my head down and I work on the craft daily.”

Silk Sonic, that includes Bruno Mars and Anderson.Paak, claimed the tune and file of the yr awards for his or her Nineteen Seventies impressed hit “Go away the Door Open.”

“We’re actually making an attempt our hardest to stay humble at this level,” joked Paak because the pair accepted the second honor.

Olivia Rodrigo, the 19-year-old singer of heartbreak ballad “drivers license,” was topped finest new artist.

“That is my greatest dream come true. Thanks a lot!” Rodrigo mentioned as she held her trophy.

Halfway via the ceremony, host Trevor Noah launched a video message from Zelenskiy, who contrasted the enjoyment discovered via music to the devastation brought on by Russia’s invasion of his nation greater than a month in the past.

“What’s extra reverse to music? The silence of ruined cities and killed individuals,” Zelenskiy, carrying a inexperienced t-shirt, mentioned in a hoarse voice.

“Fill the silence together with your music,” he added. “Assist us in any manner you’ll be able to. Any, however not silence.” [L2N2W10HZ]

The remarks preceded a John Legend efficiency that featured two Ukrainian musicians and a Ukrainian poet.

The best honors in music had been postponed from January throughout a spike in COVID-19 circumstances and moved from Los Angeles to the MGM Grand Backyard Area in Las Vegas. Hundreds of spectators packed the venue, a distinction to final yr’s scaled-down outside occasion.

Winners had been chosen by some 11,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.

Noah urged the viewers to think about the night as “a live performance the place we’re handing out awards.”

“We’re going to be conserving individuals’s names out of our mouths,” Noah added, a jab about final Sunday’s Oscars slap by actor Will Smith, who instructed comic Chris Rock to not point out his spouse’s title.

Winners had been chosen by some 11,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.