Expert predictions for the wide-open, COVID-delayed, gone-to-Vegas 2022 Grammy Awards
Well, you can bet that oddsmakers are pondering some new scenarios now.
Just a week after Will Smith stunned the world by slapping Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars, the 64th Grammy Awards will take place Sunday night, adding an element of intrigue to an already atypical iteration of music’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
This year’s event, which was postponed from late January amid concerns over the spread of the omicron variant, will be broadcast live on CBS from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, a COVID-inspired move from the Grammys’ usual home in Los Angeles that the Recording Academy is gamely presenting as a chance to “put on a world-class show.”
Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show” is set to host, while performances are expected by Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, BTS, Lil Nas X and Brandi Carlile, among others. (The academy hasn’t said how it plans to handle a planned appearance by Foo Fighters, whose drummer, Taylor Hawkins, died last week.)
Top nominees across the ceremony’s 86 categories include Jon Batiste, the R&B and jazz composer known to many as the bandleader on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Eilish, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, H.E.R. and 19-year-old sensation Rodrigo, who is up for the Grammys’ four biggest prizes of album, record and song of the year, along with best new artist.
Also in the mix among high-level nods, which this year managed to avoid a glaring omission a la the Weeknd’s
