2017 GRAMMYS: Adele 5/5, Beyonce 2/9, Drake 1/8, Rihanna 0/8,

Last night was the 59th Grammy awards and they were surprisingly watchable and interesting. Most of the pre-show hype was the talk about the battle between the divas. Beyoncé was up for 9 awards while Adele was up for 5. However, the two superstars went head-to-head in 3 of the 4 biggest categories. The result was a romp by Adele, who won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and (most controversially) Album of the Year.

Album of the year:

• WINNER | “25” — Adele 
• “Lemonade” — Beyoncé 
• “Purpose” — Justin Bieber
• “Views” — Drake 
• “A Sailor's Guide to Earth” — Sturgill Simpson

Record of the year:

• WINNER | "Hello" — Adele
• "Formation" — Beyoncé
• "7 Years" — Lukas Graham
• "Work" — Rihanna featuring Drake
• "Stressed Out" — Twenty One Pilots

Song of the year:

• "Formation" — Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Beyoncé Knowles & Michael L. Williams II, songwriters (Beyoncé)
• WINNER | "Hello" — Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Adele)
• "I Took a Pill In Ibiza" — Mike Posner, songwriter (Mike Posner)
• "Love Yourself" — Justin Bieber, Benjamin Levin & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Justin Bieber)
• "7 Years" — Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard & Morten Ristorp, songwriters (Lukas Graham)

New artist:

• Kelsea Ballerini
• The Chainsmokers
• WINNER | Chance the Rapper
• Maren Morris
• Anderson .Paak 

However, Beyoncé arguably say she had the most impact on the show, with an astonsihing performance revealing her fully pregnant (with twins) body and the antics of her daughter Blue Ivy throughout the night in the audience, Adele opened with an impeccable rendition of "Hello" and later on performed a decidedly not impeccable version of George Michael's "Fastlove" as a tribute to the pop singer who died on December 25th, 2016. Amazingly, she stopped her performance (for reasons that were unclear to me) about 30 seconds in, dropped an F-bomb on live television and asked to restart the song, which she did, although not in a noticeably improved fashion. The choice of song was very strange, since I think no one would say it is one of Michael's best.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Openly Gay Singer Sam Smith Nominated For Multiple Grammys

This year's Grammy award nominations are being announced today and openly gay Sam Smith is expected to clean up. In a break with tradition, the nominations are being released continuously during a 24-hour period with the biggest category, Album of the Year being announced last, at 10pm EST on a prime time special.

So far the 22-year-old Briton has been nominated for 5 Grammys including some of the biggest categories such as Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year (for his smash hit song "Stay With Me"). He is widely expected to have his debut album In The Lonely Hour nominated for Album of the Year as well. He would become the first man in several decades (since Christopher Cross in 1982) to be nominated in all four of the biggest categories.

2014 GRAMMYS: My Predictions For The Top 4 Categories

Here are my pics for the winners in the Top 4 categories of the Grammy awards, which are being handed out at 8pm EST (5pm PST) in Los Angeles. Not only is prominent straight ally Macklemore & Lewis nominated in 3 of the top 4 categories for their marriage equality anthem "Same Love," they are going to be conducting a group marriage ceremony on stage while they perform the song, with Queen Latifah presiding and Madonna herself appearing as well. Macklemore & Lewis are an independent hip-hop act who had the #1 song of 2013 according to Billboard, the infectious "Thrift Shop."

RECORD OF THE YEAR
"Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams
"Royals" - Lorde
"Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
"Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons
"Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell 

SHOULD WIN: "Get Lucky"
WILL WIN: Blurred Lines"

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
"The Blessed Unrest" - Sara Bareilles
"Random Access Memories" - Daft Punk
"Good Kid, M.A.A.D City" - Kendrick Lamar
"The Heist" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
"Red" - Taylor Swift  

SHOULD WIN: "The Heist"
WILL WIN: "The Heist"

SONG OF THE YEAR
"Just Give Me A Reason" - Jeff Bhasker, Pink & Nate Ruess, songwriters
(Pink Featuring Nate Ruess)
"Locked Out Of Heaven" - Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine & Bruno Mars,
songwriters (Bruno Mars)
"Roar" - Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Katy Perry & Henry
Walter, songwriters (Katy Perry)
"Royals" - Joel Little & Ella Yelich O'Connor, songwriters (Lorde)
"Same Love" - Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis, songwriters
(Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Mary Lambert)  

SHOULD WIN: "Same Love"
WILL WIN: "Royals"

BEST NEW ARTIST
James Blake
Kendrick Lamar
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Kacey Musgraves
Ed Sheeran 

SHOULD WIN: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
WILL WIN: Kendrick Lamar

I don't know too much what "the kids are listening to these days" but I do know what I like and that Macklemore & Lewis album has numerous killer tracks on it.

Macklemore & Lewis "Same Love" Gets Grammy Nod for Song of the Year

The Grammy nominations were announced Friday night and one of the key results was the nomination of the gay marriage anthem "Same Love" by Macklemore & Lewis in the Song of the Year category. In fact, Macklemore & Lewis received 7 nominations overall, 2 behind the leader Jay-Z and tied with Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar and Pharrell Williams. Macklemore & Lewis are named in three of the top four categories.

RECORD OF THE YEAR
"Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams
"Royals" - Lorde
"Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
"Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons
"Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell 

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
"The Blessed Unrest" - Sara Bareilles
"Random Access Memories" - Daft Punk
"Good Kid, M.A.A.D City" - Kendrick Lamar
"The Heist" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
"Red" - Taylor Swift 

SONG OF THE YEAR
"Just Give Me A Reason" - Jeff Bhasker, Pink & Nate Ruess, songwriters
(Pink Featuring Nate Ruess)
"Locked Out Of Heaven" - Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine & Bruno Mars,
songwriters (Bruno Mars)
"Roar" - Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, Katy Perry & Henry
Walter, songwriters (Katy Perry)
"Royals" - Joel Little & Ella Yelich O'Connor, songwriters (Lorde)
"Same Love" - Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert & Ryan Lewis, songwriters
(Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Mary Lambert) 

BEST NEW ARTIST
James Blake
Kendrick Lamar
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Kacey Musgraves
Ed Sheeran

It would be very cool if "Same Love" won song of the year when the winners are announced, on January 26, 2014.

Jennifer Hudson covers "I Will Always Love You"

Last night's tribute to Whitney Houston  at the Grammy Awards was too brief but it did feature this incredible rendition of Jennifer Hudson singing an abbreviated version of the classic "I Will Always Love You" with impeccable grace and amazing technique/

Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

Whitney Houston has apparently died at the age of 48. The Grammy Awards are tomorrow. It's gonna be crazy!

She will always be remembered for her hits like I Will Always Love You, The Greatest Love of All and  many many more. Very sad news.

LA Gay & Lesbian Center Decries Buju's Grammy Nod

The LA Gay and Lesbian Center is protesting the news that homophobic Jamaican musician Buju Banton has received a 2009 Grammy nomination, the fourth of his career.

"We're shocked that Buju Banton, a singer with a long record of performing a song that glorifies the murder of gay people, would be honored with a Grammy nomination, regardless of the artistic merit of any of his work.

Throughout his career, Banton has performed music that promotes a culture of violence against lesbian and gay people; he sings in "Boom, Bye Bye" that "faggots get up and run" when he comes, that "they have to die," and that he will shoot them in the head or "burn them up bad."

He is completely unrepentant, refuses to stop performing the song, and recently said, "There is no end to the war between me and faggots."

Banton's music has helped foster such an anti-gay culture in his home country of Jamaica-where several prominent gay activists and many other LGBT people have been murdered-that Time magazine recently asked, 'Is Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth?' Banton himself was charged with a violent anti-gay hate crime.

It's an affront to LGBT people, and to all fair-minded people around the world, that Buju Banton was even nominated. We certainly hope the members of the Recording Academy will not bestow the prestigious honor of a Grammy on someone whose music promotes murder."

Just a few weeks ago MadProfessah joined the Center's Executive Director Lorri Jean protesting Buju Banton's performance in Hollywood. The controversy has not gone unnoticed in the mainstream media.

Obama Beats Clinton (at The Grammys)

Barack Obama beat (Bill) Clinton at the Grammy Awards last night, winning the award for Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling) for The Audacity Of Hope audiobook. Bill Clinton was nominated for Giving: How Each Of Us Can Change The World.

Grammy Award surprises

Despite the surprising sweep by The Dixie Chicks in the Song, Record and Album of the Year categories, some Mad Professah faves did manage to take home Grammy awards on Sunday night. Jill Scott won in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category for a collaboration with George Benson and Al Jarreau entitled "God Bless The Child." Madonna won for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Van Hunt won with John Legend and Joss Stone in the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals category for covering "Family Affair" by Sly & The Family Stone.

As usual, the most common emotion I felt while watching the Grammy's was confusion, as in "Who are these people?" I doubt I will even know or care what happens at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards next year.