btw u guys watched the grammy award yesterday....dixie won all the categories they are in..wow...anyway, the song : I am not ready to make nice is a nice song..:) and also I think red hot chili peper deserve what it takes too..;)

any other opinion?

Cheerz
Eveline

btw here is the complete report : :)

2007 Grammy Awards: Dixie Chicks Make Nice, and Ludacris Remarks

Writer's Block by Paul Schultz
Published: February 12, 2007

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"Ladies and gentlemen, we are the police and we're back!" So began the 49th Annual Grammy Awards show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. In celebration of their 30th anniversary, the trio belted out "Roxanne" with verve, even if Sting didn't attempt the high notes in the chorus. The group hit their peak in the early to mid 1980's, then -- while never officially disbanding -- Sting went on a very successful solo career, Stewart Copeland did cool things like score the television series The Equalizer, and Andy Summers... well, I kept track of him about as well as I did the other guy from Wham! For an eighties guy like myself, it was an awesome beginning to the night.

Jamie Foxx even attempted a bit of humor at their expense, noting that when someone said, "The police are here," Snoop [Dogg] left the building. It fell flat, and that was pretty much the only attempt at humor for the rest of the proceedings (until Chris Rock stumbled at the very end with his feeble introduction of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, garnering the only censored speech of the night).

The first award is Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, and it goes to "For Once In My Life" performed by Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder. Perfectly worthy recipients, but its an ominous sign that, in typical fashion, Grammys will go to "the old guard" rather than the riskier selection of newer talent. Tony thanks Target for being the best sponsor he's ever had.

The ceremony approaches its closest moment to the liberal territory usually only mined repeatedly at the Oscars by having Joan Baez introduce the Dixie Chicks performing "Not Ready To Make Nice". With the Democrats controlling Congress, it was only natural that the music industry would champion the embattled country trio, though not to a degree where they'd sweep Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. They even snagged Best Country Album and Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, which had strong competition with nominees Little Big Town ("Boondocks"), Rascal Flatts ("What Hurts The Most"), and The Wreckers ("Leave The Pieces").

It wasn't lights-out for the far-left, though, since Neil Young's "Living With War" didn't win Best Rock Album, nor did Al Franken's "The Truth (With Jokes)" nab Best Spoken Word Album. Oh, and Al Gore had confetti in his hair the whole time he was on stage as a presenter. So there.

Prince (minus phallic guitar), said simply, "One word: Beyoncé," and the effortlessly beautiful Ms. Knowles made her way through "Listen," from "Dreamgirls" without a hint that she was a bit under the weather. Props to the decision to backlight her sheer dress. Beyoncé would go on to win Best Contemporary R&B Album for "B'Day".

The first Lifetime Achievement Award was announced, going to Booker T and the MG's. Three other recipients were announced throughout the night: The Doors, The Grateful Dead, and Maria Callas. These all-too-brief segments really did none of them justice.

It was shaping up early on to be Mary J. Blige's night, and she took home awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, Best R&B Song ("Be Without You") and Best R&B Album ("The Breakthrough"). After her first win, she made sure to retrieve the card announcing the winner from The Black Eyed Peas' Stacy Ferguson ("Poseidon") before noting that it was nice after all the negative comments she's received to having something positive happen, and launching into a lengthy list of thank-you's. Had she known she'd be up there another couple of times, she wouldn't have had to rush through all the names.

Reality television has invaded the Grammys! "My Grammy Moment" was a national competition for the opportunity to sing on stage with Justin Timberlake. The three finalists are sitting together in the audience and... whoa! They're all gorgeous! Why can't this be a quartet? Alas, only one can be the winner and voters are encouraged to send text messages to choose either Africa Miranda, Brenda Radney, or Robyn Troup. Apparently, if you don't have a cell phone, your opinion is unimportant.

It's time for another commercial break, and at this point, I note that there are a lot of repeats of advertisements that made their debut during the Super Bowl, including that creepy male car wash one. But then there's a movie trailer for "Ghost Rider": "In 5 Days, Get Ready To Ride." Yeah, baby!

The "Vanity Award" of the night goes to Justin Timberlake, who not only introduces his own song, but grabs a hand-held camera in the middle of it and points it at himself. The piano riff from "What Goes Around" sure sounds a lot like "You Are The Sun" from the album "Add to the Beauty" by Sara Groves. Should the RIAA be notified?

"I want to use this success to build bridges, not burn them," was the heartfelt acceptance speech by Blige the second time she came up.

Stevie Wonder wasn't content to be "overjoyed" in his introduction; he even sang a few bars of his 1986 hit to hammer the point across. He had every right, though, to be enthused at the trio of singer-songwriters he presented: Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend, and John Mayer. This segment was so subdued, you had time to pay attention to the dust illuminated by the back light floating around their heads, and spittle flying from Legend's mouth. Still, the emotion exuded was palpable. John Mayer was so lost in the moment, that when he won Best Pop Vocal Album for "Continuum" a moment later, he was at a loss for words.

"Hips Don't Lie" indeed. The following performance couldn't have contrasted more with what preceded it, as Shakira shook her thing to the accompaniment of Fugees refugee Wyclef Jean. You couldn't understand half the words he was saying, but I didn't really care... there was plenty to look at as supplement!

Dixie Chicks win their first award and I'm bracing for something "special". Instead, a dark-haired Natalie Maines says, "For the first time in my life, I'm speechless." Really, the lyrics to the winning song, "Not Ready To Make Nice", say it all, so any additional commentary would be superfluous.

Okay, I don't get it... Gnarls Barkley is dressed up in a pilot's uniforms for their performance of "Crazy" (which wins Best Urban/Alternative Performance).

Ludacris wins Best Rap Album for "Release Therapy" and comments, "All I had to do was cut my hair to win this?" But he couldn't leave well enough alone, and took his time in the spotlight to give shout-outs to Oprah and Bill O'Reilly. Now there's the controversy I was looking for!

Blige had her own comments before singing "Be Without You", but she let the music do the talking as she got the crowd moving to her hit that segued into the soul classic "Stay With Me."

The acceptance speeches didn't get any deeper for the Dixie Chicks as Maines interjected, "To quote The Simpsons: Ha-ha!" during the Best Country Album award, and "I've got nothing clever to say, sorry!" while accepting their Album of the Year trophy.

I have to mention here that there should be an award for Best Song Title, and the winner this year should be "I Am Not My Hair" by India Arie.

Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys get a worthy honoring with Carrie Underwood's performance of "San Antonio Rose". The same could not be said for the Eagles as Country favorites Rascal Flatts do a rendition of "Hotel California" that just didn't work for me. Okay, I have to admit a bias here... I just don't like Gary LeVox's voice. Underwood follows with "Desperado" and pairs up with Rascal Flatts for a rousing "Life in the Fast Lane".

A note on the physical layout of the stage: in addition to the large stage in front, there was a smaller round stage in the middle of the crowd. Occasionally it would be used for awards presentations, which was awkward for the crowd who had to turn around, and for the winner, who had to address their comments all around them. Having said that, it was an excellent device for moving from one performance to another without interruption. The best example of this was when Smokey Robinson took to the main stage ("The Tracks of My Tears") and when he finished, Lionel Richie at the piano ("Hello") faded in at the smaller stage. When he concluded, it was back to the front stage as Chris Brown absolutely killed with an energetic dance/stomp routine to his monster hit "Run It!"

Christina Aguilera was nearly swallowed up in stage smoke, but overcame it to belt out James Brown's 1965 hit "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" with full vocal calisthenics. The "In Memoriam" segment noting people in the music industry who died in the past year concluded with the Godfather of Soul's longtime hypeman Danny Ray draping Brown's sequined robe on the microphone stand as the lights went down. Nicely done.

The lovely Rihanna sports a stunning green dress as she introduces (okay, David Spade was there, too) Ludacris and Blige in a sobering performance of "Runaway Love" complete with images of young girls in peril filling the screens above them. James Blunt seemed just a tad out of his league while singing the way-overplayed "You're Beautiful", but that may have been due to technical difficulties with his mic -- the only glitch I noticed in that department all night.

"My Grammy Moment" is about to happen as Jennifer Hudson rather unceremoniously announces 18-year-old Robyn Troup as the top vote-getter (among a narrow selection committee of cell phone-owning viewers, but I'll stop beating that dead horse). Man, talk about the pressure! She's just won, and immediately has to mount the stage as Justin is already starting the song. Other than forgetting to sing into the mic a couple of times and her earpiece popping out, she does a smashing job, and displays all of the talent that got her to this "Moment".

Why is Paris Hilton in the crowd? Oh yeah, that's right... she's a "musician".

Red Hot Chili Peppers are buried (along with the entire auditorium) in confetti during their performance, and Queen Latifah is picking it out of her cleavage and off Al Gore's jacket as the group is announced of winners of Best Rock Album. Chad Smith uses his allotted time to implore, "Get out there and start a rock band! We need more rock bands!" And that's for sure. It's a pretty sad state of affairs for rock music when Bruce Springsteen wins a Grammy... and it's for Best Traditional Folk Album. There was plenty of good music to sample tonight, but absolutely nothing to rock your face off. It makes me long for the days when they would trot out Metallica as the token metal band.

The big award of the night -- Album of the Year -- is presented by Don Henley and... Scarlett Johansson? She announces that she's making her first records, as if to answer the unspoken question on everyone's mind: What are you doing here? She asks Don if he has any advice, and he incredulously answers succinctly, "No." The Dixie Chicks win again, Maines proclaims, "I'm ready to make nice!" and finally ventures forth that freedom of speech was exercised through the award recipients.

The 49th Annual Grammy Awards show turned out to be a consistently entertaining endeavor, though I wish they would compile some sort of special for Lifetime Achievement Award winners to give them their just due. In the end, the Dixie Chicks did "Shut Up and Sing" and were rewarded handsomely for their suddenly-popular sentiments.

why no replies?

:D

thanx for sharing ya... :D