Tag Archives: song

culture, entertainment, music

Grammys Review 2023: Favorite Artists and Well-Deserved Awards

By Natalie Grace Sipula

As an avid music lover, I am always excited to see who the nominees for the Grammy Awards will be. The Grammy Awards, also known as the Grammys, is an awards show presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize talent in the music industry. The award categories span a variety of different genres and roles in the music industry, but the most widely anticipated awards are typically Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. 

While the Grammys have come under criticism in recent years for not always recognizing artists of diverse backgrounds and focusing mainly on pop music, the performances and awards still garner a large amount of recognition for the artists who receive them. It can be fun to tune in and see who wins in each category, especially in years where a lot of big name artists release new music. I was particularly excited for the 2023 Grammys, as two of my favorite musical artists, Bad Bunny and Harry Styles, were nominated for awards. This surely turned out to be a great year for both of these artists, with Bad Bunny performing the opening act and winning an award in the category Best Música Urbana Album, and Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House” winning Album of the Year. You can peruse the exhaustive list of who was nominated and who won in each category here.

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

Bad Bunny’s opening performance was particularly notable, as he is the only person to open a Grammys show with a performance entirely in Spanish. He represented his home country of Puerto Rico proudly, choosing songs for his setlist that mentioned the strength of his country and performing alongside folkloric dancers. His performance had everyone in the audience dancing to the traditional merengue dance music. He even made history as the first person to have a Spanish language album nominated for Album of the Year! As someone who speaks Spanish and has been listening to Reggaeton (a popular Latin American music style) for years, I was so excited to see so much discussion surrounding this performance. In my opinion, this represents necessary changes and recognition for minority artists at popular American awards shows such as the Grammys.

Another exciting moment was watching Harry Styles win the Album of the Year for “Harry’s House”. While many people were disappointed to see Harry win over Beyonce’s “Renaissance”, Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti”, or Lizzo’s “Special”, I was actually very happy to see Harry’s win (although I think the other artists nominated had great albums too). Harry Styles has had a landmark year in music, including topping the charts for number #1 album and number #1 track with his single “As It Was”. To me, it is so impressive that Harry has been able to greatly evolve in his sound and musical style across only three solo albums, and that he is already selling out arenas so early in his solo career. I had the opportunity to see his “Harry’s House” tour live in concert at the Forum in Los Angeles, and I completely understood why he has been having so much success this year. He performed a fairly long set list completely solo, remaining high energy throughout the performance even after he had canceled some shows earlier that week from being sick. At the concert, I could feel the positivity and energy everywhere and his live renditions of the songs were even better than the recorded versions!

Photo taken by me of Harry Styles performing onstage at the Kia Forum

Overall, I think Harry Styles’s Grammy award was well-deserved, as was Bad Bunny’s and the other artists winning in major categories. I am excited to see more creativity in new music releases this year, and recommend tuning into the Grammys next year to stay in the know about popular and talented artists. 

Featured Image by Sudhith Xavier on Unsplash

Natalie is pursuing a double major in Philosophy, Politics, & Law and Spanish and plans to pursue a career in criminal law.  She is a senior from Cleveland, Ohio and is a Presidential Scholar studying in the Thematic Option Honors Program.  On campus, Natalie is involved in QuestBridge Scholars, USC Model UN, Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity, Trojan Scholars Society, and Gamma Phi Beta sorority.  Growing up she was dedicated to theatre, including studying and performing at Cleveland Play House.  She has served as a volunteer camp counselor with Mi Pueblo Culture Camp in Cleveland and has volunteered with Angel City Pit Bull animal shelter in Los Angeles.  An avid concertgoer, she also enjoys visiting SoCal’s beaches and mountains and exploring all that L.A. has to offer.  You’ll find her reading Russian literature, watching telenovelas, playing acoustic guitar, hiking, drinking boba and eating sushi.

Adult Responsibilities, Advice, music

My Concert Catastrophe-How to Survive Live Concerts

By Anahi Terrazas

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[4.5 minute read]

Prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, concert-going was one of my favorite pastimes. I’ve been to multiple concerts over the past couple of years (my favorite arguably being the One Direction concert). One of my favorite artists is also Harry Styles, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that he would be performing during Super Bowl weekend in Miami.

As soon as I heard he would be performing in Miami, I bought tickets—mind you, I didn’t know anyone that I could go to the concert with, so I messaged a girl that I had met at the Women’s March and added on Instagram weeks prior to the concert. It turned out that she was also going to be attending the concert and didn’t have anyone to go with, so we made a plan to meet up at the venue. The concert was approximately a 40-50 minute drive from where I was attending school prior to transferring to USC.

The concert was at 8 pm, but it was open seating, so to get a good seat you had to arrive early. I got there promptly at 5 am the day of the concert. I had driven from Parkland, Florida to Miami. The venue was built specifically for Super Bowl weekend and it was basically on an island that did not have any parking, so in order to arrive you had to park somewhere in downtown Miami and Uber to the venue (this is an important detail for later). I very excitedly arrived at Miami and by around 6:15 am I was standing in line with my friend from the Women’s March.

Standing in line outside the venue at around 6:30 am

While waiting in line, everything was seemingly normal; we made friends with the girls in line with us and chatted about how excited we were. However, when the clock hit 7:30 pm and we still weren’t allowed into the venue, I started to question what was happening. We were eventually led into the venue at around 8:30 pm, and though I was incredibly tired because I had been awake since 4 am, the rush of being able to see Harry Styles perform kept me from getting too impatient. Mark Ronson, a DJ, was the first opening act and by around 10:30 pm, Lizzo, the second opening act, started performing.

My view of the stage once inside the venue

Though I had been to many concerts before, I had never experienced the main act starting so late. After Lizzo’s performance, time passed and there was still no sign of Harry Styles getting on stage. At this point everyone in the pit started to get dehydrated because we had been standing so long without water. People started to ask security for water and question why it was almost midnight and Harry Styles had yet to perform.

View from the pit

Nevertheless, the people around me and I kept our hopes up because it was Harry Styles’ birthday the next day, so we assumed that he was waiting until midnight to perform in order to celebrate his birthday. In fact, once the clock hit 12 am fans started to sing “Happy Birthday” when suddenly, the screen in front of us flashed a message saying that the concert was canceled due to extreme weather and that we had to be evacuated.

Announcement telling concert-goers we needed to evacuate
Continue reading My Concert Catastrophe-How to Survive Live Concerts →
Adult Responsibilities, Outlook

Lessons Learned Through R&B Lyrics

By Rio Jackson

As the American artist SZA once said, “God bless these 20 somethings – good luck on them 20 somethings.” Your twenty’s can be an interesting ride. High school is over and you’re journeying into adulthood. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, adulthood is defined as maturity and “being fully developed”. In other words, you’re a grown-up now and should have this thing called life figured out. But we all know, life is not simple, and our goals do not always go according to plan. With finals here and everyone starting to feel exhausted from studying, I hope I can provide some wisdom to get you through this period. I personally love music, so, I am going to provide a few life tips hidden in the music genres known as R&B and Hip-Hop.

1.Count On Your Friends

“I’ll be there for you
When you’re going through
Times that you may think that you need a friend
You can count on me
Call me when you need”

-Song: Best Friend – Brandy

Life comes with a lot of hiccups and unexpected turns. Friends and supportive colleagues make life challenges a lot less painful. Empathetic friends remind you that the bad times are not permanent. Feeling isolated? Dreading graduating? Undecided about talking to your family? Having work related issues? Identify a friend. You do not need many friends, one good friend will make a difference in your experience in college, and adulthood. Quality friendships are vital in your twenty-somethings. Friends reduce your stress and friends give you a sense of belonging.

  1. Identify Your Problems

“I tried to drink it away
I tried to put one in the air
I tried to dance it away
I tried to change it with my hair
I ran my credit card bill up
Thought a new dress would make it better
I tried to work it away
But that just made me even sadder”

-Song: Cranes In The Sky – Solange

Solange ,who is now a 31 year old Grammy recipient, explained the origin of her “Cranes In The Sky” track in an interview with her sister, Beyonce.  She said that he wrote it in her 20’s when she had self-doubt. This notorious track was able to “put into perspective all of those ugly things” we experience in our twenty-somethings. Like Solange, it is important to identify your pain in order to find inner peace.

You can read more about her interview here: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/solange/#page2

  1. It’s Time To Let It Go…

“Just let go
Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Everything’s gonna work out right, you know
Just let go, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow
Just let it go, baby”

-Song: Let It Flow – Toni Braxton

Toni’s voice is soothing and calming and in “Let It Go,” her lyrics speak to letting go of a relationship. However, this song can be relatable to numerous areas in our life outside of relationships. When “things” fail, which sometimes in life they do, let it flow… I’m not saying let it entirely go, but don’t let it weigh you down. When you’re feeling anxious and sad – remember to self care. Keep pushing and move forward! You have your thirties and a long life to look forward to.

Continue reading Lessons Learned Through R&B Lyrics →