SCHWING! A LOADED LONG WEEKEND
Couch potatoes hit the flatscreen mother lode during the course of Presidents Day weekend. There were highlights aplenty, including the massively viewed Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special on NBC, the Ken Ehrlich-produced Stevie Wonder tribute on CBS and the NBA All-Star Weekend marathon on TNT. Here are a couple of things that caught our eye…and ear.
Ariana Grande, who seemed atypically subdued during her Grammy performance, was impressive throughout her 11-minute All-Star Game halftime performance at MSG and downright Aretha-like at certain moments.
The SNL special was astoundingly strong given the amount of material that had to be created and worked up. Sure, there was a clear precedent for pretty much all of it, but that just meant the bar was set high to begin with.
As for the musical performances, Kanye West easily topped his Grammy solo segment, and Paul McCartney and band powered through a goosebump-inducing “Maybe I’m Amazed,” but it was Miley Cyrus who delivered the evening’s most revelatory three minutes. Decked out in a Flying Burrito Brothers-inspired modified Nudie suit, Miley tackled—and fully inhabited—Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Lose Your Lover.” In that space, this fearless young woman reinvented herself once again, this time as a classy artist and insightful song interpreter.
