grammy

All posts tagged grammy

Bonnie Raitt’s face said it all: She was shocked to win 2023 Grammys’ song of the year

on February 5, 2023 No comments
By Christi Carras | Staff Writer

A “surprised” and “totally humbled” Bonnie Raitt received the Grammy Award on Sunday for song of the year.

The legendary singer appeared stunned when she won the prize for her song “Just Like That” and got a standing ovation from the crowd at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. During her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to renowned folk musician John Prine, who died in April 2020 of COVID-19 complications.

Throughout her decades-long career, Raitt has been a Grammys darling — amassing 13 wins and dozens of nominations. In his 2023 Grammys predictions, Times pop music critic Mikael Wood called 73-year-old Raitt “stiff competition” in the song of the year category with “a moving and complex tale of a mother’s encounter with the recipient of her late son’s transplanted heart.”

Nominated alongside “Just Like That” in the song of the year category were “abcdefu” (Gayle), “About Damn Time” (Lizzo), “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” (Taylor Swift), “As It Was” (Harry Styles), “Bad Habit” (Steve Lacy), “Break My Soul” (Beyoncé), “Easy on Me” (Adele), “God Did” (DJ Khaled) and “The Heart Part 5” (Kendrick Lamar).

Raitt also took home this year’s Grammy Awards for American roots song (“Just Like That”) and Americana performance (“Made Up Mind”).

Below is her full acceptance speech.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, I’m so surprised. I don’t know what to say. This is just an unreal moment. Thank you for honoring me, to all the academy that surrounds me with so much support and appreciates the art of songwriting as I do. I was so inspired for this song by the incredible story of the love and the grace and the generosity of someone that donates their beloved’s organs to help another person live, and the story was so simple and so beautiful for these times.

And people have been responding to the song partly because of how much I love and we all love John Prine, and that was the inspiration for the music for this song and telling a story from the inside. … I don’t write a lot of songs, but I’m so proud that you appreciate this one and what this means for me and for the rest of the songwriters. …

I would not be up here tonight if it wasn’t for the art of the great, soul-digging, hard-working people that put these songs and ideas to music. So I thank my team for helping me get this record out. And thank you so much. I’m just totally humbled. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

{{svg_quality_icon}}
{{quality-options}}

About The Author


Source: © Copyright Los Angeles Times

But wait, there's more!

Bonnie Raitt Talks with David Remnick

on February 3, 2023 No comments
with David Remnick
After fifty years in music, the singer-songwriter is nominated for four Grammy Awards.

tip: most convenient way to listen while browsing along is to use the popup button of the player.

You couldn’t write a history of American music without a solid chapter on Bonnie Raitt. From her roots as a blues guitarist, she’s created a gorgeous melange of rock, R. & B., blues, folk, and country—helping to establish a new category now known as Americana.

But she’s far from resting on her laurels; her latest album, “Just Like That . . . ,” is nominated for four Grammy Awards this year, including Song of the Year—a category in which her competition includes Beyoncé and Adele, stars a generation younger than Raitt.

She talks with David Remnick about her early career in the blues clubs of Boston; the relationship between older Black artists and the nineteen-sixties generation of younger white afficionados; and the state of the genre today.

“The way that blues and R. & B. and soul music [are] interwoven with so many different styles now . . . the cross pollination of influences that streaming has made possible—it means that blues is always at the root of whatever funky music is out at the time,” she says.

Raitt also reflects on how finding sobriety in her forties changed her music. “I think a lot of us are busy putting on a big persona—proving ourselves in the world—for the first two decades of our careers,” she says. “I became more who I really am at forty-one than I was at thirty-one.”

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen

Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter of the best New Yorker podcasts.

About The Author


Source: © Copyright The New Yorker and WNYC Studios

But wait, there's more!

Bonnie Raitt Has Something to Talk About
After snagging a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, the rocker shares with AARP what keeps her going stronger than ever

on April 6, 2022 No comments
by Jim Farber

In the liner notes to Bonnie Raitt’s new album, Just Like That, she lists 14 people she loves who died in the last few years — from musical peers like John Prine to her nephew, Miles Raitt. The causes range from cancer to COVID. But the songs she wrote about her heartbreak couldn’t be more hopeful, epitomized by a rousing refrain in which she declares, “I’m living for the ones who didn’t make it.”

“I actually do start every day thinking to myself, I get another chance!” Raitt said by phone from her home in Marin County, California. “I’m going to live this life for the ones who didn’t get that shot.”

At 72, Raitt’s defiantly hopeful attitude reflects a lifetime fueled by the social justice movements she has been involved with for decades, as well as by a musical legacy that has proven enduring enough to have just reached a new milestone. This last year marked half a century since Raitt released her self-titled debut album, a feat the Grammys acknowledged this week by giving her one of its most vaunted prizes — a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

​AARP spoke with Raitt about her big award, what keeps her motivated and why she treats every show like it’s opening night.

Bonnie Raitt attends the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 03, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. © Frazer Harrison /Getty Images for The Recording Academy

What did winning this particular award from the Grammys mean to you?​​

It’s an honor because the Grammy organization changed my life. After I won Album of the Year, and all those other Grammys, in 1990, I suddenly had more options. I could play with a different level of musicians. I could raise a lot more money for the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, for Native American rights and No Nukes and environmental causes. And when I opened my mouth, people actually printed what I had to say. For them to give me this award is especially wonderful because it’s not just for my music. I believe it’s also for who I am in the community. It’s not for record sales, that’s for sure. 

When you had that big breakthrough three decades ago, you were already 40 years old, which is young for the life cycle but ancient for the pop world. Did that concern you at the time?

​I’m going to use Broadway terminology here: If you’re the ingenue or the leading lady, it’s harder to age gracefully. The press starts to snipe at you after you put on 3 pounds. But when you’re the equivalent to a character actress, which is what I’d say I am, you age in a more welcoming way. I think my fans would have stayed with me if I looked like Methuselah.

One of your earliest musical role models was the wise old blues singer Sippie Wallace. You introduced her work to a whole new generation through your covers of her work, so you helped to give Sippie an especially long career as well. Of all the great “blues mamas,” what drew you to her in particular?

​She had a real attitude. And I wanted to put the messages in her songs out to the world, like in “You Got to Know How” and “Women Be Wise.” I loved her sense of humor. She was a woman telling it like it is. We toured all over the world together, and she told me stories about her life and gave me advice about men. It was like having a wise old aunt — like Sophie Tucker coaching Bette Midler!

Because you released nine albums before your commercial breakthrough, people have come to see you as a living symbol for endurance. Is that a role you relish?

​It comes with the territory of staying alive and keeping your work fresh. My heroes are people like B.B. King and Tony Bennett and Betty White. I really admired them for sticking with it. But the truth is, I felt successful the first time people paid to see me in a club. 

​Why do you think you’ve lasted so long?

​My dad [the Broadway musical star John Raitt] told me, “Treat every show like it’s opening night, and they’ll come back and see you next time.” I earned my audience. I think if you’re just doing it to pay the bills, people are going to sense that. I’m lasting this long because fans know I mean it. 

On the new album, you make it clearer than ever what you mean by writing more songs than usual. Why do you think more songs came to you this time?

​I just had more ideas. And I wanted to write about what I’ve been through in the last couple of years, with losing so many people.

John Prine and Bonnie Raitt come together for ‘Angel From Montgomery’ at the Americana Music Honors & Awards Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. © Terry Wyatt /Getty Images

One friend you lost was John Prine, to COVID. You’ve been performing his song “Angel From Montgomery” on every tour since you recorded it back in 1974, making it the longest-lasting song of your live career. Why has that song proven so enduring for you?

​It’s a masterpiece. It’s such an incredible invocation of what it’s like to be in a marriage that’s not feeding you. When I was 23 and first started singing it, I was a different woman. It was the beginning of the feminist movement, and I had no intention of getting married or having kids. But I remember thinking later that I would never stay in a marriage that felt dead or numb. 

In fact, you never have married and you’ve also chosen not to have children. Why was not having kids the right choice for you?

​I was never called to it. And when I had the opportunity to be a musician for a living, I felt there wasn’t going to be enough income to have children. To take it seriously, I’d have to come off the road. And I didn’t want to have to depend on anybody in a marriage to pay my bills. So I made the choice to be a career woman and stay on the road. And I really like the lifestyle.

It’s rare to like a lifestyle that involves running from city to city for decades. Robbie Robertson once famously said “The road will kill you.”      

If you don’t like traveling and being on the road, you probably should not take this on. I’ve always loved it! I love waking up in a different city. It’s not a drain for me. I actually thrive on it. Probably the biggest challenge is to get enough sleep. But I stay steady with my yoga practice and eating healthy

In that vein, you wrote a song on the new album, “Waiting for You to Blow,” about the fear of making a particularly bad health choice — to potentially lose your sobriety. But you’ve been sober for over 30 years. Why write that song now?

​When you’re sober for a while, and you’re mature, you do miss the carefree feeling when you could either party harder or fall in love more magnificently or just when things were simpler. “Waiting for You to Blow” was something I wanted to write for a while — not to do with substance abuse but with the way the little devil on your shoulder tells you to make rationalizations or to procrastinate or to overstep the limits of your diet or your exercise program. It was fun to write about something that thorny. 

Two other songs you wrote for the album were based on true events. “Down the Hall” was inspired by a New York Times story about a prison hospice program. And the title track, “Just Like That,” came from a local news report about how an organ transplant connected two families. They’re both very uplifting stories. Was that the draw for you?

​At this point in my life, when I see stories of people sacrificing themselves for others, that moves me. I was raised with those values. Since the last two and a half years wreaked havoc on every bit of normalcy and comfort that we have, it was even more important to remind people of the goodness of the human spirit. That’s what gets you through.

About The Author



Source: © Copyright AARP

But wait, there's more!