Clear your schedules and charge your phone because this Sunday you will be doing a lot of live tweeting while watching the 60th annual Grammy Awards. What makes this year special is that for the first time in 15 years the show will be trading in the Los Angeles sun for the gritty streets of New York City, this year the show will be held at Maddison Square Garden.
On Monday the creators of the show held a pre-show event at The Paley Center for Media in Midtown. The event, The Grammy’s Return To New York: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the 60th GRAMMY Awards, was hosted by The Grammy Museum. The event premiered a 30-minute reel which featured some of the shows most powerful acts to date. The audience rang in applause for performances by the late Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and the great Celine Dion. They also celebrated the last 60 years of the award ceremony with a live Q and A panel. The conversation was led by Scott Goldman, executive director of the Grammy Museum. The panel featured the top showrunners of the biggest night in music and during the intimate sit down aspiring musicians, directors and producers from the audience were allowed to ask questions to the executive of their choice.
But before the talk took place members of the executive team, Ken Ehrlich,, Grammy Awards Executive Producer; Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the Recording Academy; Chantel Sausedo, Grammy Awards Talent Producer; Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events for CBS Entertainment; and David Wild, writer/producer for the Grammy Awards walked the red carpet and told The Knockturnal what we can all expect from the big night.
The Knocktural: Talk to me about your role and what you do for the Grammys
Ken Ehrlich: I’m the executive producer of the show, I do nothing, I sit back and everyone else works ( laughs). I’m just kidding, I oversee booking, performances but I have nothing to do with who gets Grammys.
The Knocktural: So what are you excited to see for Sunday?
Ken Ehrlich: I love the performances, there are a bunch of people who we have had before like Bruno Mars, but I love the newer artists like Kesha, but it’s a turnover of new talent making great music so that’s the exciting part. This is the best concert of the year so its all about people seeing great performances.
The Knockturnal: Talk to me about your role at the Grammys.
David Wild: I’ve been a writer and producer at the Grammys for 17 years. Whether it was LL Cool J, Queen Latifah or now James Corden together we try to tell the best story of the year.
The Knockturnal: What do you want the audience to take away from your contribution to the show?
David Wild: I like the emotional connection of it all. Concerts don’t rate well so I just want to celebrate the emotional contribution to music in our lives.
The Knockturnal: Talk to me about your role with the Grammys.
Chantel Sausedo: I’m the talent director so after they figure out what direction they want to go in then I’m responsible for reaching out to artists and from the moment they say yes, I’m responsible for reaching out and making sure they have all their toys, dressing rooms and are comfortable.
The Knockturnal: So we know Bruno Mars is performing, is he bringing Cardi B with him?
Chantel Sausedo: I don’t know, maybe. That would be a Grammy moment. (Smiles)
The Knockturnal: What are you looking forward to seeing?
Neil Portnow: (President/CEO of the Recording Academy) I look a little differently, I look at the night because to me it’s a body of work. I hope people walk out and say wow that was a three and half hours of exciting stuff.
The Knocturnal: You are the executive director of The Grammy Museum in LA talk about that.
Scott Goldman: Well we have a 30,000 square foot museum in downtown Los Angeles that talks about the history of the Grammy Awards and we are all about keeping music as a central part of the culture musically and around the world. I get to host programs like the one tonight. We a have a 200 seat theater in our museum and I get to talk to artists from new to legendary about what goes into their creative process, I’m the luckiest man in America.
