While most award shows are bogged down by controversy and awkward moments, the 61st annual Grammy’s on February 10 was actually bearable for a majority of the time … depending on who you talk to.
For example, if you ask me — a mid-20’s white dude from New York City — I’d say I rather enjoyed Jennifer Lopez’s Motown tribute. However, if you ask a mid-60’s black dude from Detroit, they may not agree, and that seems to be the general consensus on Twitter.
Following her six-minute long medley tribute to the Motown era, Twitter exploded with criticism of both J Lo and the Recording Academy, wondering how the decision was made to have a Latina woman perform a tribute for a predominantly African American genre of music.
“J. Lo better not salsa her way to the cookout because she is uninvited for that terrible performance. How do you do a Motown tribute without an ALL BLACK cast of artists?! And it’s Black History Month too,” said Jared Sawyer Jr. on Twitter.
During her performance, Lopez touched on all of the classics, such as “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”, “War”, “Square Biz”, “Another Star, Do You Love Me?”, “Please Mr. Postman”, “Dancing In The Street”, “The Best Things In Life Are Free”, and “My Girl.”
However, despite the backlash in the Twittersphere, Lopez received real-life support from one of Motown’s most iconic figures, Smokey Robinson.
Robinson, who joined Lopez on stage for portions of the tribute, told Variety prior to the performance that “anyone who is upset is stupid.”
“Motown was music for everybody. Everybody,” Robinson said. “Who’s stupid enough to protest Jennifer Lopez doing anything for Motown? I don’t think anyone who is intelligent is upset. I think anyone who is upset is stupid,” Robinson defiantly declared.
And while J Lo was clearly the subject of some backlash, we have a feeling her powerhouse career will keep churning along, just as it has for the last two decades.
