How Taylor Swift Embodied the Best and Worst of the Grammys

Let me be honest.  I’m thrilled for Taylor Swift that she won Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammy Awards (as well as Best Country Album, Best Country Female Vocal Performance and Best Country Song).  It was well-deserved, she was a delightfully gracious winner, and let’s face it – the girl can wear the bejeezus out of a dress!  However, pairing her with Stevie Nicks for a duet of “Rhiannon” was a rock n’ roll sacrilege, plain and simple.

The youngest female artist to ever win the recording industry's highest honor (a distinction previously held by Alanis Morrisette, who was 21 when she won for Jagged Little Pill in 1996), Taylor Swift looked absolutely ravishing as she floated down the red carpet in a blue beaded KaufmanFranco gown with a train.  This certainly wasn’t Swift’s first foray down a carpet, nor is she any stranger to the wonderful tailoring talents of Ken Kaufman and Isaac Franco, whose event gowns and party dresses fit the singer/actress like proverbial gloves.  Her taste (or that of her stylist) is spot-on, every time.

To wit, the pairing of the midnight blue beaded gown with Lorraine Schwartz’s dazzling jewelry (drop earrings and bangles) and Christian Louboutin heels was perfection. 

Her maquillage was flawless, while her up-do complete with loose waves was delicious and fell beautifully to the shoulder during and after her performance.  The off-the-shoulder gown was fun and age-appropriate with a unique geometric neckline and cool straps on the back, and all the while remained stylishly futuristic.  It was an example of high-fashion at its best.

Granted, Taylor Swift is an ideal canvas for any designer or stylist – much like Nicole Kidman was for John Galliano/Dior in the ‘90s.  She’s a beautiful, fresh, tall, and slender glamazon with exquisite features.  Not to mention that she’s nice and brings her mom (“my best friend!”) as her date, which is not unheard-of for the occasional Friend of Judy, but not so much for 20-year old straighties.  Hell, I want to make something for her to wear, and I can’t even sew!  So, this was how Taylor Swift embodied the Best of the 2010 Grammys for me.

Then came her performance, and my newfound admiration for Miss Swift quickly fell by the wayside.  I don’t mind saccharine.  Sunshine and rainbows have their place in both pop and country music.  But even in concept, the pairing of Taylor Swift with Stevie Nicks is comparable to pairing Joe Jonas with Keith Richards.  It just doesn’t jibe.  I’m sure somewhere, some executive producer thought “Well, we pulled it off with Elton John and Eminem – maybe this is just crazy enough to work!”  Well, it didn’t. 

To add insult to injury, instead of picking from any number of Fleetwood Mac or Stevie Nicks songs that had a twinge of country to them (off the top of my head, “Dreams” or “Silver Springs” from Rumours, “Gypsy” from Mirage or “Seven Wonders” from Tango in the Night), the choice was made to have them perform a duet of “Rhiannon.”  Maybe it’s the fact that “Rhiannon” is so enmeshed with the Stevie Nicks persona and mythos that it pained me to hear anyone else attempting to work it.  But even giving Swift the benefit of that doubt, “Rhiannon” is an anthem.  Hearing the eight-minute version found on 1980’s Fleetwood Mac: Live one might even be justified with some head-banging.   It is a song at once dark and haunting and moody and twirly and the quintessence of Stevie’s witchy-woman mystique.  Taylor Swift is many things, but one would be incredibly hard-pressed to describe her as dark or haunting.  As for moody or twirly?  Forget it.

As far as the follow-up number, I found Stevie Nicks doing back-up on Swift’s “You Belong to Me” to be more jarring than infuriating.  Stevie is the opposite of bubblegum.  Watching her shake her streamer-bedecked tambourine on the song that contained lyrics about being in competition with a cheerleader for a guy’s attention was just bizarre.  This is the woman who wrote “Sisters of the Moon” and now she’s doing a duet about short-shorts and t-shirts?  Yikes!  It was just disturbing to watch.  It was certainly the night’s train-wreck moment (there’s always gotta be one!).

The producers would have been far better suited pairing Stevie with one of the night’s nominees possessing a bit more grit, a girl with (if you’ll pardon the expression) some balls.  P!nk or Kelly Clarkson, perhaps.  And as for Swift, I think putting her with a country legend possessing a pop sensibility – one of country’s mono-monikered divas like Reba or Dolly – well, that might’ve been fantastic!  Of course, I’m coaching from the cheap-seats, but that’s how Taylor Swift embodied the Worst of the 2010 Grammys for me.