Tag Archives: Grammy Awards

Out Singer Courtney Barnett Nominated For Grammy, Along We Several Other Out Female Artists

Courtney Barnett has been nominated for Grammy in the elite Best New Artist category – beating some big names in the business to get there (as Madonna, Rihanna and Justin Bieber were snubbed).

Barnett recieved a massive plug this year when she appeared on the The Ellen Show, the same day that (oh, no big deal) Michelle Obama was in attendance, which gave Barnett arguably one of her most high-profile audiences to date.

Courtney Barnett 02

Other gay musicians to shine include are neo-soul group the Internet, featuring out lesbian rapper Syd the Kyd, who are nominated for best Best Urban Contemporary Album. The rapper was a longtime member of the now-defunct hip-hop collective Odd Future, which also featured out R&B artist Frank Ocean.

Syd the Kyd

Out musician Brandi Carlile is nominated for her fantastic album The Firewatcher’s Daughter in Best Americana Album category.

Legendary folk singer and out lesbian Janis Ian is nominated for Best Spoken Word Album, along with television actress Jean Smart (Designing Women) for their reading of Isabel Miller’s novel Patience and Sarah, a lesbian love story.

Bisexual blues singer Bettye LaVette (she detailed affairs with men and women in her 2013 memoir A Woman Like Me), is nominated for Best Blues Album.

Bettye LaVette

The artists and producers behind Fun Home, featuring music from the Broadway show, are nominated for Best Musical Theater Album. The show is based on lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s memoir of the same name.

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Lesbian composer Laura Karpman’s Ask Your Mama, featuring words by the late gay poet Langston Hughes, has been nominated in three classical categories: Best Classical Compendium, Best Classical Engineered Album, and Best Classical Producer.

Also, although the band itself features no out LGBT members, Los Tigres Del Norte created a buzz this year when it released the album Realidades, featuring “Era Diferente,” a song about a lesbian teenager who falls in love with her best friend. Realidades is nominated in this category. They have been nominated for Best Regional Mexican Music Album

Mary Lambert  – Erasing the Stigma of Mental Illness

We use music to give us comfort, to help heal our darkest pains —yet most musicians rarely will speak openly about their own struggles in plain terms and seek help. That is changing.

Mary Lambert is part of a new generation of musicians who refuse to be shamed into the closet and who are using their songs, stages, and interviews to tell the world that mental illness is neither shameful nor defining nor show-stopping. It’s simply part of the picture.

Through her songs like Secrets, Body Love, and She Keeps Me Warm, Lambert has offered comfort to listeners who are so often made to feel shame because of some ‘otherness’.

The idea of same love is not exclusive to gender equality —it speaks to the one in four American adults who suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alSANJgU45w

To honour her journey, this week at the Beverly Hills Hilton, the Seattle singer will be honoured by Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services for her work and bravery in confronting the stigma of mental illness.

 

Mary Lambert Remakes ‘Jessie’s Girl’ Especially For Queer Ladies

Out musician Mary Lambert is currently flying high. After being introduced to the world on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s gay rights anthem Same Love, Lambert went on to perform alongside them at the Grammy Award Show, and released her full-length debut album, Heart on My Sleeve, last October.

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In an recent interview with Rolling Stone, the singer discussed her remaking of Rick Springfield’s 1981 hit, Jessie’s Girl

“Originally, I had put a piece about rape on the record, called ‘Epidemic. My project manager was like, ‘We support you 100 percent, but you should know Target and Starbucks won’t carry it, and it’ll have a warning on it,’ so I was like, damn, that’s true. 

I remember when I heard ‘Jessie’s Girl’ for the first time, I was like, ‘This is so applicable to lesbians!’ So in two days I came up with a different chord progression, rearranged it, played the piano and sang it. Everyone in the room was crying and I was like, ‘Cool, job well done.’ It seemed to be the perfect replacement for ‘Epidemic’ – equally as important for me.”

Mary Lambert

When asked how she feels about “pushing the envelope” as a gay artist, Lambert said she’s “curious about what the next step is.”

“With the knowledge that your favorite artist is gay, you know that the context of which they’re singing is going to be inherently gay.

And I think what’s beautiful about that is that it doesn’t deter anyone from listening. That’s what I think is really important about gay artists being in the spotlight. 

I understand the plight of an artist singing a song and not using gendered pronouns because it can alienate some of their audience, but I’ve found success with using a gendered pronoun – but that’s my story. I’m curious about what the next step is and how to be an asset.”

Mary Lambert

 

Grammy Highlights | Sam Smith Won Everything, Kanye Pulled A Kanye & Sia Hair Arrived In Style

Just in case you didn’t have a chance to see the Grammys results, here’s a quick summary.

Out British singer Sam Smith made history tonight as the first openly gay winner of the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. It was one of four wins for Smith who also took home Grammys in Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year for Stay With Me.

57th GRAMMY Awards - Press Room

“It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen. Just a quick one, I want to thank the man who this record is about who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammys.”

Sam Smith

The evening included memorable numbers from LGBT artists including Sam Smith teaming with Mary J. Blige, Brandy Clark collaborating with Dwight Yoakam, Lady Gaga with Tony Bennett, and Sia. The show also included a video message from President Obama about domestic violence and the It’s On Us campaign to stop sexual assault.

Other highlights included everyone making Tom Petty jokes when he did online, and Iggy Azalea not winning much despite all the hype, and Kanye West rushing the stage just as Beck was accepting his win for album of the year, who he happened to win over a certain Beyonce Knowles.

Mary Lambert Discusses ‘Same Love’, And Gay Rights

Singer-Songwriter Mary Lambert is known for collaborating with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on’Same Love’. She has gone on to release a solo EP “Welcome to the Age of My Body.”

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In interview with ABC News she had the following to say ‘Same Love’…

“I knew that I wanted the chorus to speak to a universal truth.  There were a lot of thoughts I had when I was writing the song, and one of them was ‘How can I end homophobia?’”

Mary Lambert

‘Same Love’ quickly took off as an anthem for marriage equality and gay rights.

“If you depict a real relationship or the beauty of attraction or first love – that resonates with anybody.  But if you are constantly shoving down people’s throats, this idea that lesbians only roll around in lingerie, instead of like, you know lay around and watch Netflix and eat Cheez-Its together…  As soon as the exoticism goes away, then you’re stripped down with a real human element and that’s love and I wanted to create something that … fit that vision of first love.”

Mary Lambert

Mary Lambert’s musical style blends spoken word poetry with piano and traditional vocals. Through her music she’s explores dark subject matters, like abuse and suicide.

“Coming out of my late teens into my early 20s, there was a lot that still needed to be processed in terms of abuse and trauma.  And even when I’m in a really great, steady and stable place … I’m clinically bipolar, so that always exists — a darkness always exists.”

Mary Lambert

She feels that the new album covers a different range of emotions and topics than her previous songs and poems due to the whirlwind year of success that she’s had.

“My life is going at the speed of light, so it’s a lot of just trying … to be present in each moment … Giving each situation and each part of life that space and making sure that it’s sacred in every aspect. I’ve had an incredible year so the music will undoubtedly reflect that.”

Mary Lambert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oqu4Cn3AxM

2015 Grammy Awards Noms Include Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj

Each year, the Grammy Awards (or the Gramophone Awards to give them their less headline friendly title) are doled out to those who deliver the best content to our earholes. From live performances, full albums, remixes and even audiobooks, those who do the best with audio receive the industry’s highest accolade.

With so many famous faces (and plenty of over-sized egos) getting together under one roof, the Grammys is a hotbed of controversy. The biggest moments from the show’s history include a 2001 live performance of Elton John and Eminem (the rapper was only beginning to spout his infamous homophobia), Bruce Springsteen’s call for troops to come home in 2006 (when the Iraq War was still taking place) and the Grammys of 2009 where Barack Obama not only won a Grammy but received a tribute too.

Also just as controversial are the nominations. Before the Grammys even take place people start to squabble over each other about who deserves to win and who doesn’t deserve it but will probably win anyway. So ahead of the 2015 Grammy Awards which are set to take place in February, we’ve got a fresh batch of noms to both cheer and shake our heads at.

The first set of nominations that we can all collectively agree upon are Beyoncé’s. Immensely talented and an outspoken feminist, Beyoncé is rounding off a great year with nominations in six categories including: Album of the Year, Best R&B Song, Best R&B Performance, Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best Music Film and Best Surround Sound Album. As impressive as those noms are, they also make her the most nominated female artist of all time with 48 noms during her career, one ahead of Dolly Parton’s 47.

Also doing it for the girls are Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. Nicki has yet to win a Grammy (which is surprising to everybody, really) but she has two more chances now, picking up nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Anaconda and Bang Bang, respectively. Meanwhile, Taylor’s latest album 1989 wasn’t eligible for album categories (it was released too late and will be eligible next year instead) but her feel-good single Shake It Off was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

As for our queer favourites, there was plenty to celebrate there too. Sam Smith is tied for most nominations with Beyoncé and Pharrell, having picked up his first noms for Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Pop Solo Performance. Sia’s track Chandelier got Record and Song of the Year, Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video noms, Brandy Clark (who co-wrote queer friendly country hit Follow Your Arrow with Kacey Musgraves) got nominations for Best Country Album and Best New Artist while Tegan and Sara also have a nomination in Best Song Written for Visual Media for their work on The LEGO Movie’s soundtrack.

Also possibly relevant to your interests are: all girl group HAIM are nominated for Best New Artist, John Legend’s tearjerker All of Me is up for Best Solo Pop Performance and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (who supports same-sex marriage, ENDA and the repeal of DOMA) received a nom for her spoken word book.

It’s a bit soon to say who will win (or who’ll be snubbed) but you can tune into the Grammys on February 8, 2015 for the results.

Mary Lambert’s ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ is Simply Beautiful

mary_14_AMary Lambert’s first full-length album ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ – is a month away from release.

Her debut single ‘Secrets’, was well received and got decent airplay.

In ‘Secrets’ Lambert opens-up and sings about her bipolar disorder, her highly dysfunctional family, and other ‘secrets’ which she chooses to reveal.

 

I like to say that I never intended to be a pop singer. I intended to be a healer. I hope to urge people to be empathetic and compassionate. People don’t relate to each other or see each other as equals, and this causes problems. I want to open up and be vulnerable, and to encourage others to be vulnerable.

Mary Lambert

Now she has released the title song from the album. ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ comes out on Oct. 14.

Mary Lambert – Heart On My Sleeve

 

Why we Love Mary Lambert – Watch her Perform a Flawless Live Version of ‘Born Sad’

Watch out lesbian musician Mary Lambert performs a live version of ‘Born Sad’.

A year ago, Mary Lambert was an aspiring singer-songwriter earning a wage as a bartender, now she melts our hearts with her music. This year she stole the show with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, sung at Grammy Awards as 33 couples got wed, and is now preparing the release her debut album, Heart on My Sleeve.

“As a lesbian in this industry, I’ve been instantly embraced. I came out when I was 17—coming out in middle or high school is one of the most difficult things that anyone could experience. I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies”

Mary Lambert

Lambert isn’t your typical major-label pop artist. Inspired by confessional folk singers as well as spoken-word performers, she is a brutally candid writer who deals directly in her art with such past traumas as being raised in a strict Pentecostal household, abusing drugs and alcohol before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, surviving a gang rape at 17, and being molested repeatedly by her father as a child.

“It’s important for me to be completely and totally open”

Mary Lambert