{"id":324353,"date":"2026-02-07T01:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/324353\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:19:07","slug":"justin-bieber-shredded-the-competition-at-the-grammys-awards-or-no-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/324353\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Bieber Shredded the Competition at the Grammys, Awards or No Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in on hot topics in culture. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 68th annual Grammy Awards (\u201cMusic\u2019s Biggest Night,\u201d according to the Grammy Awards<\/a>) took place this past Sunday at the still-hilariously-named Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles. As usual, this year\u2019s ceremony\u2014the last one before the telecast moves to ABC, Hulu, and Disney+ in 2027, ending the Grammys’ 50-plus-year partnership with CBS\u2014was a mixed bag. It was (mercifully) Trevor Noah\u2019s last time hosting after six years, and he was unable to muster a single funny joke, even when he leaned on the famous faces in the crowd. Sidling up to the beloved Kendrick Lamar<\/a> only to make a Drake joke felt dated and lame, but expectations were on the floor.<\/p>\n

Addison Rae performed her song \u201cFame Is a Gun\u201d in the loading-dock underbelly of the arena, but somehow made it seem pretty cool in her Y2K-revival way, even though no one believed she was singing live. The Kpop girl group KATSEYE, whom I knew only by name, played \u201cGnarly,\u201d a song so lyrically ridiculous that I had to assume it was geared toward children. (Funny to think Joni Mitchell watched that from the audience.) Alex Warren had sound issues, Sabrina Carpenter expertly writhed around on a fuselage in an elaborate airport-themed set, and Tyler, the Creator did everything he could to combine the vibes of his two releases this year, Chromakopia and Don\u2019t Tap the Glass, but it felt a little busy. Avowed GLP-1 non-user<\/a> Jelly Roll<\/a> couldn\u2019t help himself and exclaimed \u201cJesus is for everybody!\u201d while accepting his Best Contemporary Country Album Grammy. Save that shit for the CMAs, my good brother. And Bad Bunny took album of the year<\/a>, much to no one’s surprise.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to focus on the lowlights, though. These shows always set artists up to fail. But Justin Bieber, of all people, powered through to deliver the best performance of the night by a mile. Scantily clad in only shimmering baby blue boxer shorts from his Skylrk clothing line<\/a> and a pair of scrunched-down socks (the Skylrk Thin Loop Sock in \u201cHailey Grey,\u201d<\/a> it looked like) Bieber commanded the stage with a slight \u201cfent lean\u201d stance, a purple 1980s Yamaha RGX 612S electric guitar<\/a>, a drum machine, and a loop pedal. Luckily, it wasn\u2019t giving Ed Sheeran<\/a>. Instead, the Canadian-born SKYLRK founder gave a pared-back, soulful performance of his Swag single \u201cYukon.\u201d As Dijon, the song’s writer and producer, cheered him on enthusiastically from the crowd, the cameras kept panning to a dewy and grinning Hailey Bieber in the audience. The whole thing went off without a hitch, and made most of the night’s other performances seem a little silly, even if some people were concerned that his hog might pop out.<\/p>\n

The return of guitar music in popular culture is real, and it goes beyond the Geese pandemonium<\/a>. When a Justin Bieber-level superstar shows up on TV proudly wielding a \u201cshred-era\u201d guitar, it\u2019s a good omen. He gave a real performance that didn\u2019t feel overly rehearsed or pandering to the audience. It was a great reminder of his raw talent, and proof that sometimes something this simple and unadorned is exactly what cuts through the noise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an edition of the newsletter Pulling Weeds With Chris Black, in which the columnist weighs in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[1067,18,117,11555,19,17,741,337,95966,1715,806],"class_list":{"0":"post-324353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-grammys","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-justin-bieber","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-pulling-weeds-with-chris-black","17":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed","18":"tag-web"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116026721067344633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}