The world lost David Bowie on January 10th to cancer. Bowie was a true renaissance man; a songwriter, musician, singer, actor and painter. His career spanned over four decades. Because of his many talents, Bowie’s memory will be honored throughout the award show season. The SAG Awards In Memoriam was presented by Susan Sarandon specifically because she was a friend of Bowie. Movie and TV acknowledgements are easy because they are footage of Bowie himself. However, everyone will expect a much more elaborate tribute at the Grammys this month. How do you pay homage to such an indomitable career? According to Grammy producer Ken Erlich, the way to do it is Lady Gaga:
Grammys viewers will are in for a treat on Feb. 15, as Lady Gaga is set to perform an “experimental tribute” to David Bowie, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
The otherworldly Mother Monster is a great choice to honor the late Starman, who died earlier this year after a long battle with cancer. Gaga has cited Bowie as one of her biggest influences and has openly spoken about how much she loved him and his music.
Gaga, who is nominated this year for Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Til It Happens To You” with Diane Warren, was already scheduled to appear on the Grammys stage.
The show’s executive producer, Ken Ehrlich, explained in a press release, “We had already booked Lady Gaga on this year’s show, but when David passed — almost in a single moment — we knew we had to change direction.”
“We immediately spoke and agreed that she should be the one to honor David. She’s perfect for it,” Ehrlich continued.
The tribute performance will be directed by Nile Rodgers, the man responsible for producing Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” album.Her performance at the Grammys will not be the opening number for the show, but it will probably last six or seven minutes, Mr. Ehrlich said, and cover “at least three or four” songs. Lady Gaga’s performance, Mr. Ehrlich said, “is going to be a true homage to who David was, particularly musically, but not ignoring his influence on fashion and pop culture in a broader way.”
[From The Huffington Post and New York Times]
As you read in Corey’s Bruno Mars story today, Lady Gaga will be singing the National Anthem this Sunday at the Superbowl; she appears to be the go-to artist of the moment. The Grammys air February 15th.
I was utterly surprised and thoroughly impressed with Lady Gaga’s Sound of Music tribute at the Oscars; I don’t worry she will do the tribute a disservice. That said I am of two minds on this: my first thought is that a Bowie tribute should be by someone who knew, loved and worked with him. I also wonder if it shouldn’t be more than one person; something along the lines of the George Harrison’s posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I guess Niles Rodgers directing the segment fulfills that but it really feels like Tony Visconti should have his hands on the segment as well.
On the other hand, maybe this is exactly the way it needs to go. They don’t make a stage big enough for all the artists Bowie influenced, to whom do you say no? And any male and/or contemporary of Bowie’s will suffer unfair comparisons. I do like the emphasis that they will honor all of Bowie’s influence, including his style and incarnations. Honoring his essence as opposed to a reproduction of his work sounds right; I remain hopeful.
As soon as I heard this news, I called The Mister to discuss. His closing thought sums it up for me, “I don’t have a problem with who’s doing it. I have a problem with the fact that there will be a tribute because it means Bowie’s dead.” Shine on, Starman.
Photo credit: FameFlynet, WENN Photos and Getty Images
“Experimental tribute?” Hoo boy this could be bad. And I think it should be more than one person.
Gaga can sing. However she is not the only person who can sing, so it would be nice to not have her do EVERYTHING right now.
Yeah, I think it should be multiple performers too. There’s probably a lot of singers that would like to pay tribute.
That’s what I thought…Bowie deserves multiple artists honouring him. But Gaga will hopefully do him some measure of justice on her own!
i think it will spark a debate/ a rehashing of when Gaga tributed Julie Andrews.
I understand why she was chosen (sort of) but I absolutely do not think it’s the right choice to have her be the only person.
I think she is the perfect person to do this. She has such respect for the artists that came before her and she is immensely talented. I am really looking forward to this!
For sure. Girl knows how to perform a respectful homage.
Since when does Gaga has the exclusive rights to being the most influenced by Bowie?? He’d be rolling in his grave if he had one. Nil collaboration with her ever either, makes no sense to me at all. I would love to see a collective of the MANY eclectic musicians he influenced not just some singular, egotistical twat…..
Not to mention that David Bowie had a sense of humour along with a natural artistic flair and so Gaga (who seems to take herself awfully seriously, all her antics are incredibly self conscious) is totally the wrong choice.
Weirdly I’d like to have seen Mick Jagger do it since they worked together and were contemporaries.
Mick Jagger was my thought, too.
And I’m suffering from GaGa- fatigue.
@size does matter
I think he’d be good. He’s a different kind of performer to Bowie but just as unique and influential.
oh, I should have added Mick Jagger to what I posted down thread. He would be a good choice too.
Definitely Mick Jagger. If not him, someone who actually worked with Bowie.
Doubt Mick would want to be part of it. I mean, it just happened. I am still in shock.
I am not defending Gaga, though she was great with Queen, but who else? His friends are old, they have seen it all. The young ones are awful, zero charisma, zero talent. Someone unknown is not profitable.
Pixies should be there, Nine Inch Nails, Damon Albarn, Ferry, Iggy, The Stones, what is left of Nirvana, Kravitz, what is left of Queen, but doubt they want that circus…
The Stones are on tour in South America so maybe they asked him but he wasn’t available.
mick can’t sing.
She might have been influenced by him performancewise, but her music is nothing like his music. Musically I see no influence, just more in the visual of how she performs.
Arcade Fire led a second line jazz funeral for him in New Orleans too, it’s fantastic! Great choice again to lead a performance/tribute
I hoped that if not a mash-up of his famous contemporaries, it would be Arcade Fire. It’s one of, if not the last, new-ish band Bowie collaborated with, he loved them enough to perform on stage with them in 2005, even though he stopped touring in 2004, he appeared on their latest album and was very vocal on how much he loved and admired their music. Gaga resembles him only through her weird fashion choices and stage personas, while AF actually represents what he stood for as a song-writer and musician.
This.
Arcade Fire!! YES. Fantastic choice.
I’ve seen them live twice and they did not disappoint.
David Bowie carved his own path and was a trailblazer before it was lucrative e to do so. Now artists (read: Lady Gaga) seem to be reinventing themselves and being as weird as possible for no other reason than the very sake of their career – to make a buck – not as some genuine inner need for self expression. That is why the Gaga tribute to Bowie irks me. He was golden. She is just an imitator who sees herself as an artiste in his league. She is not.
I agree that even putting the two in the same sentence is laughable. Horrible choice.
I agree. Also, it depresses me because I thought she had gone away.
No such luck. I can’t stand her either.
He had the weirdness but he had the music to back it up album after album in a streak of creativity that was fearless the way he switched every album to something different, not sticking to a formula.
ITA with you guys.
He totally cared about how lucrative his career would be – no shame in that – but he wanted to be a rock star and marketed himself that way. That included using the media in the same way that, say, Kanye West uses it today. That’s what Ziggy Stardust was all about.
Yes, yes, yes! This is pretty much what I said to my S.O. when this news broke.
I kinda worry she will high jack the moment for herself. Her ego gets in the way.
I mentioned this in the super bowl post, but how/why is she having such a resurgence? Golden Globes, Bowie, AHS, Super Bowl, and Oscars. Are we all now Beliebers and little Monsters? Is this 2012?
She paid for it. Plain and simple.
That’s the only explanation. I really thought we were done with her.
It’s totally baffling. Things had gone quiet on the Gaga front, and it was very nice not seeing her. Then ba-da-boom she’s back, and turned up to 11. I don’t understand this resurgence. With this kind of encouragement, I’m worried that she’ll never go away.
You’re scaring me…I need to keep hope alive that this is only temporary..
Yes, I had hoped we’d seen the last of her. What gives??
“I don’t have a problem with who’s doing it. I have a problem with the fact that there will be a tribute because it means Bowie’s dead.”
Ugh. A tedious attempt to score a cheap point at the expense of a person asking a straight forward question. I hate it when people pull that crap.
I think you misunderstand.
I know Dangles misunderstood.
I thought it straight forward, personally.
Dangles, what does this mean?
Lady Gaga seems to be everywhere this year. David Bowie tribute at the Grammys, Super Bowl, winning awards. It was not that long ago that people were writing her off .
True. But I would prefer to see her pulling off writing great original material instead, not just being a great tribute performer of previously written classics by legends. Artpop was poor.
Tilda Swinton should read something, while Iggy Pop sings. IGGY POP SHOULD BE HONORING BOWIE.
This is nonsense.
Maybe Mick Jagger could do Dancing in the Street with a hologram of David Bowie?
Get Annie Lennox in there too. Maybe get her and Jagger to do Under Pressure.
This. Gaga is the wrong choice, as others have mentioned, she will make it all about her.
Iggy Pop, Annie Lennox and Mick Jagger. That would be worth watching and have some meaning/significance to it.
oh that WOULD be appropriate – and would make me cry!!!
Good call. They have such a great history together and Iggy would give an amazing performance.
All much better choices than Gaga. As I said above, her name shouldn’t even be in the same sentence as his.
^^ This!
Why not she’s been ripping him off for years. She even has an album cover with a red lightning bolt on her face. The first time I ever saw that, it was in conjunction with reading a statement from her about her own amazing artistry.
I threw up a little.
SJO, Just because she’s been ripping him off (or attempting to) doesn’t mean she is worthy of doing a tribute to the man.
They’re catering to the younger demographic. Although, the artists mentioned, ie. Iggy, Annie, MIck, etc. would be wonderful choices for the tribute, younger people don’t know who they are. Mention Gaga, and yes, they’ll know who she is. I think Lady Gaga is a much better choice than a lot of the younger musicians out there. She’s eccentric, for sure, but she is a good singer. IMO.
They need to stop catering to the younger crowd though.
Agree with M.A.F. – for the rest of the show, fine, have performers that will bring the younger viewers. But for the tribute of such an amazing artist, do it right.
I like the idea of having Bowie’s contemporaries doing the tribute. And maybe some of those younger viewers would learn about some great older artists.
@M.A.F Yeah, I agree with what you say about catering; it shouldn’t be their priority, but it’s all about ratings for these shows nowadays, unfortunately.
lucy2, exactly. And not all of the younger crowd cares about Gaga, believe me. My teenage son and his bandmates find the older generations of musicians far more influential. She’s not even on their radar.
So they want to pay tribute to Bowie but they can’t get one of Bowie’s peers to do it because they’re catering to a younger crowd? That doesn’t make sense.
I rolled my eyes when I heard this news yesterday, he collaborated with so many people a tribute with a bunch of them would have been nice, but I guess there are worse people that they could have picked to d it (yeah I’m thinking #RebelHeart Madonna). I agree with the Mister I can’t believe he’s dead.
In UK someone decided to involve Coldplay in a Bowie tribute, and Bowie himself refused to work with them…I’ll take Lady Gaga any day.
He also turned down Gaga’s overtures and was said to not be a fan of her music, didn’t get her, never met her.
He turned down Coldplay because the song they wanted him work on with them wasn’t very good in his opinion. He only worked with a few people in his later years. Arcade Fire is a band he has been a huge supporter of since back in 2006 and sought out he liked them so much.
I read Martin’s interview last year and Bowie’s rejection wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be.
Meh
Gaga is an easy choice.
No.
No one’s the right choice to perform David Bowie songs but David Bowie, tribute or not. NO. ONE.
Nope. A thousand times nope and eff offs. She is the absolute LAST per son that should have been asked to do this. I read this last night and actually got real-life mad over it.
1. Gagme cannot be trusted to NOT make this about her; and all she has ever been is a pale imitation of the greats. The “tribute” I’m willing to bet will be an attempt to establish herself as Bowie’s replacement. Do the Grammy’s people really think that Gaga is Bowie’s best contribution to music?
2.) The grammy’s should not have given the tribute to one artist. Having one “artist” pay “tribute” to Bowie, who influenced thousands in almost all of modern music genres over the course of decades at what is supposedly music’s premiere awards show is BS. If ever there was a moment to get a group of artists together THIS WAS IT GRAMMYS. Bowie’s contribution to music can’t ever be encapsulated in one performance, but this one doesn’t even try. What is Gag going to do? A million knock off costumes and some dance moves? That’s a fitting tribute? They could have gotten a range of artists from all over music and done a performance; multi genre, multi generational. It could have been wonderful.
In other words, no. This is one of the biggest fails of the year for me.
I kind of see her sitting at the piano doing a medley. A six or seven minute tribute sure isn’t much to cover the brilliance of Bowie’s discography. She will do a great job. I just think it should be longer and with more musicians/singers covering more songs.
Gaga doing a Stevie Wonder song, I Wish, at a tribute for him. Fantastic performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISOBK0Zhrjw
Also Bowie always owned to the huge influence black American artists were on him (like on most rockn’rollers of the 60s and 70s), it would be lovely to showcase a more varied pool of talent. Tina Turner would also be great.
I would have loved to see some of the artists (Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger, Trent Reznor) Bowie worked with do the tribute, especially Tina Turner. I watched old concert footage of the two of them performing together…OMG the chemistry. I don’t know if Tina is performing these days. I would have loved to seen Tony Visconti be part of it and I hope Gail Ann Dorsey will be playing alongside Gaga.
All of that being said, it seems to me that they went with the best choice of who would be there already and that would be Lady Gaga. No one can do Bowie justice but I think Gaga will be fine.
Another interesting choice would have been OITNB’s Lea DeLaria who recently (late half of 2015) released album of jazz covers of Bowie songs.
This year no other artist is going to get the tribute Bowie is going to get…but I do hope there will be folks doing a Natalie Cole, Motorhead and Glenn Frey/Eagles song.
Reznor for sure. He talked to Rolling Stone about how Bowie helped him get sober and it was really heartbreaking.
I don’t think Tina is still performing is she? Wish she would though.
DAVID BYRNE & TRENT …
Someone called in a massive favor here.
I initially misread your comment as “Someone called in a massive fart here”. Still an accurate assessment, I think.
She fell out of favor with fans because she was overexposed. I don’t mind Gaga, I prefer her over Katy, Tay and Miley. She has no album to promote but why is she all over?
I don’t mind her performing a Bowie tribute but she should perform with other artists Bowie influenced. Kesha, Madge, Kendrick, Miley, Janelle Monae and even Kanye are some names
I can think of. Bowie was supposed to collaborate with Lorde, Arcade Fire, Gorillaz and a lot of indie artists, why not include them too? At least Scott Walker (not the governor). He was the guy Bowie idolized. The Brits are bringing out the big names: Bono, Oasis, Coldplay, Blur and Adele and we could only come up with Gaga? That’s not a tribute, that’s self-promotion.
That’s not a tribute, that’s self-promotion.
Yahtzee.
How about some of the musicians that helped make his music great, like Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick? Or Iggy freakin’ Pop? Actually, I think Prince could do him justice. May not be a direct influence but definitely on the same plane in terms of artistry and experimentation. Have been listening to a ton of Bowie, man was something else..
i wish Arcade Fire would revisit their Wake Up set, with a flashback/video of them performing with Bowie. his voice in that set brought me to tears.
or perhaps, multiple artists doing medleys, like last time mumford & sons, the avett brothers, etc and bob dylan played together on stage.
i think it will show how David Bowie had ifluenced so many different genres/people/etc
Nooooooooooo
Why her she makes it about herself she’s too self absorbed, then she’ll become fragile and somebody feed me because I’ve suffered for my Art.
I agree with the other posters a collaboration of different artists would have been great.
She copied Madonna and Bowie and Cher for the most part. It’s almost a Vegas act at this point.
She’s copied Elton john,Bette Midler and Freddie Mercury as well.
Grace Jones also.
Umm… No. She’s the absolute WRONG choice. How about they choose someone that David actually liked? I remember after her first album, she had said in multiple interviews that she’d love to collaborate with David. David had his people emphatically and very publicly say “NO” – not “no thanks, he’s not looking to collaborate”, not even just ignoring like he had done with so many others. A BIG PUBLIC NO.
Maybe it was the fact that she blatantly rips people off? Maybe it’s because in an op-Ed piece where she said she was well-informed of past music, and then got the name of one of David’s dear friends who passed away wrong (she called Marc Bolan, Mark Bolan). Who knows… But I’m 95% sure that she is one of the main reasons he went back into the studio in 2010 (The Next Day took him three years) , to basically ‘school’ her and her ilk on how to make music.
I am not a Gaga fan. But i hope the tribute is well done.
I rather have Annie Lennox, Elton John, and the like get out there and do a proper tribute. She will make it all about herself at the end of the day.
Well, I’ll be the black horse here. I like Gaga a lot, I think she’s very talented and by far the best entertainer on modern pop music. Went to one of her concerts and was blown away. This woman loves what she does and she’s amazing at it. Huge egos are so normal in the music industry hers doesn’t bother me one bit. And she’s about 4% the douchebag Roger Waters, Robert Plant, and all other rock legends from Bowie’s era are.
I’m happy for her, but Bowie shouldn’t be honored by just one person. He influenced so much people. All of the artists who actually collaborated with him and were his friends should be up there, too.
In the top picture her left eye is more open and natural than her right eye – which looks wonky and partially swollen a bit shut.
As much as I love Bowie I believe that Glenn Frey should also be represented. The Eagles touched more than one generation with their songs and I feel like he is not getting the respect he deserves. I don’t think Ga Ga should do Bowie, I agree with the poster who mentioned Annie Lennox. As for Glenn I would love to see the remainder of the Eagles up there one more time singing their hearts out for Glenn.
Agree with you, Glenn should be represented as should Natalie Cole and Lemmy.
Lady Gaga shouldn’t be doing the tribute to Bowie. Nile Rodgers ,Mick Jagger or Tina Turner would have been a better choice.
Yes, I thought Tina Turner would great as well!
So now that he’s gone, does it not matter whether or not an ARTIST of respectable nature does ANYTHING at ALL for him? Sorry, but Gaga can do a tribute… if the industry ran out of real talent all of a sudden.
What an insult. Who did she pay this time for another award show slot??
They should’ve asked the fantastic Tori Amos.
I would have preferred Iggy Pop, Grace Jones, Depeche Mode, NIN, TV on the Radio, Radiohead, Annie Lenox, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Marilyn Manson…she better not muck it up or else she will never live it down…
OOOomg.
GRACE!
Brian Eno.
Should’ve been Eno.
Oooh good one! Yes Eno, Lennox, Reznor and Iggy pop…
As much as I don’t really think Gaga was the right choice here, I think she is 100% professional and always goes over and above in her performances. She will do this and not mess it up. We might not like it but she will do it well.
Noooo I just can not look at her face anymore. It’s frightening. Her management is on overtime getting her face back in our faces but it’s a painful not her real face at all.
Who cares? It’s not like Bowie ever cared about the Grammys (or that the Grammys really cared about him), other than to present an odd number of times……… Ya he won the lifetime achievement award or whatever 10 years ago, but he didn’t show up to receive it. Otherwise, I don’t think he ever won anything significant at the Grammys.
She is an awful choice. Yes, she can sing, but she is all about herself. The ‘tribute’ will be all about her, no Bowie.
Oh man, how amazing would it have been to involve Tina Turner?!?! Bring her out of semi-retirement for this special occasion. You know she can still bring down the house.
This s*cks the big one!!! Poor, poor, very poor choice!!!
David Bowie did not like her. When gossip about a collab between the two of them surfaced (planted by Gaga PR prior to the release of an album) the reclusive icon did what he never did in 40 years : officially deny the collaboration via his official website 2 days after it started spreading. The idea to be associated with this industrial product made him sick. Look at his son’s twitter account and you’ll see how much he too does not like her at all.
Interesting. And why didn’t Gaga or Gaga’s team deny it right after it surfaced? You’re right. Because it was planted or they liked the attention. After two days his own team had to deny it, which he never responds to any gossip, so it is interesting that he made sure to respond to that rumor..
Nice info. Thanks.
What did his son say on twitter?
Imagine what will be the answer of David Bowie
I have nothing against Lady Gaga but when I read the headline I just thought “ugh” between this and Cold Play with Queen Bey for the Superbowl halftime show….just ugh….
Meh. I hope the Brit Awards have a better tribute to him. I hope the Grammys don’t forget to do a tribute to Glenn Frey, although they’ll probably get one of those awful country bros like Blake Shelton to do it.
Ugh. No.
That’s all I can say. She tries so hard to be everything Bowie was and she fails. I don’t care that she can sing when she wants to, she’s just wrong for this to me.
It says she was already booked for the show, so…… I guess they just decided to save the time and effort to really do any type of a meaningful tribute.
I’m hoping to see something done in England along the lines of “The Concert for George”. I still watch the DVD of that concert from time to time. It is just really, really good.
Oh, and I’m 70!