Did you hear Adele at the Grammy's?

I read a Mike fell into the piano and everything was off key from there.  Adele did her best to work with it from there.  Not her fault.   Shit happens. As she said. 

There was definitely a technical problem. The sound cut out for a few seconds and then I could hear something in the background.  It was obvious she was distracted. 

Not her fault- too many "performances"....

I think Adele is fabulous. One of my favorite modern voices. But I was shocked at the Grammy performance. It was her worst televised performance ever. I would like to say it was a mic problem, but what I heard was off key for much of the song. The mic does not amplify an off key performance when it is sung on key.

As I understand it the mike fell in the piano and changed the pitch of the piano which Adele had to adapt to.   So the problem was the piano affected by a mike fallen inside not her mike.   At least that's what I read.  

" she always benefits from pitch correction, but this time it must have failed, and she and was unmasked"

Bunch of garbage!


 I heard Adele here in Austin Texas and she has a real voice, she also did some unplugged sessions at the local radio station and that blew me away as well. To say or suggest that she can't sing or is "pitchy" is unfair at best. 

She clearly had major technical problems, but the whole show had problems. None of the performances I heard were good. I am not sure who they are mixing the sound for, but it is not the TV audience. I could not count the number of times I thought the background overrode the main singer. Not as bad as at the Super Bowl, but still not good.

Adele is great, give her the benefit of the doubt on this. As far as the Grammys, they need to find a way to cut down the length of the show. 3.5 hours is just too long, way too long. At least an hour of the time is commercials. I guess they just can't turn their back on any advertiser that is willing to pay about the same price per minute as the Superbowl. 

once the mic fell on the piano, it caused the piano to play out of tune with a bunch of noise that was playing into her ear monitors. Impossible to sing in pitch with that going on.

+1 jextpro

Excuses, excuses.  No, a mic touching a few strings would not throw a piano's approximately 230 strings out of tune.  People even do things like that deliberately, it's called "prepared piano." No, a mic doesn't change pitch. No, a real professional would not be thrown off pitch by external influences.  She had a bad night and gave a horrible performance. Then blamed the equipment.  

lloyds, why do you care so much?  What's there to be jealous or envious of?  What is it about others appreciating her that gets to you so badly?  Just let it go, why post something like this at all?  Looking for a debate, or trying to prove that your vies of her is the right one, or what???

I've have been on stage performing and can tell you that when unexpected stuff like that happens especially that kind of sound being fed into ones ears your concentration and performance will be effected. I can also tell you from personal experience that a piano's sound and pitch can be altered when an object is put on the strings. We used to do these things in recording studios to get a certain 
effect. Composers from the mid 20th century have written compositions for prepared piano which drastically alter the sound. I've been at these types of concerts and the effect is very interesting. Speaking from personal expirence. 

Is there a link to a youtube video of the performance in question?

This particular performance was terrible.  Arguing about what caused that is kind of silly.  No one here will ever know.

Lady Gaga stole te night..
A+

Is there a link to a youtube video of the performance in question?

There are several.  Here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydJV9kcBlz8

Regards,
-- Al
 

That YouTube video is not how I remember It.  She sang flat much more, when I heard it.  There are no feeds into her ear, that I could detect. 

unfortunately that link did not work, Almarg :(
but i found this 2016 grammy performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvYt-G-iSuw

unfortunately that link did not work, Almarg :(

Interesting. Its status has been changed to "private." When I posted the link it worked, and it had nearly a million views and well upward of a thousand comments.

Best regards,
-- Al :-)

She was definitely having some problems with high notes on the chorus.  Could be a case of bad monitors, I don't know.  She's much better on other live things I've seen on youtube so I wouldn't judge from this.  Neither the song nor the voice is compelling IMO.  Even when she's "on" in this performance I can't imagine comparing her to great singers of the 20th century.

Ok, just listened to Adele’s Grammy performance on YouTube. Coincidentally, just a couple of days ago I asked my wife, who is a fan, to play Adele’s latest CD for me; I don’t listen to many pop singers, had only heard bits and pieces of her work and wanted to know what all the hoopla was about. Here’s my take:

Adele can sing and has a "sound" of her own with some interesting colors......for a pop diva in 2016. The problems she had at the Grammy’s, and she had problems, bear this out. It is true that a mic falling into the piano and causing effects that sound like a very out of tune guitar can be a major distraction. But, that was a factor only for part of the performance and she had ample time to recover and find the pitch center. At around 2:30 the problem with the clanging disappeared and the piano sounds just fine and in tune. It’s possible that the accompanist figured out the problem and stayed away from the offending keys on the keyboard. I don’t mean to be overly critical of her, but all this points to the "fragility" of a performer like Adele’s chops and to the state of singing in the pop music world in general. They can sound good (sometimes really good) on records, sometimes with the help of multiple takes and the various electronic "bandaids"; or live, when everything is just right. A great singer/performer would have recovered and not have had the pretty severe pitch and range problems that Adele had that night.

I hear it time after time with singers like Amy Winehouse, Adele and others. A singer comes along that has some real ability and style and they are put on a pedestal that, in my opinion, is a little too lofty relative to their true ability; not because they are THAT great, but because almost all the other pop singers out there are so bad. The bar has been set way too low in my opinion. I think Adele is a good singer and I particularly like her lower vocal range. Her upper range, where I think she finds her "sound", gets to be too nasal and "samey" for me. I think time will tell just how much of an artist she really is.

Frogman an interesting assessment as usual.

Of course these are pop singers we are talking about. Also a fairly young one still with Adele. I’ll be willing to bet this unfortunate event will make her even better in the future. The best have learned from their mistakes of the past. Doesn’t make them any more or less "talented". Just less experienced perhaps. Well maybe in the case of a child or young adult who achieves perfection sooner rather than later.

People should be applauding a "serious" pop musician like Adele especially in this day and age. Even if one does not take to her music. Its a sad comment on the times and human nature in general how we like to build people up and then like to see them torn down when the illusion of perfection tagged on them finally fails.

I do understand how "the best" get held to a high standard.   Its how it should be.  But even the best are not perfect.  Live and learn.

 I think she sucks hopefully this will distract her know so she won't sing anymore do us all a favor 

She's basically a karaoke singer that's about it

she is awful. a belter with no more real vocal talent than any decent choir member in any random church. to think that people on audiogon can be so obsessed with sound and still think this yeller is any good blows me away. and her 'hit song' is just a joke. any second rate jazz singer could do a better job. 

Maria Callas was not always on pitch...Jessy Normand was sharp on many occassions....Adele was out of tune at the grammy's....it happens for whatever reason.....Rollins is flat most of the time....(live Village Vanguard, Bluenote)....So What?

I don't know who was running the sound board but whoever it was should go back to school. Not only Adele as I had to use all 8 Of my speakers to understand the vocals on my  HT setup. Then I had to kick up the center channel. Doesn't say much about the music world when this happens.

The people runThening  The people running the soundboard the sound boards are the same people running her voice through a computer to try to make it sound good. You were hearing the correct garbage