Grammys 2023: A Motown tribute and Kim Petras' groundbreaking ...
Motown legends Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson had previously been announced as the 2023 Musicares Persons of the Year at the Grammys, which made their recognition during the Grammys the perfect reason to have Stevie Wonder perform a Motown medley with a little help from his friends.
Wonder opened with “The Way You Do The Things You Do,” a 1964 hit written by Robinson for the Temptations. Robinson, 82, then arrived on stage to sing his own hit, “Tears of a Clown,” as Gordy, 93, looked on.
Country star Chris Stapleton then slipped onstage for a fiery run through Wonder’s own “Higher Ground.”
Robinson returned to present the Grammy for best duo/group performance, which went to Sam Smith and Kim Petras for “Unholy.”
“Sam graciously wanted me to accept this because I’m the first transgender woman to win this award,” Petras said to loud cheers and applause from the crowd at Crypto.com Arena. (Electronic music composer Wendy Carlos, won multiple Grammys as a trans woman 50-some years ago.)
Petras, who grew up in Germany, thanked the late singer Sophie, her close friend who was also a Grammy-nominated trans woman, for encouraging her – “she told me this would happen and always believed in me” – and Madonna, too, for long having championed LGBTQ artists and rights.
“I don’t think I could be here without Madonna,” Petras said.
Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.
