GRAMMY Week:

Behind the Scenes of Music's Biggest Event

The tagline for the GRAMMYs was "Life is Music is Life." But from what we experienced in LA for GRAMMY Week, it was really more "Philly is Music is Philly."

With so many nominations and big wins for Philly, it was clear that Philly’s music scene is just adding to our legacy and influence in the culture. It seemed like everywhere you might go in LA during GRAMMY Week, there was always some type of Philly connection.

Watch the video below to see everything that happened during GRAMMY Week!

Carvin & Ivan’s Pre-GRAMMY Event

We started out with GRAMMY nominees and Philly 360° Creative Ambassadors, Carvin & Ivan, who were celebrating their nominations and anniversary year. Go here for our full wrap up of their event.

Some Philly Run Ins

The following day, we ran into Chuck Gamble, executive vice president of Philadelphia International Records, and Carvin Haggins, of Forever Music Inc., who spoke to us about Philly’s influence in music. Watch our impromptu interview on a FlipCam with them below. Thanks to Laiya St. Clair for jumping in to do the interview.

More Philly Run Ins

We also had the chance to talk to up and comer Cody Wise, who is from Philadelphia and a Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School alum. He recently signed to Interscope Records and is recording his first album with Will.I.Am as executive producer. Cody carries Philly with him everywhere he goes. He’s recorded with Philadelphia International Records and has performed all over Philly. 

Vikter Duplaix’s Pre-GRAMMY Party with DJ Jazzy Jeff and Skillz

Philly had another party happening at The Vanguard in Hollywood hosted by Philly’s own Vikter Duplaix and Philly 360° Creative Ambassador DJ Jazzy Jeff on the ones and twos who had the party going into the morning. Rapper Skillz rocked the mic and kept the crowd going until the lights came on. (Thanks for the Philly 360° shout out on stage!) Check out the wrap up here.

The Roots Pre-GRAMMY Jam Session

Saturday night, The Roots had their annual Pre-GRAMMY Jam Session. Black Thought prepped the crowd to expect the unexpected, and they definitely delivered with collaborations happening all night with some of music’s biggest names—including Chaka Khan, Will.I.Am, Ne-Yo, Marsha Ambrosius, Melanie Fiona, Raheem Devaughn and others who all hit the stage for some incredible performances. Check out our wrap up here.

GRAMMY Day

And the GRAMMYs were invaded by…Philly.  

The Roots and John Legend took home three gramophone statues for their joint album Wake Up!, which actually was a cover of Philly legends, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ (with Teddy Pendergrass singing lead) “Wake Up Everybody.” The GRAMMY wins were for: ‘Best Traditional R&B Performance’ (“Hang On In There”), ‘Best R&B Song’ (“Shine”), and ‘Best R&B Album’ (Wake Up!).

Did you know that Philly was also well represented on stage at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards? Lady Gaga’s drummer and Philly 360 Creative Ambassador Spanky McCurdy and her back up singer Jasmine Morrow are both from Philly. And, Lady Gaga gave a shout out during her GRAMMY acceptance speech to her manager Troy Carter, who is a Philly native too.

It doesn’t stop there, the guitar player for Eminem is Philly’s own Curt Chambers. Plus, Philly hometown singer/songwriter P!nk won a GRAMMY for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “Imagine” with Herbie Hancock, India Arie, Seal, Konono No 1, Jeff Beck & Oumou Sangare.

And with Usher winning a GRAMMY, a couple of guys at Ardmore’s MilkBoy Coffee have something to celebrate.  Two of the songs from Usher’s Raymond V. Raymond were mixed at MilkBoy Recording Studio by producer Ian Cross and MilkBoy’s own Tim Sonnefeld.

Also, Philly designer Carmelita Couture dressed Selena Jones for the GRAMMY Awards. See the images from the red carpet in the slide show.

GRAMMY After Party

Philly was definitely in the building. As soon as we walked in to the after party, we saw Vikter Duplaix spinning and The Roots taking over the stage. We als o ran into producers, songwriters and GRAMMY nominated artist Helen Bruner and Terry Jones, who sits on the Board of Trustees for The Recording Academy. And, we saw Carvin Haggins and Chuck Gamble again while we were there. When we said that Philly was taking the GRAMMYs by storm, we weren’t kidding.

Congratulations to everyone from Philly who had some nods and some wins from The Recording Academyfor the 53rd GRAMMY Awards. There’s a reason why Philly is the home of soul and R&B—and you all keep our legacy going.