The Man Behind the Grammys Gives Us the Inside Scoop
Expect the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements to be heard at this weekend’s Grammy Awards.
“Artists, particularly music artists, are more than music and lyrics,” the show’s executive producer Ken Ehrlich told Cheddar. “We feel it’s important to be a forum for that, as long as it’s responsible and it stays within the limits of what the FCC says you can’t say on TV.“
Celebrities have used this awards season as a platform to speak out against sexual harassment, starting with wearing all-black attire and #TimesUp pins at the Golden Globes earlier this month.
For the Grammys, artists will sport white roses, a statement reportedly started by Roc Nation senior vice president Meg Harkins and Interscopes Karen Rait.
But it won’t all be about politics. Ehrlich didn’t spill any details about the widely-discussed first act for the 60th annual ceremony, but he teased that it’s “something you don’t want to miss.”
“The opening number is not [host] James Corden,” he confirmed. “They’re are artists that have been on our show before, but they’re doing something that you’ve never seen before.”
For full ointerview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/grammy-awards-returning-to-new-york-city).
It has now been two days since Major League Baseball moved to cancel opening day games for the upcoming season. The announcement from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred came during the league's ongoing work stoppage, just the ninth in MLB history. Owners voted unanimously on December 2, 2021 to enact a lockout after the collective bargaining agreement between the league and players expired. On March 1, 2022, following over a week of daily negotiations between the two sides, and three months of on and off negotiations, the league officially canceled the first two series of the regular season. Gabe Lacques, MLB reporter and baseball editor for USA Today Sports, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Music-focused NFT platform Pianity raising $6.5 million in a seed funding round. Pianity has developed a marketplace that allows musicians to sell their tracks as limited edition NFTs. Since its launch last year, the company says it has already sold 11,000 NFTs and artists have earned over $1.1 million from NFT sales. Kevin Primicerio, co-founder and CEO of Pianity, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Russia seizes a major Ukraine nuclear power plant, students protest Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill, and it's official: nobody really expects Pop-Tarts to have real strawberries. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Friday, March 4, 2022.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that an estimated one million people have fled from Ukraine since Russia invaded. Christopher Boian, senior communications officer at UNHCR, joined Cheddar News to report on the current refugee crisis and what the world might expect if conditions continue to worsen. "We have planning figures that forecast as many as four million people could be forced to flee Ukraine," he said. "But that very much depends on how the conflict underway in that country at the moment unfolds in the days and possibly weeks ahead."
Christian Blauvelt, executive managing editor at IndieWire, joins Cheddar News to discuss the growing number of studios pulling content from Russia over Ukraine invasion.
Caroline Hickman, lecturer at University of Bath and psychosocial researcher on climate change, joins Cheddar News to discuss climate change's impact on mental health.
Alexandre Mongeon, the CEO and co-founder of Vision Marine Technologies, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss the latest innovations in the e-boating industry, and how fully electric motors and boats will play a role in the fight against the climate crisis.