In this episode of Mary Kinda Contrary Podcast, Mary Lemanski talks about her first trip to the Grammys in 2022 for the 64th Grammy Awards.

Transcription

Hello, you’re listening to the Mary Kind de Contrary podcast, and I’m your host, Mary LeMans. I’m a musician, actress, writer, business owner, and creator of this podcast. Welcome and thank you very much for listening. It’s been a while since I have done a podcast. The last year’s been kind of hectic. It’s actually probably almost been a year.

It’s probably been a, at least. Eight months. Anyway, I am back. Um, and the last time I was, um, podcasting, I had said that I would talk about my trip to the Grammys, which happened last year. So I figured. Since it’s Grammy week, it’s a good time to reboot the podcast. Ooh and talk about the Grammys again. Uh, before we do that, I have quite a few things.

Well, not quite a few things. I have a couple things to talk about. First, I’d like to talk about our sponsor for this episode. Cyberpunk Web Marketing and Virtual Assistant Services. Cyberpunk helps creatives, solo professionals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses to focus on their larger goals while they meet their web-based creative and administrative.

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You can do that by going to cyberpunk marketing.com. All right. And that’s, so that’s our sponsor for this episode. And moving on, I would like to do a little public service announcement and remind you all that the even numbered years are not just election years. Every year is an election year because in the odd numbered years, you elect your municipal and local people.

So I would suggest that you all get out there and vote every year, every year, every election is important. You know why? You may not think that the, the local elections are as important as the president, but you know what? You don’t actually elect the president, the electoral college does, and the local people decide.

Your schools are gonna use their money, how they’re, how the libraries are gonna use their money, how taxpayer money reaches you and how it is used at the local level. So you really wanna get out and vote for people that support your values. There are ways to find out, it’s hard sometimes to find out information about local candidates, but a lot of times if you search their names, you can find their party.

Um, just search their name in Republican or Democrat and you can usually find that out, um, or libertarian or whatever, green party. Um, we want to always mention all of the parties because we don’t have enough of them, I don’t think. I think that’s why we’re in the problem we are now. Just get out and vote and vote your values.

Do your research on your local politic. . Um, and yeah, that’s all I really have to say about that. Every year is an election year. Don’t, when they say election year, don’t even listen to them. Every year is an election year, and the elections that affect you the most are the local elections, so get out and vote.

All right, now that I got those couple things out of the way, I am going to move into the, the meat and the heart and soul. This episode, uh, my last episode, which I think was probably like 10 to eight months ago when I thought I would be putting it out the next week. Uh, that’s sometimes that’s how life is.

Anyway, my last episode, I, um, had said that I was going to talk about my. First trip to the Grammys, which was last year. Um, and it was very recent at the time, but , now it’s Grammy week and it’s time for another Grammys. So of course the Grammy’s last year got, um, uh, pushed back due to Covid. So it, uh, wasn’t in Los Angeles as planned, it was in Las Vegas.

But I was able to go to it. Uh, I had planned for this. For a couple years actually, because my ex and I, um, have our, uh, time with the kids and I wasn’t sure that, you know, the Grammys they used used to be able to get four tickets, um, and now you can only get two when they initially offer them. Later on, if nobody buys the tickets, then you can get the ticket.

More tickets. They changed the policy from four to two, so I can’t take my kids with me . So, um, so I just decided to go by myself because I had no date. Um, and I didn’t wanna pay for somebody else . Um, so I went by myself to the Grammys and. You have the Grammys, but then you have Grammy week and there’s lots of events leading up to Grammy week.

Lots of networking and schmoozing and you know, maybe even some educational things. I not, I have not gone to any educational things, but, um, so anyway, they have these events leading up to. Uh, the actual Grammys and, uh, I flew into Vegas on Thursday. I was able to arrive the first day that they started offering tickets.

Um, and I was so glad I did. If you ever have to go to the one of these events and you can go early, go early, um, because there was no line to get. Grammy tickets and my, my Goodies bag, which I’ll talk about in a bit. But, um, I, I just, I, I, I arrived in Las Vegas. I, I took my time, I got my bags, got my rental car.

Um, and then I drove to the hotel where the Grammy’s were at, which I immediately had one. Knew they were changing venues. I got a room at, at the ca at the hotel, the mgm, where it was at. Um, I had got my room and it, I, I had a nice view of the, the, the Vegas Skyline Billboards, , and um, and so I got to my room, I got to kind of relax and I had a day to just, you know, get my tickets.

and just hang out and enjoy a little bit of Las Vegas. Um, uh, and then the next day, I was so glad that I had done that because Friday was the Music Cares, uh, person of the year benefit concert and dinner, um, at the mg. Everybody was coming in on Friday and um, also on Saturday for the Grammys on Sunday.

So the lines were long, uh, at the hotel. They were along waiting for tickets to get, get your Grammy tickets and your gift bag and, um, . I was so glad that I got there on Thursday because I didn’t have to wait in those lines. And the gift, the gift bag was awesome. Uh, it was a collection of products by Biro, their bitter green essence toner, which normally retails at $95, their tofu gel cream.

normally, normally retails at $85 and they’re fig renewal oil, which normally retails at $72. And I have really enjoyed these products, I must say. They’re very nice and they, we, they even gave us a, a discount code. I wanted to talk about my trusses. Um, so I’m very fortunate to have a cousin-in-law who is a fabulous.

Seamstress. And not only that, she is a, an up and coming fashion designer who goes by the name Meg Mansky, M E g M A N S k. I check her out. Um, her, her creations are just gorgeous and so, I, um, I got four dresses from her, one from, for the person of the year benefit, one for, uh, a get together, uh, a party on, on Saturday night, and then my dress for the Grammy’s, and then a addressed for the after party.

Well, the after party didn’t end up happening, so I didn’t, I’ve got a fourth dress that I’ve yet to. To, um, wear, but, um, I Did you wear the other three all by Meg Mans? went shopping for shoes and bag to, to wears. The great thing about my Meg Mansky creations is that, uh, they all had matching masks to go along with the dresses since it was co covid was so prevalent.

So that was very nice to have matching masks with my dresses. So I enjoyed my My Chill Thursday and then Friday, April 1st was the, as mentioned before, the person of the year benefit concert and dinner, and it was honoring Joni Mitchell. And Steven Stills was there. And um, then there were performances by, um, Brandy Carlisle and Herby Hancock, Sarah Burs, Cindy Lauper, Chaka Khan, Leon Bridges, pentatonics, uh, the Black Puma, John Batiste is amazing and Maggie Rogers.

And Mickey Gek. It was all just a wonderful, wonderful show. And, um, uh, the dinner was great too. Um, I don’t have the breakdown with me. It was, it was, um, you know, salad and then the main course, and then the desserts were, were crazy , uh, uh, you know, sculpt, you know, little sculptures and stuff. made out. Cake

So anyway, um, uh, so the dinner was great. Um, I, I got there and I sat down and at my table, and just to kind of give you the context of this, um, it had been, you know, a few months since the whole Waukesha thing. and I was really, actually pretty wary about being out in public, um, and how people were going to react to me honestly.

So I, I, I go to my table and I sit down and I just, you know, they, they, everybody was going around and introducing themselves. and I introduced myself and, and they ask, you know, oh, what do you do? And I said, oh, I’m a, I’m an independent musician. And the guy next to me is a older gentleman. Uh, he says, oh, independent musicians make enough money for tickets to.

So right off the bat, this guy was not sitting well with me. Um, what does it matter? Uh, I mean, really, why would you say that to somebody? Um, so I just kind of, you know, brushed it off and I’m like, oh, I do. All right. Um, you know, and, uh, and so. I sit down and this, this, um, woman comes over and sits down next to me and she introduces herself to the table.

Um, she’s a journalist and, um, So we’re all, you know, talking as the night goes on and, you know, watching the performances and all of this. And, um, so it comes up. People are like, uh oh. Uh oh, oh, oh. I know I have it. The, the guy next to me starts talking to me and. , he is like, tell me more about your music or whatever.

And I was like, well, you know, I, um, I’ve been putting out my own music since 1999 and, and I, and I said, and I’m like in Chicago area right now. I play around town and, and then he just cut. I play around Chicago and or I, I said, I play around Chicago and. . Um, I’ve toured the United States, but he, he, he only heard I play around and then starts talking to the rest of the table, like, oh, did you hear?

She plays around? And I was like, you didn’t hear the rest of my sentence. I said, I play music around Chicago. And so this is strike two for this guy. Um, Oh wow. He didn’t even know who I was really at that point. And then, so then everybody else is, oh, let’s hear your music tells us about your music and let, what’s your latest release?

And so then at that point I had put out Karma Klansmen are ruining My America. The music video. I started to tell people about Waukesha and I. and I started telling them my story. Like you can hear, if you hear some of my earlier podcasts, I, I was like, yes, I’m that girl. I’m that girl that said that stuff.

Um, but I collected all the voicemails and I chopped them all up and I turned them into a song, wanna hear it? And I made a music video detailing everything that I’ve been through and. . So then after that, people didn’t, didn’t wanna talk to me, the , the guy sitting next to me, like moved and his wife moved next to me.

well at some point. Um, but, uh, . But, uh, so, so this woman next to me, this reporter, she didn’t tell me what channel or anything that she worked. And I was like, um, you know, I don’t give a fuck if this is Fox News or not , I’m gonna tell this woman my side of the story. And so I did, and it probably went on for like 10 minutes.

Um, but I was not gonna sit there and ha, you know, feel like that and not speak my. . So I sat there and I told this woman everything, and, and I said, yeah, the, the, the proud boys targeted me after speaking at a school board meeting. And um, a week later they made my tweets go viral. If you look at my stats, I mean, , they, they ganged up on me and they made my tweet go viral and they made Fox News pick it.

And Fox News jumped on the, because I was the man social media manager for the DuPage Democrats. And, um, and I had, I was w a, a key part in bringing out the youth vote and changing DuPage County from red to purple to now almost completely. and, um, I fear that they’re losing that youth vote. As I talk to my son every day and, and, um, I hear some of the things that he says that.

I just, there, it’s really strong. We, we need to, um, we need to fight back against this white supremacist, domestic terrorism that is taking over our country. But aside from that, um, I just, I, you know, I didn’t care that this woman was from Fox News. I was gonna tell her my story. One thing about Fox News is there were a lot of influencers.

I. I saw, I found a, a graphic and it had compiled all of the people that said bad things about Waukesha, and there were some major influencers on there. And there was actually a woman who was, um, higher up, like in charge of the, the Democrats at the, at a county level. And she wasn’t targeted like I was.

And I, I honestly think it’s because I was so pivotal in turning a. The largest red county in Illinois to blue. There are reasons why I was targeted and not all those other people that said the exact same thing I did. So anyway, I had to tell this woman my peace. I had to speak my peace. And um, so I did.

And then she revealed to me that she was, uh, she worked for an affiliate of Fox. in a state out east. I won’t even say where she was from because I don’t, I don’t rat out people. I don’t put people, I don’t call out people unless really there there really needs to be a reason. Yeah. So, um, anyway, aside from from, uh, being the, the pariah at the table, I really enjoyed the Music Cares concert and seeing Joni Mitchell and seeing all of the performers, it was really just lovely.

It was amazing. Um, and I’m so glad I had the chance to do that. So, if you ever have a chance to donate money to music care, and, um, and go to the person of the year award fest, uh, person of the year award, um, festivities, the, the dinner and the, the production. Um, you should, you should do it because it was really something and, um, I, it was a fabulous evening.

Good food, good music, mostly good company . I guess as long as I’m not there. It’s a good company, huh? . Okay. Um, so that was Fri that was Friday night, April 1st. So Saturday. Saturday I had two events. Um, in the afternoon there was the global reunion 2022, um, which was hosted by. Stuart Copeland, Ricky Ke, and Lonnie Park.

And um, if you don’t know who those people are, I will tell you, um, so you’ve probably heard of the police, the ban the police, and if not, you should probably look them up because they’re rather influential. , but, um, Stuart Copeland, I was the drummer for the police from 1977 to 1986, and then again from 2007 to 2008.

And so he was one of the hosts and Ricky Ke. Ricky is a two-time award-winning and three-time Grammy nominated Indian music composer and environmentalist. He has performed at venues in over 30 countries, including at the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva. In December, 2022, Casu was announced as uh, A U N H C R, Goodwill Ambassador.

Um, and then also Lonnie Park. Lonnie Park is a 2013 Grammy nominee, artist, musician, composer, producer, and author. He’s a renowned vocalist, instrumentalist, songwriter, engineer, producer. His, his, uh, he works across all music genres, including progressive and symphonic metal, country, hip hop, world folk, instrumental pop and gospel.

Um, that’s just a little bit about him. Um, he’s worked, he also works with many other Grammy winning artists and activists. That’s a little bit about who hosted the party. And it was really nice. It was held in the courtyard at Hoff Bra house in Las Vegas and there were quite a few people there. Um, a lot of people.

Um, indie musicians that, um, and, and others that I have, um, been in contact with over the years through the recording Academy. Um, Or through just, you know, um, other connections and, um, it was, it was neat to, to actually meet people in person. Some, some people that I’ve talked to online for years. There was other people there that I also knew, you know, from Chicago and, and the scene here.

But it was, it was good to connect with everybody there. Um, it was a nice crowd. Crowd. It’s kind of just mellow, everybody talking. There was. Some food and get beverages and, and yeah, it was just real nice chill, laid back kind of networking. Get together, reunion. To see people we haven’t seen in a long time, or people that we’ve been in contact with for years but have never actually met.

So it, it was really neat. And then later in the evening, well, oh, so I, I did have a guest with me for Saturday’s events. It was my vocal coach, Katie Power, and, um, she was with me for the first event and then we. Got ready to go to the second event. So they had a red carpet and you could walk the red carpet and get interviewed by the wonderful Annemarie Paterno, um, who is a musician in her own right.

She’s an, uh, Americana. Uh, Um, composer, country dance folk, indie pop rock, um, songwriter, um, and world artist from Nashville. She was interviewing people on the red carpet. And so my, my vocal coach and I are, we were making our way to get in line to get on the red carpet and uh, this gentleman just appears in front of us, in line and.

And he’s like, oh, you’re so well trusted. And he’s just like, he is just like inches away from grabbing me . My, my, I turned around, um, when he like stopped to talk to somebody else. And my, my , my, my vocal coach is like, uh, do you need any help ? So anyway, uh, He, he introduces himself to me, and I’m not going to put a Emma on blast here.

I will say that he was a politician, he was a Republican and he was running for a very high office in the state of Nevada. and he may have been married. I couldn’t get a definitive answer on that. Maybe he was divorced, maybe that’s why he was divorced. But he was really like really close to me, invading my personal space so much so that as the line progressed and people were getting interviewed, Annemarie, Paterno thought that we were together.

And so we had to, I had to walk , I had to walk out on the red carpet with , a Republican. Of course. We were each on each side of. and Marie, so there was space between us as the interview went on. Anyway, so , but I, I, I thought that was, uh, rather humorous. I don’t know what to think of that. , um, But yeah, that happened at the, the, the party at Suge.

Um, but it was really nice. I, I got to see even more people that I had never seen before that I’ve been talking to online for years, voting for their music, even, you know, for the Grammys. Um, cuz they write really good music and so, It was, it was great to see people that I’ve, I’ve voted for and supported and be able to, you know, talk to them, be in the same room with them.

And I, I met a lot of people. I met some people from, um, from Chicago, even so small world. So that was, that was fun at story. Aside from having my, my personal space violated unwillingly, but it’s, it’s, it’s okay. That’s a part of being in a crowded situation. Um, so then, uh, the next day was the Grammy’s. It was really an amazing day for me because I’ve dreamed about going to the Grammy’s since.

I was young. I’ve dreamed of winning a Grammy myself since I first became serious with music, uh, or realized that I had talent, which was I think around age 11 when they pulled me out of Catholic school classroom to go play a funeral on the pipe organ. . Um, and then they paid me 40 bucks. And I was like, yeah, I think being a musician would be all right.

So, so then I started dreaming big and I, I wanted to, I wanted to win a Grammy. Um, but we’re just watching it on, on TV as a youngster. I thought, wow, what? It would be neat to be there, huh? Um, so I think everybody has some sort of, Uh, well, maybe not everybody, but a lot of people have that. And so anyway, so there’s actually two Grammy ceremonies.

You have the premier ceremony, which, um, are basically all of the awards that are not broadcast on television. Uh, there’s lots of awards that are given away for production, classical music, world music in jazz, lots of genres, um, that are not covered on the broadcast. That everyone sees on tv. Um, there’s lots of genres, uh, with awards that you guys probably don’t even know about.

So if you ever get a chance to look at the full list of winners, Please check it out and please check out other forms of music. Uh, not just the stuff you usually listen to. Um, it gives you a wider appreciation for music in general when you do stuff like that. So anyway, so you have the premiere ceremony, which starts, you know, around noon.

and then, um, that goes on till you know about, uh, whenever it gets done. Um, then there’s like a short time to walk the red carpet. And then they have the regular telecast, which you everyone else sees on tv. And that’s usually, you know, in the evening. So I got up early on. Sunday and I, you know, cuz I kind of wanted to take my time getting ready and so as I did it in stages, so, um, I got ready, got dressed, um, did my makeup, and then got dressed I guess, and then went down to the premier ceremony.

And watched most of that. And then I headed to the main arena where the telecast was. So I got to the main arena and I, uh, found my seat where it was, and then I decided to go out and get some water and use the restroom before it all started. And, um, as I went out there, I discovered that they weren’t taking cash.

For, uh, water and I had left my card in the hotel room, so I was kind of s sol at that point. And so I got a little bit upset and I went and talked to the security guard. They were able to get a manager to, to go over and I paid for my, you know, I offered to pay for my water at that point. She just gave it to me for free, but, All I wanted was water.

And I, uh, I, I, I was in, in the desert, you know, I , I, I was like, where can I get water? Then, you know, all the water fountains are shut off because of covid and, you know, I’m not gonna make it through the ceremony without water. So I was able to get water and then as I was waiting, Line to get back into the arena too.

Well, because at that point then the, uh, people had started, more people had started showing up, um, as I went. To go back into the arena. I saw this, uh, I couldn’t really see her face when sh because I kind of looked up as she was going by, and, but she, she looked very shiny and very nude underneath the shiny and

I was like, that lady wants to be naked and shiny and. Turns out it was Paris Hilton walking by me. So we, I sat in the same section as Paris Hilton at the Grammys. And , my vocal coach actually sat in the same section too. She was a seat warmer. She got hired as a seat warmer. I told her, you know this, they hire seat warmers for the the for award shows so that they can fill in the seat so it doesn’t look so empty.

Maybe you can get a job doing that. just to go to the Grammy’s and she was able to do it . So she sat in the same section as Paris Hilton too. So we were all sitting in the same section. And so eventually we all got into our seats and, you know, we’re waiting for the, the show. They made an announcement that the show is gonna start.

Um, so to make our ways to our seats. And so throughout, it’s very interesting, throughout the. The Grammy ceremony, what happens behind the scenes on tv? They, they would announce to us, you know, uh, when the commercial breaks were getting ready to be over so that we could run back to our seats and, um, so people could socialize when it went to commercial, um, with each other, which was.

An interesting part that you don’t see when you’re watching the Grammys. Um, you’re like, I wonder what all those people do during commercial break. They’d get up and they’d talk around and, you know, talk to each other and visit with each other. So we all were, you know, seated ready for the. The Grammys to start and they made the announcement it was gonna start and to everybody get to your seats.

And then they opened up this, the ceremony. So Trevor Noah was the host that evening, and um, he, he did a great job. I thought it was entertaining. Uh oh. I, uh, foo fighters were supposed to perform, but Taylor Hawkins passed away, so they were not able to perform. and I believe Billy Eilish performed in their place.

And, uh, let’s see, the performers were, uh, silk Sonic, who I thought were awesome. It’s Bruno Mars and Anderson Puck. And then there was Olivia Rodrigo and, uh, Jay Bevin BTS performed. Amy New Viola, um, Lil Nas X uh, Billy Eilish. , Brandy Carlisle, NAS, Chris Stapleton, um, Maverick City Music. And then there was the tribute to Ukraine with John Legend and others.

Um, lady Gaga’s tribute to Tony Bennett, Billy Strings. And then there was the, the Sondheim segment, which was glorious. Then there’s John Batist. And then, um, Justin Bieber, her Carrie Underwood, and then the Brothers Osborne. And it was, it was really neat to see everyone performing on the stage and, you know, seeing the transitions and everything that went.

That you don’t always necessarily see on camera a lo uh, an experience of a lifetime. I, I’ll say that, you know, I don’t know if I’ll ever get to go back to the Grammys again. So I decided to do it in style. I decided to pay the extra money to go to the, the person of the year event and, um, to have, you know, nice showy, uh, gown to go to the Grammy’s, and, and I, I just did it up because, you know, you never know, this might be the one and only time I get to go to the Grammy’s.

So it was quite the experience and I enjoyed myself fully. I wish I could live it over and over and over again, and maybe I will. Maybe I’ll get to go next year. , who knows, even they may even expand the number of tickets and I can take both my kids with me. But, uh, I do have a song that I did enter this year in the new category, best Song for Social Change.

And, um, it’s not picked by the regular balloting process. It’s picked by a blue ribbon committee. Um, and, um, so anyway, the, the regular balloting process works like this. Everybody submits their music. that they went to win a Grammy and in into the various categories that it belongs to. And then, um, then there is, uh, a vote that goes, all the members voting, members of the recording academy vote and is on.

You have, uh, It, it changes from year to year, but you have a certain number of categories that you can vote in, plus the major categories like Album of the Year, you know, record of the year, song of the Year, artist, best New Artist of the Year. Um, so everybody votes in those categories, but, um, then everybody.

also votes in their own particular genre categories that they know about, that they’re knowledgeable about, that they listen to regularly. Um, so, uh, so, so we do first round voting and then after that, the, you know, they go through and they, they see who the top winners are in each of the categories.

Usually the top five, I guess. And then those are the nominees. And from there, uh, there’s a second round of voting. and then the nom from the nominees, the winners are picked and that’s what you see on television for some of the categories. Like I said, there’s a whole other ceremony before the telecast ceremony called the Premier ceremony, and that’s where all of the other awards are, uh, given out, and there’s performances there.

So anyway, I, I have entered a song in the best song for social change, uh, this year. And as I said, it’s picked by Blue Ribbon Committee and I don’t even know who’s on the Blue Ribbon Committee, so I can’t even tell you if they’re qualified. , I’m sure they are , uh, but I’m sure they are. But, Uh, I don’t know who’s on the Blue Ribbon Committee, so I can’t tell you that, but that, that is who picks best song for social change and the song that I entered was Karma Klansman Are Ruining My America, which is made up of all of the voicemails that I received, the hateful voicemails I received after my comments about Waukesha went viral.

Um, and they went viral because I was targeted by Proud Boys after speaking at a school board meeting a week earlier. And so they got their little crew of Griper Army guys and Proud Boys and made my tweet go viral and then Fox News picked it up. And anyway, the, the voicemails I received in backlash to that.

Were mostly by white supremacists talking about the black guy driving the car, um, and, you know, stuff like that. But anyway, so I took all those angry voicemails that, um, I received and I made a song out of them. Well, I mean, like, what else would I do with them? And then I, um, also took all the angry.

messages I received from texts and emails and Facebook messages. And I made and, and, and mail. I had mail too. Um, and I made a music video out of it. So you can see all of that. And it is, um, In the running for Best song for social change at the Grammys. Uh, we’ll see if it wins or not. I’m hoping it does. Um, but we shall see.

Uh, and anyway, that brings us to the present moment, and the Grammys are this Sunday, the 65th annual Grammy Awards this Sunday, February 5th at 8:00 PM. Uh, again, Trevor Noah is hosting and, uh, it’s at the crypto.com arena in Los Angeles. And, uh, yeah, you can watch it on cbs. I don’t know if there’s streaming from a grammy.com or not, but, um, uh, That may be an option, but definitely on cbs.

So I hope you tune in for the Grammys Sunday, February 5th, 2023 for, it’s the 65th annual Grammy Awards. So hope you all tune in and um, I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast. I will be back with regular pod weekly podcasts. I hope , that’s the plan and I have allotted time out in my schedule now to properly do this podcast and to, um, bring you some, some interesting shows.

So I hope you have found my little trip to the Grammy’s. Interesting. I hope that you all have a great week, and I will talk to you soon.