Haim and Brittany Howard bring fire to the Grammys, plus the best of March’s live music

The 63rd annual Grammy Awards will take place in the early hours of Monday morning, delayed from their usual January date because of Covid-19. For days already, however, they’ve been making headlines.

Canadian singer The Weeknd, of Ethiopian heritage, wasn’t nominated for a single award, and in response plans to boycott every future event. Former One Direction star Zayn Malik was similarly outraged, decrying “favoritism, racism and networking politics” in the voting process. Meanwhile, triple nominee Fiona Apple talked about taking a sledgehammer to any statuettes she might win in protest at the producer Dr Luke – who faces allegations by pop star Ke$ha of sexual assault – getting a nod.

These events added weight to the perception, which is highlighted every year, that the Grammys have a diversity issue. It’s an image that the Recording Academy had been hoping to shake off with the 1,345 new voting members who joined in November (40 per cent of them women) and the pointedly pro-women and pro-minority nominations that followed.

Unsurprisingly, Harvey Mason Jr, interim chief executive of the Recording Academy, didn’t address any of this in a Zoom roundtable that opened last night’s Countdown to the Grammys event. Speaking to Haim (who named their third album Women in Music Pt. III), Brittany Howard (the first woman to win, as leader of Alabama Shakes, a Grammy for Best Rock Performance) and rapper Chika, he made polite conversation about creative processes and collaborations. It took the live performances to prove that there’s more to music than being a white bloke – and that any claims of tokenism are nonsense.

Rapper Chika (nominated for Best New Artist) used her three-song set to introduce people to her blend of afrobeat, gospel and hip-hop, with a handful of aching guitar solos for good measure. The likes of My Power and On My Way were busy tracks, as her four-piece band injected flourishes of guitar, keys and drums, but her effortless vocals were consistently arresting.

Nor was there a moment of Brittany Howard’s theatrical, emotional and genre-crossing four-song set that didn’t hold my undivided attention. Stay High, a soulful track, was more laidback than the urgent chaos she creates with Alabama Shakes, but the fiery Goat Head saw her channel some palpable anger, before the spoken-word stomp of 13th Century Metal had her five-piece band wielding glitching electronics and pulsating rhythms. This performance was breathtaking; in the flesh, it’ll be transcendent.

Haim took a less rebellious approach. Their opener, Summer Girl, a laidback anthem designed for sunset festival slots, felt almost aspirational during this livestream, as did the hazy indie rock of Gasoline. (It being almost 3am in London probably helped.) The confessional alt-rock of I’ve Been Down saw the trio at full power. A huge video screen and some impeccable harmonies only added to the majesty.

They finished with Danielle performing Man From the Magazine alone in the vast rehearsal space, with just an acoustic guitar. The track, driving and direct, details the everyday sexism faced by the band. “Oh, what’s left to prove,” Danielle sang with a roll of the eyes before delivering the mic-drop finale – “you don’t know how it feels to be the c---” – without fanfare. Let’s hope the Grammys can carry on celebrating this energy.

Zara Larsson ★★★★☆

If you’re the kind of person who’s been waiting for a second Zara Larsson album, you’ve had quite a wait on your hands. The Swedish singer’s Poster Girl was delayed several times – once, supposedly because her label told her it wasn’t good enough – but with its release last Friday she did what any popstar would do to celebrate during a pandemic: teamed up with IKEA for a YouTube livestream.

When you think of all-singing all-dancing pop extravaganzas, Billy bookcases and cheap, sturdy coffee tables aren’t quite what springs to mind. IKEA staples may litter your home, but do they quite have the razzle dazzle to furnish a livestream stage show? It was a little jarring to see amid the stage design a mountain of £6 Lack coffee tables, beloved of student digs everywhere, but Larsson elevated this clunky brand collaboration into a thoroughly enjoyable show, with impressive vocals and easy to enjoy melodies.

There was an air of Eurovision about the proceedings as she leant into the kitsch, bolstered by her ABBA indebted songs such as Look What You’ve Done which she sang wearing a lilac bodysuit that would make most of us look like a grape, and coyly eyeballing the camera. She started and ended in arena mode, a cavernous stage space that in normal times she would struggle to fill. But the most invigorating moments came when she’d enter the smaller spaces – a fluffy pink bedroom, a Rubik’s cube-slash-padded cell where she delivered an absolutely belting version of her 2019 hit Ruin My Life.

The transitions between sets were, occasionally, quite awkward. A speech about International Women’s Day and the need to ensure all girls receive education as she strutted from the main stage to a woodland hidey-hole (a ballad was obviously coming) felt like something out of Live & Kicking circa 2001. It reminded me of visiting the ABBA exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre, where a tour guide walked you through different time periods in the bands’ life, each room decorated to match: here’s a disco, here’s a tour bus, here’s a lush woodland, a recording studio – it’s tricky to make that feel natural, and it didn’t always quite come off.

It’s easy to forget that Larsson has an incredible voice; her tunes are so catchy and so deceptively simple, but her effortless ad libs came thick and fast throughout the show. She was joined at one point by Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit for a gorgeous rendition of Need Love which they sang while sat on IKEA’s finest wicker pouffes. I was happy for her to have a sit down, to be honest, after half an hour of exhausting squat thrusts and vocal gymnastics.

Most importantly, Larsson seemed to be enjoying herself. Livestreams are unforgiving in their close-ups and relentless in their need for energy to stop them falling flat or allowing your home-ridden audience the temptation to get up for a cup of tea, and she pulled it off perfectly. It felt, largely, like a statement of intent: Larsson saying “Look, I can do the big pop extravaganza.”

It’s baffling that she isn’t playing in the same field as Katy Perry or Dua Lipa when she has the songs and the charisma to make it. Perhaps this livestream will help her to manifest that level of success in the long run: for now, it was simply one of the better Monday evenings in lockdown. Now, where’s that IKEA catalogue...

Gŵyl 2021 ★★★★☆

Without festivals, it has been tough to discover new music. We’ve had to rely on social-media platforms such as TikTok to stumble on our new favourite acts, and while some have been brilliant – for example, alt-pop star Ashnikko – 2021 is already hard enough without a sea-shanty revival. There’s hope on the horizon, thanks to the Government’s roadmap out of Covid restrictions, but it’s going to be a few months, at least, until festivals are back.

To fill the void, four Welsh events – Aberystwyth Comedy Festival, Festival of Voice, Focus Wales and Other Voices – teamed up to curate a weekend of online music, comedy and conversation. Gŵyl 2021 was broadcast live via a dedicated BBC website, and the two-day event (on March 6–7) was a brilliant mix of exciting new talent and reimagined favourites.

Every artist performed to an empty venue, but each set saw that space through a different lens. Leaning into the need for escape, art-pop star Cate Le Bon’s performance of her 2019 album Reward conjured a feeling of otherworldly transcendence. Directed by Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, the 40-minute show put its emphasis on the live element – but shot with a hazy filter and intercut with surreal visuals, it gave the 37-year old’s experimental indie-rock a theatrical twist. By contrast, Rhys’s own two-song set from Llangollen Town Hall was a no-nonsense jam session, driven by a sense of urgency and the joy of making music with people in the same room.

Following the chart success of Idles and Fontaines DC, post-punk has never been as cool, and the genre’s renewed influence could be heard throughout the weekend. Welsh-language group Adwaith delivered a faithful take, with sweeping guitar licks crashed over hammering drums, while Dublin’s Sprints injected rock ’n’ roll freedom into the genre’s usually moody outlook. Their vocalist Karla Chubb is a powerhouse; she commanded attention for the entirety of their 30-minute set. It shouldn’t be long until they’re also bothering the top of the charts.

Elsewhere, post-punk poet Sinead O’Brien delivered a trio of hypnotic songs that mercilessly picked apart modern life. The sheer power of her voice was amplified by the backing of electric guitar and drums. London-based rapper Berwyn only had time for four songs, but it’s easy to see why he finished third on the BBC Sound of 2021 list: his soulful hip-hop was delivered with passion, cut with pop flourishes and driven by vulnerability. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he’ll speak to the same people that have fallen for fellow Gŵyl performer Arlo Parks.

In between performances, several of the artists spoke to the camera about their experience during lockdown. Dani Rain has a day job as the drummer for arena-headlining pop-punk giants Neck Deep, but the lack of touring gave him time to start a solo career. Unfortunately, rapping about gold chains, champagne and how blessed he is, it was a forgettable introduction from an artist yet to find his own voice.

While most performers at Gŵyl 2021 offered virtual escapism through new music, the highlight of the weekend was Death Songbook. Performed by former Suede frontman Brett Anderson, conductor Charles Hazlewood and a socially-distanced Paraorchestra, the 50-minute concert saw them rework classic tracks of loss, isolation, death and loneliness. It couldn’t be more 2021 if it tried.

Indie anthems were given a classical twist; Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon and David Bowie’s My Death were delivered with heart-wrenching beauty. Anderson’s own The Next Life (written about the death of his mother) was as haunting as they come, while Suede B-side He’s Dead was delivered with Britpop swagger. Anderson leaned into the mic like he was at a sold-out Knebworth, rather than an empty theatre.

“I find happy music really depressing,” Anderson explained during the show. “I think songs about death can be really uplifting, powerful and life-affirming.” He’s not wrong, especially when they’re presented like this. Hopefully it doesn’t take a pandemic for it to happen again.

The performances at Gŵyl 2021 are available to stream online for 30 days. Info: bbc.co.uk