The 61st Grammy Awards have come and gone, and there’s one thing the artists, the audience, record executives, and music-lovers the world over agree on: Not. Enough. Neil Portnow. To be fair, the producers have been getting better about this recently: They made time this year to bring the show to a screeching halt for a video tribute to the outgoing President and CEO of the Recording Academy, followed by a speech from Mr. Portnow himself, even though it meant they had to play off awards winners in the show’s main categories in the middle of their speeches. They’ve also gotten better at using Neil Portnow efficiently and sustainably: By scheduling the Portnow tribute a full three-and-a-half hours into the awards show, they made sure that every second of Neil Portnow-related content felt twice as long. The artists helped increase the show’s Portnow levels, too: Dua Lipa alluded to Portnow in her acceptance speech, saying she was happy there were so many female nominees in her category, because “I guess we really stepped up.”
But the tribute and speech only provided five minutes and twenty-five seconds of Neil-Portnow-related content; Lipa’s remarks only added a couple seconds more (and you had to know the backstory). That is nowhere near the Grammy-Awards-night recommended dosage of Neil Portnow. So once again, it falls on Slate to pick up the slack for the Recording Academy and save the Grammys from total disaster. We are proud to publish this year’s Grammys Portnowfolio, consisting of every Getty Images photograph of Neil Portnow attending this year’s Grammy Awards. All your favorite Neil Portnow pictures are here, as long as they were included in Slate’s Getty Images subscription. So buckle your seatbelts and put on your safety goggles, because Music’s Biggest Night is about to get a second helping … of Neil Portnow!
MAXIMUM PORTNOW … ACHIEVED!!!!!!
