Do the Grammy's Force Artists to Perform Their Most Successful Singles...

[27monster27 13,632]

...From Their Albums?

On February 7th, 2006, Sorry was released as the second single from Confessions on a Dancefloor. Naturally, it would make sense the it would be performed at the Grammy awards, which were the day after the song was released. However, Hung Up was performed instead, several months after a US performance would have benefitted it. (A similar situation happened in 2001 with Music being performed at the Grammy's when it would have made more sense to perform Don't Tell Me.)

By the time of the Grammy's in 2012, the third single from 21 Set Fire to the Rain was about to peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. However, Adele would actually end up performing her 2010 single Rolling in the Deep instead.

In early 2019, Camilla Cabello's single Consequences was in desperate need of a boost in exposure, and the Grammy's could have provided that. However, the decision was made to perform the 2017 single Havana instead, which multiple people at the time found as confusing.

That same year, controversy erupted over Ariana Grande's decision to not perform at or attend the 2019 Grammy's in response to her not getting enough creative control over her own performance. Interestingly enough, this involved issues regarding which specific song(s) she should have performed.

Of course, where this gets confusing is that we have situations that go against these examples, like Nothing Really Matters being performed at the 1999 Grammys.

Thoughts?

[Mother of Puppies 36,467]

For sure.

 

[ANVEEROY 61,300]

Bad Romance was released, and GAGA performed Poker Face. Hmm 

[Chromatica Island 8,517]

Like hold them hostage? 

[elijahfan 26,487]

The Grammys keep portraying themselves as a celebration of music, so performing the biggest songs of the year or the ones artists are nominated for kinda makes sense? I feel like it's not just a promo spot in the same way other ceremonies can be.

[TheFame Monster 8,959]

I don’t know their reasoning behind this, but it isn’t always true. 

Katy performed Chained to the Rhythm in 2017. 
Bruno Mars performed Finesse in 2018 and That’s What I Like in 2017

Gaga performed BTW in 2011

 

[Reject False Icons 4,782]

21 minutes ago, TheFame Monster said:

I don’t know their reasoning behind this, but it isn’t always true. 

Katy performed Chained to the Rhythm in 2017. 
Bruno Mars performed Finesse in 2018 and That’s What I Like in 2017

Gaga performed BTW in 2011

 

But chained to the rhythm and Born this way were the first singles of their eras, they didn’t have any other choice 

[TheFame Monster 8,959]

41 minutes ago, Reject False Icons said:

But chained to the rhythm and Born this way were the first singles of their eras, they didn’t have any other choice 

Bad Romance and Dance in the Dark were both nominated that year. Based off of what the OP posted, you’d think she would have performed one of them similar to how she performed Poker Face the prior year

[ToxicHot 6,444]

I think so, but it probably just depends on the situation. I remember in 2012 they wanted Nicki Minaj to specifically perform Roman Holiday (which was never an official single), when it probably might’ve been better to perform Starships instead which was set to be released two days later.

[MACATL 1,613]

I think most artists just perform their nominated music maybe?

[The Shallow 86]

I think it depends on the situation. But definitely they lean toward artists performing their biggest song making the most noise that night.

For example, in Camila's case, a performance of Havana would have probably been way more memorable to the general public than a performance of Consequences.