Alicia Keys wants to make the Grammy Awards a "lovefest".
The ‘Empire State of Mind’ hitmaker is set to return as host for the second year in a row at the 2020 ceremony and is drawing on her own experiences as a guest at the event to work on creating a welcoming atmosphere.
She said: "I know what I normally feel in that room, which is left out and a little bit uncomfortable. I wanted to create this lovefest where we could celebrate each other’s greatness and just have fun.
"We’re all trying to make our way through a very chaotic time, and we all just need a little celebration — to feel like we’re with friends, like somebody actually cares.
The 38-year-old star will be relieved to have more time to prepare for the 2020 ceremony as she was drafted in at the last minute for this year’s show.
She told Billboard magazine: "It was last minute. [The Academy] knew they were looking for a new host. I don’t think they expected it to be an artist. I want to say it was November, so it was pretty fast to pull together.
"We were like, ‘This is either going to be really bad or really good.’ Fortunately, it was a beautiful thing. I was like, ‘I’m never doing that again.’ And then they’re like, ‘But we really want you to do it again.’"
Alicia is hoping to present the ceremony as a modern day variety show.
Asked what she’s looking to for inspiration, she said: "People who have created these beautiful variety-style shows, like Carol Burnett, or Sammy Davis Jr., or Dean Martin. Nobody does that anymore.
"They had this cool mixture of musician and artist and comedian, so it mixed all of these worlds together in this casual [way], while they’re holding, like, a whiskey. I want to see how to modernise that."
Alicia Keys’ Grammy plan
