Singing sensation Lorde may be in line for the largest haul of Grammys by a Kiwi – but we won’t be able to watch her pick them up live.
Lorde, 17, has four nominations, including prestigious Record of the Year. If she wins, she will be only the second New Zealander to take the award, after Kimbra shared the honour with Australian Gotye last year and only the fourth Kiwi to ever win a Grammy.
But TVNZ, which holds the broadcasting rights to the show, refuses to screen it live, meaning Australia will get to watch the awards before we do.
Yesterday a Facebook group was formed, “Let’s get the Grammy’s (sic) live on TV in New Zealand” to put pressure on the TV bosses.
But TVNZ is unmoved. It will provide only delayed coverage of the January 27 ceremony.
TVNZ said the 9.15pm broadcast would attract a larger audience than if broadcast live (from noon) during the day.
“I think we are pretty committed to the 9.15[pm] broadcast time,” a spokeswoman said. “It is just a few hours behind the American live broadcast . . . the audience will be much larger at that time of day.”
Sky will carry the Grammy red carpet live on E! from 11am, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic.
But because TVNZ has the rights to the actual ceremony, it will not be able to carry it.
Meanwhile across the ditch, Australians will be able to see Lorde’s big moment live on Fox8 – that rubs salt into the wound of Grammy Award organisers mistakenly crediting Lorde as an Aussie when they released the nominees’ list.
Lorde’s breakthrough hit, Royals, earned her nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. Her debut album, Pure Heroine, is up for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Tweeting after the nominees were confirmed on December 7, Lorde’s Auckland-based co-writer, Joel Little, wrote: “A song that Ella & I made to give away for free just got nominated for 3 Grammys & the album got one too. Whaat. So proud of @lordemusic.”
If Lorde takes more than two of the nominations, she would set a New Zealand record. The other Grammy winners from New Zealand were Flight of the Conchords for Best Comedy Album for EP The Distant Future in 2008 and jazz arranger Alan Broadbent in the 1990s.
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