Grammys + Barbra Streisand + Glee Warblers = my Friday night

“TWO NIGHT STAND” IN LA…CHRIS MANN LIVE

2/23 @ 8pm

RSVP here…

GRAMMY WEEK:  SINGING FOR BARBRA STREISAND…NO BIG DEAL

If you watched the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards last night you probably saw 2 things:  1–Puff Daddy, AKA “Diddy/P Diddy/Puffy” presented and was announced as “Puff Daddy” again.  WTF?!  WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!?!  WHY THE CONSTANT CHANGES?!  I CANNOT KEEP UP OR UNDERSTAND ALL OF THESE SHENANIGANS.  He also was sporting a lower “grill” which is super suspect.  From now on, and in honor of Puff Daddy’s name evolution, I shall demand to be known as “C. Manny,” AKA “The Mann,” AKA “Mann,” AKA “Warbler6,” AKA “Chris Mann,” AKA “Christopher Michael Mann,” AKA embreo…with a new lower grill, of course.  Note it.

2–Barbra Streisand performed “Evergreen” and kilt it and got a standing O.

She also received the Musicares “Person of the Year Award”…and I performed at the event with Darren Criss and the Warblers from Glee…AAAAND it was pretty awesome.

(Click the video image below to watch a full recap including red carpet footage of the Warblers)

I was more than excited to have been asked to perform at the Barbra Streisand Musicares event.  I grew up listening to her sing on my Grandparents stereo–it was either Babs, Sinatra, Tony Bennett or Nat King Cole–so it seemed significant that I could see her and perform for her.

After a day of Warblerhearsal (warbler rehearsal) we headed to downtown LA to the LA Convention Center where the event was to be held.  The room in which the event took place was massive–hundreds of tables and thousands of seats–all going for thousands of dollars per plate to be graced with Bab’s presence.  Luckily I got in free.

As we arrived at sound check Seal was finishing his (which sounded awesome) and then Herbie Hancock tinkled the ivorys a bit (which was mindblowing) and then the REAL musicians took the stage…US!  (read:  sarcasm).  We were greeted by Barbra’s musical director and my friend, Richard Jay Alexander, whom I met when I was making my Sony record.  He’s the jam and always puts on a good show.  We ran through our number (What Kind of Fool–recorded by Babs and Barry Gibb in the 70′s…you can hear a little clip in that video above i already told yo ass to watch) and then were released until our call later in the evening.

Richard Jay took me to find his good friend, Barbra’s long-time A&R and my friend, and former Sony A&R, Jay Landers.  Jay and i caught up before he grabbed me and took me to meet his friend…Barry Manilow!  Ha.  ”Why hello Barry Manilow.”

I must say that of all the celebrities I’ve met Barry Manilow is the nicest, most genuine of them all.  I was so pleasantly surprised.  We were introduced as “Barry this is Chris Mann, an amazing singer…Chris this is Barry Manilow, an amazing singer.”  He then asked me questions about what i did.  Now that doesn’t seem like a crazy thing…but it IS.  A celeb (read: a legend, nonetheless) who asked someone ELSE a question not about THEM?!  unheard of!  Sad, i know.  He was a pimp.  He also is hugely tall and reminds me of Big Bird.

Then while heading back up to change for the event we ran into Jason Mraz in the lobby.  He said he didn’t know what the Warblers were and didn’t watch Glee.  He clearly is a bastard.  (I’M KIDDING!)

The room has now filled up with thousands of the biggest players in the music business.  It was pretty exciting.  We lined up back stage right and left where we waited for our music cue to file on stage (see the pic to the upper left.  So professional of me to take a pic right before going on stage).  Firstly though an auction took place where expensive items were auctioned off for more expensive prices.  Example–a vacation to a resort which sold for $65,000.  really?  Is there a bidet that shoots liquid gold up your arse?!  that’s ridiculous.  Or a gold ring of Barbra’s that went for $27,000.  I ‘guess’ i can understand that?  hmmm….

The pic to the right is Darren Criss and I getting “focused” as we walk to our places.  So focused.  Soooo focused.

Apparently Barbra loves Glee so we were a big surprise as the show openers.  She was at a round table right in the front so we saw her smiling the whole performance.  It was really something else.  After we blew her kisses…and she caught everyone…and put them in her mouth.  wait…what?

The performance was well received and even got a shout out from our Glee-girl, Lea Michelle on twitter…which totally makes it official that we are awesome.

Running back upstairs to change out of our signature blazers we took some pics and then raced back downstairs to catch the rest of the performances.  Please note in this picture below that I am photo bombing Luke, Ryker and Cord’s picture…and Brock is photo bombing me.  ”Its a double photo bomb!!!  What does it meeeean?!”

Grabbing a glass of vino I went back into the gala hall where Diana Krall was wrapping up and Faith Hill was taking the stage.  Faith sang “Send in the Clowns” and was incredible.

Bill Mahr did some stand up which was funny and then the Glee-fest continued with a rather stunning performance by Lea Michele and a fun duet with Matt Morrison and Kristen Chenoweth.

Leona Lewis performed while i was in the bathroom but these pictures sure look nice right?  I like the one from the back of the room to show the sea of rich executives who were wishing they were at home.  Such a shame.  Jay-ded.

Seal sang with his signature rasp and the Tony Bennett showed everyone what was up with his amazing performance of “Smile.”  Tony B is my favorite living artist–he’s 85 years old and still hits notes higher than i can sing.  He was also buddies with Sinatra which is so insane to me.

Barry Manilow performed “Memory” and told a story about how both he and Barbra had a hit with that song and neither one of them knew what the hell it was about.  Pretty funny.  Then shit got real serious when Stevie Wonder took to the stage and sang “People.”  He started riffing on the first word “people” which i found amazing and hilarious.  His voice is mind boggling.

But then…….Barbra took to the stage!  She’s the top selling female artist of all time and has won every award known to man (except the ESPY…but she probably could if she practiced something) and she’s still got it at 68.  As soon as she took the stage she started doing that signature move of taking both hands to her parted hair and whisping her bangs out of her face.  can you picture it?  then, after thanking a list of people (the first of whom was Jay Landers),  she starts to sing…that soft vibrato…those belting notes made to sound so easy!  I sat forward with my head on my hands and just stared and listened.  One of the last living legendary voices of our time singing live in front of me.  It was magical.

She then poured a cup of tea mid-song and started sipping it between phrases.  So hilarious.  She was basically saying “Hey muthafu&#as, I don’t feel 100% tonight so don’t judge my ass, Imma sip some hot tea and then…wait….whoooaaaaaa….yeah…that high note?  i just nailed it.  suck it haters.”

Insane.  My granddad loved her–i was thinking of him the whole time.  I must be doing something right if i’m here tonight…

Here’s the full set list:

*Darren Criss (and the Warblers from “Glee”): “What Kind of Fool”
*Diana Krall, “Down with Love”
*Seal, “Guilty”
*Leona Lewis, ”Somewhere”
*Herbie Hancock and Nikki Yanofsky, “On a Clear Day”
*Lea Michele, “My Man”
*Jeff Beck, LeAnn Rimes, Bebe Winans, “Come Rain or Come Shine”
*Faith Hill, “Send in the Clowns”
*Kristin Chenowith & Matthew Morrison, “One Less Bell to Answer”
*Barry Manilow, “Memory”
*Tony Bennett,” Smile”
*Stevie Wonder and Arturo Sandoval, “People”

THE GRAMMY AWARDS RED CARPET

No I didn’t go.  I was exhausted from the previous 3 nights of Grammy events so I stayed home and watched it on TV while eating Chipotle.  But I did see some friends on the red carpet including Paramore’s Hayley Williams (L) and Katie Cazorla and Walter Afanasieff (R).  Walter A is the legendary producer who produced my Sony record and Katie is his girlfriend–both of them have reality shows coming out this year which is kinda crazy.  Katie owns and runs a high-end nail bar in LA called The Painted Nail…she has a show called The Nail Files about…wait for it…NAILS!  She’s probably the funniest girl i’ve ever met so her show will be hilarious/offensive, meaning, I’m definitely watching it.  Walter’s show is called The Power of Music–picture Extreme Makeover Home Edition…but about music.  It’ll be huge.  Josh Groban is in the pilot sooo….watch that too.  I’ll let you know when they come out.  Hers is on TV Guide Network and his is on CBS.