Ciara gets her superfreak on during racy ‘Motown 60’ Rick James tribute – Yahoo Entertainment
Ken Ehrlich, the Grammys’ television producer who oversaw the all-star event, told Yahoo Entertainment that the sexy tribute was “absolutely” Ciara’s idea, right down to the glittery 1970s styling, and Ehrlich felt it was important for the special to honor all eras of Motown. “Everybody thinks of Motown in the ’60s, the original Motown, that Motown era. When you hear the word ‘Motown,’ you think about the Four Tops, the Temptations, Stevie, and Smokey.” he said. “But then in the ’70s and ’80s, it changed. In the ’70s, there were some really great things that they did.”
Twitter was divided Sunday when weighing in on Ciara’s spectacle, with some fans saying she slayed, some detractors saying she was “disturbing” or downright difficult to watch, and others questioning the appropriateness of a tribute to a man who served two years in prison for assault, false imprisonment, and sale of a controlled substance after beating a woman unconscious at a Hollywood hotel in the ’90s.
Ehrlich told Yahoo that he knew that Ciara’s risky performance might not connect with older or more conservative viewers, but he felt it was ultimately a success. “When you do a show where you try and do something for everyone, by definition there are going to be some people who will relate to some things more than others. From my vantage point, which was backstage looking at a bunch of monitors with camera angles, I thought it came off really well, and I thought the audience really got into it. But granted, it is maybe a little bit less of an era than the iconic Motown years.”
Motown 60 telecast — other than the inclusion of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” and the Jacksons’ “Dancing Machine” during two different medleys featuring Ne-Yo, and a Michael photograph during an In Memoriam segment while Wonder crooned “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer.” At the time of the Motown 60 taping in February — two days after the 2019 Grammy Awards — the Leaving Neverland documentary, detailing Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of two young boys, had just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and had created quite a stir. However, when asked by Yahoo Entertainment, at that time, if the absence of Jackson in Motown 60 had anything to do with the Leaving Neverland controversy, Ehrlich merely said, “I prefer not to comment on that. It’s better not to.”’ data-reactid=”83″>On a related side note, unlike the also-problematic Rick James, Jackson was barely acknowledged during Sunday’s Motown 60 telecast — other than the inclusion of the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” and the Jacksons’ “Dancing Machine” during two different medleys featuring Ne-Yo, and a Michael photograph during an In Memoriam segment while Wonder crooned “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer.” At the time of the Motown 60 taping in February — two days after the 2019 Grammy Awards — the Leaving Neverland documentary, detailing Jackson’s alleged sexual abuse of two young boys, had just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and had created quite a stir. However, when asked by Yahoo Entertainment, at that time, if the absence of Jackson in Motown 60 had anything to do with the Leaving Neverland controversy, Ehrlich merely said, “I prefer not to comment on that. It’s better not to.”
I like Ciara but a Rick James tribute. Who’s idea was this? I’m calling corporate. #GRAMMYsMotown60 #Motown60 #Motown
— Easter is here. Jesus Been Near. (@Rockzawesome) April 22, 2019
@motown are y’all really not putting Michael Jackson in the Motown celebration 😑 #mjinnocent
— 🏳️🌈 ☯️ ♋ 🍀 (@my_childhood58) April 22, 2019
When introducing the show during the Feb. 12 taping at Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater, Ehrlich summed up Gordy and his record label’s legacy perfectly: “There’s no more important figure in music than Berry Gordy. … [Motown] wasn’t the sound of black America. It wasn’t the sound of white America. It was the sound of young America.”
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