{"id":159570,"date":"2026-02-01T23:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T23:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159570\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T23:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T23:38:12","slug":"inside-clive-davis-annual-pre-grammy-gala-at-the-beverly-hilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159570\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy gala at the Beverly Hilton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One way to honor your 93-year-old host: by calling him a \u201cf\u2014 gangster\u201d who\u2019ll \u201cslit your throat for a hit record.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Monte Lipman big-upped Clive Davis on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, where Davis had convened an invite-only crowd of celebrities and music-industry insiders for his annual night-before-the-Grammys gala. Lipman, who runs Republic Records, was there to receive the Recording Academy\u2019s Industry Icon award along with his brother and business partner, Avery; clearly, the commendation had gotten him feeling all warm and fuzzy about the record-biz machers who paved his way.<\/p>\n

An incomplete list of stars in the Hilton\u2019s ballroom for Saturday\u2019s soiree: Joni Mitchell<\/a>, Nancy Pelosi, Stevie Wonder, Colman Domingo, Frankie Valli<\/a>, Martha Stewart, Lana Del Rey, Karol G<\/a>, Brandi Carlile, Bill Maher, Teyana Taylor, Gladys Knight, Bryan Cox, Jeff Goldblum, Max Martin and \u2014 speaking of record-biz machers \u2014 Motown founder Berry Gordy, who at 96 had to have been the only person at the party with more experience on him than Davis.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer <\/p>\n

Jennifer Hudson performs.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

At least a few of these luminaries had come, no doubt, to see the Lipmans pick up their prize; among the many, many successes they\u2019ve racked up in recent years include blockbusters by Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Post Malone and the lovable cartoon assassins of \u201cKPop Demon Hunters<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But mostly folks had come to schmooze and to take in the entertainment Davis had arranged.<\/p>\n

As always, the show featured a blend of beloved old-timers and ascendant youngsters, including three of the nominees for the Grammys\u2019 best new artist award: Sombr<\/a>, pouting extravagantly through a pretend-sleazy \u201c12 to 12\u201d; Olivia Dean, downright luminous as a horn section added some swing to \u201cMan I Need\u201d; and Alex Warren<\/a>, who\u2019s beginning to look like he may never want to sing \u201cOrdinary\u201d again.<\/p>\n

\"Sombr <\/p>\n

Sombr spins Olivia Dean during his performance.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Clipse and John Legend performed \u201cThe Birds Don\u2019t Sing,\u201d from the rap duo\u2019s \u201cLet God Sort Em Out,\u201d which is up for album of the year at Sunday\u2019s Grammys ceremony. The women of \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u2019\u201d Huntr\/x turned up to sing \u201cGolden,\u201d which is nominated for song of the year.<\/p>\n

MGK and Jelly Roll tag-teamed an homage to the late Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>, while Jennifer Hudson saluted the late Roberta Flack<\/a>; her typically virtuosic rendition of \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d brought the room to as close to quiet as it got all night.<\/p>\n

\"Pusha <\/p>\n

Pusha T of Clipse, left, and John Legend perform.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

There were also tributes to two living legends: Bernie Taupin and Art Garfunkel. For the former, Darren Criss sang \u201cBennie and the Jets\u201d \u2014 just one of the classics Taupin co-wrote with Elton John \u2014 then brought out Laufey for a surprisingly frisky take on John and Kiki Dee\u2019s disco-era \u201cDon\u2019t Go Breaking My Heart.\u201d (Free idea: Somebody cast Criss and Laufey in a reboot of \u201cGrease.\u201d)<\/p>\n

To honor Garfunkel, the country duo Dan + Shay performed \u201cMrs. Robinson\u201d before throwing to the 84-year-old himself, who sauntered onstage in a tuxedo and Phillies ball cap, sat down on a stool and \u2014 after having read a bit of poetry scrawled on the back on an envelope \u2014 closed the show with a touching if slightly wobbly journey across \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behold more pictures from Saturday\u2019s event:<\/p>\n

\"Art <\/p>\n

Art Garfunkel performs.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Clive <\/p>\n

Clive Davis, left, addresses the crowd.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Karol <\/p>\n

Karol G on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Adam <\/p>\n

Adam Lambert on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Darren <\/p>\n

Darren Criss, left, and Laufey perform.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Jelly <\/p>\n

Jelly Roll, left, and Bunnie Xo on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Monte <\/p>\n

Monte Lipman, left, and Avery Lipman on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\"Olivia <\/p>\n

Olivia Dean performs.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One way to honor your 93-year-old host: by calling him a \u201cf\u2014 gangster\u201d who\u2019ll \u201cslit your throat for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77699,77701,66711,77698,77700,17365,28646,38911,77336,48,52,51,71333,47,50,49,77702,9150,77703,595,1860],"class_list":["post-159570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-annual-pre-grammy-gala","tag-art-garfunkel","tag-beverly-hilton","tag-clive-davis","tag-darren-criss","tag-elton-john","tag-grammys","tag-john-legend","tag-kpop-demon-hunters","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-laufey","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-monte-lipman","tag-recent-year","tag-record-biz-macher","tag-saturday","tag-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}