The 63RD Annual Grammy Awards – The Super Bowl For Music Lovers! How It’s Going Down & The Sober Performers Who Will Make It Spectacular

March 11, 2021

The 63rd Grammy Awards are here! The biggest night in music is THIS weekend! We love award show season in general. But for the music lovers, this is it, our Super Bowl. There are 22 scheduled performances and some will be incredible surprise collaborations. It will be fast-paced and upbeat but still COVID safe with no in person attendees. Added bonus, the Grammy fashion is always completely outlandish. Remember Lady Gaga’s egg? A significant number of sober artists who recover out loud are part of this year’s line-up. These are the ones we’re cheering for! Let’s Play it Again with a look at 5 incredible sober Grammy nominees.

Coldplay – A Band With Sober Staying Power

Let’s kick it off with Coldplay, a band that’s been together for over 20 years and claims they’ve lived out every rock and roll cliché including addiction. The documentary, Head Full of Dreams, chronicles the bands journey from 1996 through 2018. it touches on bassist Guy Berryman’s struggle with alcohol and lead singer Chris Martin’s battle with depression. Martin abstains from alcohol and leads a clean lifestyle. In an interview with Noise, Martin says, “I’m not really a great drinker, I don’t really do very well with it,” he sighed. “I become very depressed or too. much. I acknowledge I can already be a strong flavor, and drinking makes it a bit too strong.” We get it, Chris. Zero proof is just better.

Coldplay has successfully weathered the storm. At 23 years in, the band, made up of original members, has been nominated for Album of the Year for Everyday Life. Additionally, they received a second nomination for Best Recording Package for Everyday Life. It’s refreshing to see a a group of guys with such an obvious passion for music and touring producing award winning, non offensive, upbeat music year after year. We hope this year brings more accolades for Coldplay.

Sober Curator Side Note: On November 22, 2019, Coldplay premiered their new album, Everyday Life, live at the Amman Citadel, Jordan. The first half was performed at sunrise, the second at sunset. It was the first and only time the album was performed in full, broadcast live around the world. AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. The video is below.

Fiona Apple – Resurfaced and Sober

It’s been a while since the world has heard from Fiona Apple. However, she still has that golden touch when it comes to hit music. This year Apple is sober and nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for Shameika and for Best Alternative Music Album Fetch The Bolt Cutters.

Fiona says, ”Fetch the Bolt Cutters, is about women and “not being afraid to speak”.  This is nothing new for Fiona. Throughout her entire career she has spoken in her songs and in the press about her issues with depression, self-harm, OCD, PTSD.

#MeToo Helped Fiona Stop Drinking

She references #MeToo when discussing her decision to stop drinking.  And says,” one of the most jarring effects of the early days of #MeToo – being confronted with a memory you hadn’t let yourself see for what it was.”I think it’s one of the big reasons why I stopped drinking. With everything that was going on in the news, everything that I’d been burying under drink – and for a time drugs, but mainly drink – for many years, you couldn’t just bury it anymore. It was poking through, but I was so numbed that I couldn’t really understand what was poking through.

“I finally felt like, I gotta be clear-eyed now, I have to face this shit. I think of myself all these years as someone who speaks honestly and faces all this stuff but no, no, no, no. Not really. It’ll be a battle for ever for all of us to keep on facing all that stuff”. To this, we say- Go Girl! Keep fighting that good fight!

Sturgill Simpson – Country Outlaw and Recovery Warrior

Sober country star turned rocker, Sturgill Simpson is nominated for Best Rock Album Sound & Fury. This guy is into a bit of everything. He’s an author, screenplay writer, father, actor and races cars or hits the gun range for meditation. 

In an interview with Jeremy Dylan he discusses the benefits of his sobriety, “There is an extreme benefit to having the focus and clarity and reflection at 37,” he agrees. “Along with sobriety and focus and knowing I have to support a family and take care of a child. It’s brought what I can only describe as an intense focus.” He is content in his sober lifestyle and wonders Can you be happy and make effective country music? We say YES and think it would be a great addition to the scene. 

Known as the “Country Outlaw” in protest of Nashville, Sound & Fury is anything but conventional. The album is the soundtrack to an accompanying Netflix film. Pitchfork describes it as essentially a 41-minute music video involving anime. This project seems a little all over the place but that deep, husky, sober voice will get you every time.

Justin Bieber – The Ultimate Now Sober Wish Granter

Are you a Belieber?  Like him or not, Justin Bieber is still the master of his craft with four nominations. Best Pop Solo Performance for Yummy, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for Intentions Featuring Quavo, Best Pop Vocal Album for Changes, Best Country Duo/Group Performance 10,000 Hours with Dan + Shay. His music is definitely not for everyone but his talent, charity and journey to sobriety are all noteworthy.

Like so many performers and celebrities, Justin grew up in the public eye with an extra bright spotlight on all his mistakes. Unfortunately, there were several. With his multiple arrests and blatant self-destruction, there was a point where we weren’t sure he was going to make it. In the self-produced, YouTube docu-series, Seasons, he reveals that he used alcohol, lean, pills, MDMA, mushrooms and weed, suffers from anxiety, depression and at one point was suicidal. 

We’re happy to report it seems that Justin has made a complete 180. The docu-series also revealed that Justin finally stopped using drugs because he felt like he was dying. He works with a life coach on healthy ways to cope with stress and anxiety. He speaks about feeling present, being in gratitude, having hope for his life and being in awe of how God has worked in his life. Justin now wants to use his gift to help others. Based on what we’ve seen, WE BELIEBE!

Sober Curator Side Note:

Justin is absolutely amazing with his fans. He has worked with The Make A Wish Foundation since 1999. It took him only 4 years to break the record for number of wishes granted by a singer. He is still granting wishes during COVID on video calls with his young fans. In 2010 he even features four Wish kids in a music video for his song Pray. We love this about him.

Billie Eilish – A True Belieber And Musical Genius

One of the biggest self proclaimed Beliebers around is Billie Eilish, the young but wise beyond her years alternative rock star who bust onto the scene and won five Grammys in 2020 for Bad Guy. Eilish is nominated for four in 2021 including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for Everything I Wanted and Best Song Written for Visual Media No Time to Die from the James Bond movie, No Time to Die. 

Eilish is outspoken about her depression, mental illness and distain for drugs and alcohol. Everything I Wanted is about jumping off the Golden Gate in a dream and having no one care.  In her song Xanny, Eilish recalls the experience of having secondhand smoke blown in her face at a party. All her friends were physically ill from drugs and alcohol but considered it normal and continued to use.  She relays how she can’t commit to loving anyone who is slowly killing themselves with substance. It’s amazing to see her using her platform speaking about against addiction in this way. God willing, Billie continues on the straight and narrow.

Airs March 14, 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT on CBS

Hosted by Trevor Noah with performances by  Bad Bunny, Black Pumas, Cardi B, BTS, Brandi Carlile, DaBaby, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, Mickey Guyton, Haim, Brittany Howard, Miranda Lambert, Lil Baby, Dua Lipa, Chris Martin, John Mayer, Megan Thee Stallion, Maren Morris, Post Malone, Roddy Ricch, Harry Styles, Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift this year’s show promises to be phenomenal. But to see it all, Sunday, March 14, 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT on CBS- Be there!

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