Comedian Trevor Noah kicked off the 64th annual Grammy Awards by citing Hollywood star Will Smith’s controversial slap on Chris Rock during the Oscars.
As Variety reports, the Grammys took place just a week after the Academy Awards, where Smith took to the stage and slapped The Rock after the comedian joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head while presenting the documentary feature category. Was.
Noah said of the ceremony, “Don’t even think of it as an awards show.”
“It’s a concert where we’re giving out awards, we’ll listen to music, dance, sing, put people’s names out of our mouths and we’re going to give awards to people all night. So let’s get straight into it.”
Questlove also addressed Smith’s slap while presenting the Grammy for ‘Song of the Year’, saying: “Okay, I’m going to present the award and I trust you guys to be 500 feet away from me. As in. That they say it’s too far. It’s better to give than to receive. Well, I’m not so sure about it because it felt so good to receive last Sunday.”
Questlove wins Oscar for documentary feature right after Will Smith Chris slapped Rock.
Both Smith and Rock discussed the incident themselves in the days following the Oscars. Smith apologized to The Rock on March 28.
The actor published a statement on social media, writing: “My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and unforgivable. I want to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I’m embarrassed. and my actions were not indicative of the man I wanted to be.”
The Rock waited until his March 30 stand-up comedy show in Boston to publicly address the slap, though the comedian mostly stayed away from talking about the incident.
Rock told the audience: “I don’t have a bunch of crap about what happened, so if you hear that, I have a whole show that I wrote before this weekend. I’m still processing.” I am what happened. So, at some point I will talk about that nonsense. And it will be serious and funny.”
Since then there have been mixed reports about how the Academy and Oscar producers should have handled the incident during the ceremony.
The Academy claimed it asked Smith to leave, but the actor refused. However, sources told Variety that Smith was never formally asked to opt out of the event.
Oscar producer Will Packer told ‘Good Morning America’ he asked the Academy not to ‘physically’ remove Smith from campus because The Rock didn’t want that. Although the LAPD was reportedly ready to arrest Smith, Rock declined to press charges or file a report.
Smith announced on 1 April that he was resigning from the Academy.
He still faces “suspension, expulsion or other sanctions” from the Academy, which condemned his violent actions after the Oscars.
The next meeting of the Academy Board is to be held on April 18.