All artists and bands who performed using in-ear monitors during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles used the new Shure PSM 1000 Personal Monitor System, including Adele, Coldplay, Maroon 5, Foster the People, and Taylor Swift.
“The PSM 1000s are a dream come true,” says Tom Pesa, monitor engineer, Stage Right, for this year’s show. “The RF stability is so solid, it allows us to focus on mixing. Using the Cue Mode feature, we can provide the monitor engineers a single pack with all of the bands’ mixes so they can scroll through them while on stage.”
“In a very short time, PSM 1000 has become a favorite among some of today’s top artists and their monitor engineers,” adds Cory Lorentz, artist relations manager for Shure. “This year’s Grammy Awards show had 26 channels being used by everyone from Rhianna to Katy Perry.”
Bruce Springsteen opened the Grammy Awards this year with “We Take Care of Our Own,” a track from his forthcoming album, Wrecking Ball, with the rest of The E Street Band all using wired Shure SM58 microphones for vocals.
Shure UHF-R wireless microphone systems, with a combination of SM58, Beta 58A, and KSM9 handheld transmitters, were chosen by a long list of artists for performances throughout the evening, including Bonnie Raitt (UR2/SM58), Coldplay (UR2/Beta 58), The Civil Wars (UR2/KSM9), and Jennifer Hudson (UR2/KSM9) for her emotional rendition of “I Will Always Love You,” in honor of Whitney Houston.
“One of my favorite performances was The Civil Wars doing ‘Barton Hollow’ as the introduction for Taylor Swift,” adds Lorentz. “The Shure KSM313 on their guitar sounded amazing, as did the Shure Super 55 on Taylor Swift during her song.”
This year’s show featured tribute performances honoring The Beach Boys, who performed with two Shure endorsers: Maroon 5 (UR2/SM58) and Foster the People (UR2/KSM9); and Glen Campbell, featuring Shure endorsers The Band Perry (UR2/SM58), Blake Shelton, and Campbell (UR2/SM58) himself.
The 54th Grammy Awards ended just like it opened, with a legend performing on a wired SM58: Sir Paul McCartney closed the 2012 GRAMMY show with a medley of “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End.”
