From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!

Cheers and shouts, a mighty wave extending from the stage to the backstage, where the staff also paused their busy steps to witness the August Thirty-First Band receiving their award.

Then, they welcomed them back in triumph with the grandest and most enthusiastic manner.

The bustling crowd stood on both sides, spontaneously raising their hands to welcome the members of the August Thirty-First Band.

High-fives!

Cheers!

Jumping!

The rolling heatwave spread completely, and even the audience in front of the Staples Center could feel this sensation, and they could not help but turn their heads to look over there, craning their necks, and curiously excited about the scene there—

Backstage, what happened?

The award ceremony slowly lost its vitality.

Rules are indeed necessary; without rules, there can be no standards; however, when rules become a kind of shackle, people may eventually forget how to breathe.

This year's Grammys, especially so—

Everything was because of an accident, an accident that happened a week ago.

On the Super Bowl stage, the annual ultimate showdown of North America's largest and most important professional football event, an accident that shocked the world occurred under the gaze of over 100 million viewers.

Top superstar Janet Jackson—that is, Michael Jackson's sister—served as a performing guest on the Super Bowl halftime show stage, which is the most important annual event stage in the entire North American region and is known as the "American Spring Festival Gala."

Janet invited Justin Timberlake, who had just gone solo from NSYNC, to sing a song with her.

At the end of the performance, Justin suddenly reached out to Janet's left chest, unexpectedly tearing off half of the leather bustier on that side, resulting in a restricted moment appearing on the live broadcast screen in the United States.

Because of the powerful influence of the Super Bowl, this incident caused a sensation.

Afterwards, it even triggered an official FBI investigation, which also became the famous "Super Bowl Incident."

Although Janet and Justin both responded immediately, the truth was not clarified, but fell into a maze.

Some people said that this was Janet's self-promotion, some people said that this was a performance rehearsed and colluded by Janet and Justin in advance, some people said that this was a pure accident, and some people said that this was Justin's little prank that evolved into a vicious incident.

Etc., etc.

However, the result was obvious: Janet encountered non-official low-key treatment for many years, and her career plummeted; Justin, on the other hand, went smoothly and his career was booming.

Taking this as an opportunity, all live broadcast programs in the United States were required to be delayed, at least thirty seconds or even a minute, to allow TV stations time to deal with unexpected events.

The influence has always been there.

Later, after a full fourteen years, Justin took the stage again to perform at the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show, but Janet had long since disappeared.

It was precisely because of this that after the professional football league announced the performing guests, Justin was besieged by the media again, and even the league could not be an exception.

Some media even questioned whether the American Football League had blacklisted Janet Jackson, and the league officials had to respond, "There is no blacklist order."

And Justin also said in an interview that he had been trying to save Janet Jackson's career, but unfortunately there were no results, and his words revealed regret and regret.

It also confirmed the speculation that this was Justin's sudden move alone, purely a personal prank, but it triggered unimaginable chain effects.

Later, in 2021, Justin publicly admitted for the first time that the Super Bowl incident was his mistake and publicly apologized.

In more than twenty years, the "Super Bowl Incident" has had a profound impact—

And at the moment, the matter happened a week before the Grammys, and it is conceivable that the whole of North America was sensationalized.

People often have a misconception about the "scale" of Hollywood movies, believing that the North American continent holds an open attitude towards these topics, but the reality is not the case.

Here, you can still deeply feel the conservatism and rigor inherited from the Puritans; in terms of openness and scale, Europe is truly bold and frank.

Therefore, the impact of the "Super Bowl Incident" on the Grammys was very direct.

CBS announced that the live broadcast time would be delayed by five minutes, that is, the picture seen by the audience in front of the TV and the live picture would be five minutes apart, which shows the seriousness.

At the same time, the Grammy Awards originally arranged a collaboration stage between Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross as the opening performance of the second half, but now they directly blacklisted Janet.

Janet was absent from the awards ceremony, and the Grammys had to temporarily adjust the order of performances.

However, the absurdity is that Justin Timberlake, the culprit of everything, still attended tonight's awards ceremony unscathed.

It was against this background that tonight's awards ceremony was always filled with an unspeakable tension and anxiety, and CBS Television was fully prepared.

That kind of restraint, that kind of oppression, was more severe than at any time in previous years.

Until the appearance of the August Thirty-First Band.

Their appearance on the red carpet was different, followed by a mysterious atmosphere that disappeared, and the exuberant vitality of running wildly, laughing loudly, and crying loudly penetrated the shackles and stubbornly drilled out, promoting the vitality of youth, and sweeping the audience with the posture of a hurricane, firmly grasping the line of sight and care.

Break free from the shackles of frameworks and rules, find yourself, find purity, and enjoy happiness.

Involuntarily, uncontrollably, I began to look forward to it, and curiosity emerged from the cracks in the stone, proudly blooming.

This feeling has been missing for a long time.

Really, really missing for a long time.

In the bustling hustle and bustle, the first half of the Grammy Awards came to an end, and the entire Staples Center was lively.

However, interestingly, the focus of everyone's discussion was not Beyoncé, who appeared twice in the first half and contributed wonderful performances, nor Justin, who appeared at the awards ceremony like nothing had happened, but the August Thirty-First Band, who disappeared throughout the whole process but no one still knew what was going on.

Also—

After Janet was absent from the opening performance in the second half, who did the Grammys arrange to be the substitute?

"…August Thirty-First Band?" Someone in the crowd made a guess.

But it was quickly rejected, "How is that possible", "They are not qualified enough", "Are they going to make temporary adjustments tonight", "Guessing is interesting, but please be reliable", "If they are the substitute, are you sure they won't continue to cause trouble".

If not, "Then what are they doing after all?"

Blah, blah, the front and backstage of the Staples Center were still so lively during the break, bursting out with incredible surging energy.