Lil Nas X gave a Grammy performance that affirmed his artistic validity and silenced his critics on Sunday.
The rapper and pop star delivered a medley of songs from his Montero album before the Grammy audience, joined by rapper Jack Harlow.
On a night where he was nominated for five awards, Lil Nas X began his performance in a black, sequined robe. The rapper rhymed the second verse of “Dead Right Now” with a line of drummers surrounding him from behind.
Rapping the lyrics, “2018, I was at my sister house the summer/Songs wasn’t doin’ numbers/whole life was goin’ under,” Lil Nas X showed the crowd how far he had come.
From there, a projection of his controversial imagery from his “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video was shown on the screens behind him as he disappeared.
Slowly, the image of his face was bombarded and covered with a mass of social media comments about the video that found him giving the devil a lap dance.
Lil Nas X then reemerged, now wearing a bedazzled sheer, crop-top while he performed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” joined by dancers.
It wasn’t long before he vanished again, making way for more dancers to emerge, doing a military-style dance routine before Lil Nas X came back, also wearing a military style uniform, singing “Industry Baby.”
It was this point when Jack Harlow performed his verse from the hit single. Then, Lil Nas X concluded the set by joining the dancers in the choreography, causing many in the audience to jump to their feet.
Lil Nas X is nominated for Album of the Year for Montero. He is also up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The rapper was nominated for Best Music Video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and Best Melodic Rap Performance for he and Harlow’s “Industry Baby,” but lost out to Jon Batiste’s “Freedom” and Kanye West’s “Hurricane,” respectively.
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