For the musician, who comes to Chicago this week with his ‘campaign for joy and optimism,’ bringing his wife to the ceremony after her leukemia fight felt like victory enough.
This year’s Grammy Awards looked very different for Jon Batiste than they did two years ago, when he nearly swept the 2022 ceremony for his powerhouse jazz/R&B/soul pop fusion record, “We Are.”
Though it was a real underdog for album of the year, it got the award anyway, besting even Taylor Swift, and further putting the New Orleans-reared music man on the map — just as he was stepping out of the shadows of being the « Late Show with Stephen Colbert” bandleader and finding mainstream recognition, particularly after the success of his music for the 2020 animated film “Soul.”
So, the fact that Batiste walked away empty-handed during the 2024 ceremony after his latest masterpiece, the conceptual and collaborative “World Music Radio,” was nominated and lost six times was a shocker if there ever was one. Yet, the 37-year-old musician still believes, “We won.”
He posted as much on X not long after the Feb. 4 telecast, alongside photos and videos with wife Suleika Jaouad, whose presence was the real victory. The acclaimed writer missed being with her husband on the red carpet the first time while she was battling a recurrence of leukemia.
JON BATISTE
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 24
Where: Riviera, 4746 N. Racine
Tickets: Sold out
Info: jamusa.com
“We didn’t know throughout all this time whether she was even going to make it … so if you can just imagine the person you love most in the world by your side after going through the hardest times you’ve ever had, that’s what the Grammys were like for me,” Batiste shared with the Sun-Times in a recent interview.
