Alex Warren was one of several best new artist nominees to take part in a live medley at the Grammys this year — but the experience was sadly diminished after technical issues threw off his performance of Billboard Hot 100 topper “Ordinary.”
In an upcoming interview on Call Her Daddy, the TikToker opened up for the first time in depth about what led up to the mishap. “I’ve never talked about this,” he begins in an exclusive clip shared with Billboard on Tuesday (March 10).
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“It was horrifying,” Warren continues in conversation with host Alex Cooper. “We had rehearsed it all week … it was perfect. To this day I don’t know exactly what happened.”
As far as the musician remembers, “Everything cut out” from his in-ear monitors mere moments before he was supposed to perform in between fellow nominees Leon Thomas and Lola Young. “They’re like, ’30 seconds.’ I said, ‘I can’t hear anything, I can’t hear myself,’” Warren tells Cooper in the clip. “The guy’s like, ‘It’s live TV. Twenty-five seconds.’ I go, ‘Guys, something’s wrong.’”
Ultimately, there was nothing the crew could do to fix the problem before Warren stepped out in front of the crowd at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles — and so he had no choice but to accept his fate. “In my head, I look up at the sky, and I go, ‘This is meant to happen,’” he says. “And I just go, ‘Let’s do it.’”
During the Feb. 1 ceremony, KATSEYE, Olivia Dean, Addison Rae, sombr and The Marías were also all involved in the best new artist medley, which preceded Dean taking home the prize. When it was Warren’s turn to sing during the segment, cameras followed him as he began at a popcorn stand in the venue’s concession area before walking out to greet the audience. As he took the stage, he visibly and audibly struggled to find his place in the song over the accompaniment, eventually recovering by removing his earpiece.
Later, Warren addressed the issue by posting a video of himself listening to the distorted, delayed audio track he’d been mistakenly fed through his in-ears on Instagram. “When you’re performing at the Grammys and all you hear is this in your ears,” he wrote at the time. “This would only happen to me.”
Watch the exclusive clip previewing Warren’s upcoming episode of Call Her Daddy above.
