I was in the front row at the Grammys and didn’t pay a cent

Now that awards season is over, I thought it would be a good time to talk about one awards show in particular. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a famous celebrity in the front few rows of the Grammys?

I grew up watching the Grammys every year from my hometown in Des Moines, Iowa and this year I was in the front row of the show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The occasion called for a new Facebook profile photo

I was lucky enough to win a contest on Facebook in December that asked for the craziest Christmas gift you’ve ever given someone, and I entered a photo of a chicken cookbook called “50 Shades of Chicken”, which is a parody of that promiscuous book series that the world knows too well.

The ticket was to be a seatfiller, which means when someone like Jay-Z gets up to go to the bathroom or change Blue Ivy’s diaper, I have to sit in his seat by Beyoncé so the cameras broadcasting worldwide to over 25 million people don’t see empty seats. So basically you get to sit by the stars and pretend you’re one of them.  ‘The rules are: don’t ask for a selfie or an autograph, no cell phones allowed, don’t talk to anyone, and don’t even breathe on them because their holiness shall not be tainted by your peasantry.

They are considered royalty, and you’re irrelevant in the context of the show.  It’s a little dehumanizing, but what else did you expect when you’re sitting amongst some of the most powerful cultural icons in the world.

I was so close to the stage!

When I checked in before the show started, they had us stand in a line in the Staples Center for 5 hours with no phone.  So basically, it was torture.  Finally, they led us in to the auditorium with only a few minutes left until the show began.  As I stood by the stage, I noticed that I was standing right over John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, each continually refreshing their Twitter mentions as hundreds of tweets streamed in.

So that’s what it’s like to be popular.

They gave me my phone back after the show was over.

Out of nowhere, a woman dressed in black and a tall bald body guard came and sat about 5 seats away from where I was standing and I about died when I realized it was Adele.  THE Adele. Just sitting there and looking around wide-eyed and majestically.  As they quickly ushered us to move towards the center aisle in front of the stage, I walked mere inches in front of her and offered a nervous smile of acknowledgement and she smiled right back at me.

As far as I was concerned, that was almost as good as getting a “Hello” from her.  The loud speaker started a 30 second countdown, and the production crew became a frantic swarm that pushed me around and as the 3-2-1 countdown concluded I was told to just stay standing in the aisle.  As I watched the spotlight hit Taylor Swift on stage as she started to perform “Out of the Woods”, I was just in awe of how I was in the front of thousands of people at the Staples Center, intermixed with all of these famous musicians.

Towards the end of her song, she started a strut that took her off the stage and walked right in front of me (I would later find out from tons of posts on my Facebook wall that this shot was on TV and all my friends saw me).

I clearly was not expecting Taylor Swift to strut by me

Eventually I was placed in Ciara’s seat, who had left early for the night, so I didn’t have to move much throughout the rest of the show.  I sat a mere 5 or so rows behind Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson, right next to Florence (+ the Machine), and one row behind Tori Kelly and Miguel. By the time the show ended I had gone almost 9 hours without eating! Well, almost 9 hours.

The cameras didn’t catch me sneaking bites of my Nature Valley granola bar while Beyoncé was presenting the Grammy for Record of the Year to Uptown Funk.

No wonder celebrities get so hungry at these shows.  Thankfully college has taught me a thing or two about eating on a budget; I can’t afford the A-List lifestyle. Yet.

The stars sitting in the front were given these books with photo spreads of all the nominees inside. I grabbed one at the end for a souvenir!