Most careers or jobs have some sort of professional aspect woven into them. What do you do when something goes wrong? How do you handle things?

The entertainment industry deals with this issue as well, but in a public sphere. What do you do when you mess up in front of 10 million people? What do you do when your musical performance goes wrong?

Every year, the Grammys are presented in the United States by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

The award show always has performers. Some that performed this year were Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Lizzo, Sam Smith and last-minute add-on Harry Styles.

When Styles’ Grammys performance started, it revealed Styles along with several dancers on a raised platform. The platform spun the wrong direction.

Zena Abdelhamid, sophomore in AHS, who is also a big fan of Styles, noticed something was wrong almost instantly.

“Immediately I noticed that the energy levels were so low for someone who is usually a very bouncy and active performer,” Abdelhamid said. “I assumed he was just very exhausted since he is constantly touring, performing and recording new music.”

Charlotte Wisthuff, sophomore in Business, who is an avid watcher of Styles’ performances, also noticed something was off.

“I’ve been to a Harry Styles concert and know how he typically performs,” Wisthuff said. “His vocals were definitely not as strong as they were in concert and my impression was that he seemed nervous or stressed out.”

Brandon Mathis, one of the dancers in the performance, spoke out about the issue on an Instagram story.

“The moment the curtain opened and it was time to perform, our turntable started spinning in reverse, backward, freaking all of us out on live television,” Mathis said. 

“After a week of rehearsing this piece perfectly, the moment it’s time to perform it starts going (the opposite) way,” Mathis said. “And in real time, we have to troubleshoot and try to do a complete piece in reverse. Talk about professionalism.”

This sparked a conversation about professionalism.

“(Styles) seemed very professional the whole time,” Abdelhamid said. “He was a little thrown off in the beginning, but he was able to gather himself.”

Though a few of the dancers spoke about what happened, Styles has not mentioned anything about the performance.

“As always, Harry handled the situation with grace,” Wisthuff said. “For his sake I want the public to know because he doesn’t deserve the scrutiny and criticism. However, I don’t think it was necessary for him to address the situation.”

Though some fans, like Abdelhamid, believe that the Grammys should have released a statement acknowledging the error and apologizing to the singer.

“That would’ve been an appropriate response to essentially changing his whole performance,” Abdelhamid said.

Though some, like Wisthuff, think that neither party needs to apologize.

“It might come across as ‘overly defensive,’” Wisthuff said. “Harry’s talent speaks for itself and even though the stage malfunction made the performance more challenging, I don’t think he has anything to prove and neither do the Grammys.”

Despite technical errors in the performance, Styles celebrated several wins that night, including Album of the Year for “Harry’s House.” Styles was nominated seven times and won three awards.

ampbell Coker, student in FAA, said over email that she experienced a similar rocky performance.

A couple of summers ago, Coker was in a production of “The Music Man” at The Legacy Theatre in Springfield, Illinois. On opening night, there was a serious accident backstage during the show that resulted in an ambulance driving away with one of their elderly cast members inside.

“With this happening during the middle of a performance, we were all obviously shaken and didn’t know if we could even continue,” Coker said.

Coker said about an hour later, the curtain went back up. 

“The energy of the crowd really encouraged our performance,” Coker said. “We could feed off their energy.”

Coker said this performance really mattered to her.

“I think this performance deeply mattered to each and every one of us, so we focused on what good could come from that night and tried to forget about the bad, even if just for a few hours,” Coker said.

Coker said that professionalism is important to making sure a performance can continue when something goes wrong.

“Everyone is trying their best, and if you keep a certain level of professionalism, it’s easier to problem-solve and communicate,” Coker said.

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