Rachel Platten gets Grammys hype rolling with vulnerable NYC performance
New York, New York - With the ceremony just a few short weeks away, the Grammy Museum got the music hype rolling in NYC with a powerhouse live performance from Rachel Platten. TAG24 was live on the scene as the singer gave a thrilling peek at her vulnerable new album.
Platten treated fans to an intimate performance in New York City on Thursday night, where she opened up about the emotional process of creating her latest record and navigating the whirlwind success of her 2014 track, Fight Song.
At the start of the event, hosted by the Grammys Museum, Platten reflected on the challenges of her journey – both personally and professionally – to award-winning reporter Savannah Guthrie.
"I went through a lot the past five years. I became a mother – I have two little girls," she told Guthrie in a pre-performance interview.
"And while it was the most incredible experience of my life to become a mother, it was also the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through."
"I struggled deeply with my mental health," she revealed, a subject the star has been candid about on her social media.
Describing the "transformational" period in her life, Platten recounted feeling lost in the wake of Fight Song's success.
"I woke up... years later and I was like, ‘who am I? I don’t even know… I’m not writing songs for me anymore,'" she said.
That's when "the most incredible thing happened" to Platten: "Songwriting stopped being about anyone else and it became for me again and it was what do I need and how can I be helped from my own music? How can I heal myself with this?"
"The music saved me. It really did," she added.
After her conversation with Guthrie, Platten took the stage to debut a number of brand-new songs from her forthcoming album.
Rachel Platten debuts unreleased tracks off her emotional new album
"I’m gonna take you through an abbreviated journey of this album," Platten told the audience as she sat down at a grand piano framed by the soft glow of candlelight.
"The story of this album is sort of the hero’s journey. It’s the dark night of the soul," she said. "It’s the fall, the surrender, and the crying ‘mercy’ – and then it’s the rise again."
Platten then played some sneak peeks from the upcoming record including I Know, a moving ballad inspired by the wise words of her father, and Mercy, which will be released as her next single on January 24.
The talented songwriter also treated fans to a performance of the album's lead single Girls, a heartwarming track dedicated to Platten's young daughters.
But it wasn't only her new music that got the crowd going, as Platten brought the evening to a close with an encore performance of her mega hit Fight Song.
Stay tuned for TAG24's live coverage of the 2024 Grammy Awards on February 4!
Cover photo: Collage: TAG24 / Kelly Christ