MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The March episode of Middle Tennessee State University’s “Out of the Blue” television magazine show includes a recap of the College of Media and Entertainment’s exciting trip to the 66th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California. 

Zoe Naylor, a School of Journalism and Strategic Media major and reporter for student media publication Sidelines, shared a report looking back at the trip as seven Media and Entertainment students experienced once-in-a-lifetime opportunities as they worked at the Recording Academy’s black-tie charitable fundraising event, toured recording studios, visited iconic music venues, and met with recording industry professionals.

Students were accompanied by Recording Industry professors Odie Blackmon and Denise Shackleford. 

You can watch Naylor’s segment below that includes sights and sounds from the trip:

Students were also there as MTSU caught up with three of its Grammy nominees the day before the music industry’s biggest night at a College of Media and Entertainment rooftop event. 

Alums Tay Keith and Brandon Bell were recognized at the event, and alumni, industry professionals, students, and faculty reconnected. MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee also presented alumnus Julien Baker of the super indie group boygenius with a certificate naming her an honorary professor of MTSU’s Recording Industry.

This year, five former MTSU students, including Baker, took home eight Grammys for their work. Joining her in receiving Grammys this year were gospel artist Lecrae and audio engineers Connor Back, Jason Hall, and Jimmy Mansfield.

MTSU alumni, former or current students, and faculty have been among more than 160 Grammy nominees in the last two decades. 

Hosted by Andrew Oppmann, vice president for marketing and communications, “Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. Sundays; and streamed on the MTSU Jazz Network through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings. 

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play and as individual interview segments on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3. 

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue. 

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)