57th Grammy Awards

I hope you did not miss music’s biggest event of the year! The 57th Grammy Awards was a night of fabulous performances, and yes awards were handed out too.

LL Cool J hosted again and opened the show with a high-powered performance of In Rock We Trust by AC/DC followed by Highway to Hell.

LL Cool J returned singing a few bars of We’re Going Back to Cali before saying he is foregoing his usual comedy monologue to get right to the music and introduced Taylor Swift to present the Grammy for Best New Artist. The Grammy went to Sam Smith, but he really had the Best New Artist Award on lock-down. It would have been more of a shock if he didn’t win it. Sam said, “I’ve got to try and say something without crying.” And ended with, “Mom, dad, I won a Grammy, thank you.”

Next up was Anna Kendrick to introduced Ariana Grande’s performance of Just a Little Bit of Your Heart. She got a little emotional during her performance.

LL Cool J came back to introduce Jessy J and Tom Jones who announced the winners of the Trustees Award and sang You Lost That Lovin’ Feelin‘. Their performance was followed by their introduction of the nominees for the Best Pop Solo Performance and the Grammy went to Pharrell Williams for Happy.

So nice to see Pharrell win for Happy. As the music began to play him off during his acceptance speech he said, “This is super awkward. I’m going to moonwalk my way off the stage right now.”

Dierks Bentley was up next to introduce a performance of Little Red Wagon by Miranda Lambert. Part of her song was blanked out. Not sure what those lyrics were, but they were not to the liking of CBS.

The Grammy’s kept rolling on with Barry Gibbs and the group Pentatonix to introduce the nominees for the Best Pop Vocal Album. The Grammy went to Sam Smith for In the Lonely Hour. What a night for Sam. He said, “It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen.”

LL Cool J came back and asked how everyone was feeling before introducing a performance by Kanye West. Himself nominated 57 times for a Grammy. Kanye perform Only One. He hasn’t performed at the Grammy in six years.

The stars kept coming as Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj introduced Madonna. Her full stage performance with a crew of dancer was of her song Living for Love. Her performance, with a full choir, was in true Madonna style. She exited the stage by being raised her up to the ceiling at the end of the performance.

Josh Duhamel tripped up the steps bit as he took the stage with two Patriots champions, Julian Lederman and Malcolm Butler to announce the nominees for the Best Rock Album. The Grammy went to Beck for Morning Phase.

Smokey Robinson and Nile Rodgers introduced the Lifetime Achievement Award honor that went to George Harrison before introducing the nominees for the Best R&B Performance. The Grammy went to Beyoncé for Drunk in Love. Beyoncé was beautiful and gracious as she said, “Wow thank you guys so much. This is such an honor.” She thanked her husband Jay-Z and her daughter before wishing the audience a good night.

James Corden was next to introduce a performance of We Found Love by Ed Sheeran. Ed then threw to Electric Light Orchestra who performed Evil Woman, and then Ed joined them to perform Mr. Blue Sky.

And all of this took place in just over the first hour!

Up next was Ryan Seacrest, the man of many jobs, who came out to introduce Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani who sang My Heart is Open.

LL Cool J asked if the Staple Center was ready to be taken to church before introducing a performance by Hozier singing Take Me to Church. Hozier then called Annie Lennox to join him and she really took them to church. Then Annie broke into I Put a Spell on You. And her rendition shook the place and brought the audience to their feet.

Nick Jonas and Meghan All About That Bass Trainor were next to introduce the nominees for Best Country Album, and the Grammy went to Miranda Lambert for Platinum. Miranda looked thrilled and relieved when she said, “I’m so thankful for this. I poured my heart and soul into this.”

Up next was a performance by Pharrell of Happy. He had already won three Grammys by this point. He wore a bellhops hat and shorts, so he did not leave us wanting him to wear a usual hat. But his “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” salute to the shooting tragedies with dancers wearing hoodies was a brilliant and poignant tribute.

President Obama delivered a taped speech addressing domestic violence against women. “It’s on all of us to create a culture where violence is not tolerated.”

It was followed by Brooke Axtell who is a survivor of domestic violence. She spoke of the violence she suffered in a relationship and among other things said, “Authentic love does not devalue another human being.” Her speech leads into a performance by Katy Perry who sang By the Grace of God.

The theme against violence continued with a performance from Las Vegas by Imagine Dragons who sang Shots.

Next up was Katharine McPhee to introduce Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga with 23 Grammy Awards between them, who performed Cheek to Cheek. Gaga was in her element, and Tony Bennett at 88 years old looked great.

LL Cool J announced George Wein, 89 years old and still playing piano, who stood up in the audience as another honoree of the Trustees Award. He then introduced Usher singing If It’s Magic in honor of Stevie Wonder before Usher was joined by Stevie playing the harmonica. It was another Grammy moment that got the audience to their feet.

The 57th Grammy Awards continued with Keith Urban who introduced Give Me Back My Hometown by Eric Church. His performance was followed by Brandy Clark singing Hold My Hand.

Without any introduction, Rihanna and Kanye West with Paul McCartney performed their new song FourFiveSeconds. It’s an exciting combination and an unusual song that got the audience back on their feet again.

Taylor Swift was up next to introduce a performance by Sam Smith and Mary J. Blige. They sang his smash hit Stay With Me. It was beautiful and the audience gave them a standing ovation.

Gina Rodriguez of ‘Jane the Virgin’ introduced a performance by Juanes.

Then the man of the hour, Prince took the stage to announce the Album of the Year, and the Grammy went to Morning Phase by Beck. What a surprise. He was surprised too, and said, “Oh my God. Hi Prince.” And Kanye West almost interrupted his acceptance speech. He’s at it again. That’s why he hasn’t been to the Grammys in six years. Beck stopped his acceptance speech when he heard the music playing him off.

And that still wasn’t the end of the show.

Shia LaBeouf took the stage reading awkwardly from a piece of paper to introduce Sia performing Chandelier. The song was performed to an oddly staged dance in a cluttered room.

Enrique Iglesias presented the Grammy for Song to Year, and the Grammy went to Sam Smith for Stay With Me. Grammy number three for Sam as he said, “I’m having a really, really, really good night.” No kidding, unforgettable night for Sam.

Chris Martin and Beck came next with a performance of Heart Is a Drum.

Stevie Wonder and Jamie Foxx were up next to announce the nominees for Record of the Year. They joked around a bit about being blind and Jamie acted like Ray Charles before announcing that the Grammy went to Sam Smith for Stay With Me. Number four, Sam swept the Grammy Awards!

This time he said he wanted to thank the man that the song was about, “Thank you so much for breaking my heart you got me four Grammys.”

The show was going long by now, but there were still more incredible performances to go!

A segment on music activism came next, but too late in the show. They had lost the audience’s attention by then. It was a good point, but the wrong place. It leads into the In Memoriam segment of all the artists we’ve lost.

Now three and half hours in we still had two huge performances to go.

You can’t miss Beyoncé, and she was up next. Dressed in white she sang Take My Hand, Precious Lord. A lead into Common and John Legend’s performance of Glory.’ With a full choir and orchestra, Common and John gave a mesmerizing performance to close the broadcast.

The Grammys went long this year, but you wouldn’t want to miss not one of the performances.

See You Next Year!

Tanya Hart

Aurn.Com