The Grammy Awards brought some of music’s biggest stars together to sing, dance and get a little funky — emphasis on the last part.
Beyonce and Jay-Z, the world’s biggest power couple, kicked off the show with a simple but super sexy performance of “Drunk In Love.” People were fanning themselves after that opening — and not just because of all that smoke. Seriously, Bey could’ve gotten lost in there.
The dynamic duo also won some hardware — Jay-Z took home Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, sweetly thanking the Mrs. and telling his daughter Blue that “Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you.”
Pop divas took over the stage early on in the night. Katy Perry gave a sultry, witchcraft-decorated performance of “Dark Horse,” while Taylor Swift went softer with “All Too Well.” Pink absolutely owned the arena with an aerial routine to “Try” followed by her duet with fun.’s Nate Ruess, “Just Give Me A Reason.”
But the biggest diva of the night was Lorde, making her Grammy debut with her smash “Royals.” Also making their debut were Lorde’s spectacularly terrifying claw nails — girl could shred somebody with those. She also won Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year.
Best New Artist winners Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed “Same Love,” and they brough 33 couples together to get married, as officiated by Queen Latifah.
The biggest draw of the night came from the collection of big time collaborations. Robin Thicke performed with Chicago, which was weird, but it kind of worked. Metallica and pianist Lang Lang came together for a hybrid rendition of “One.”
In what is easily the most badass performance of the night, Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar sent the crowd — and the scrambling cameramen — into a frenzy. The rock/hip-hop combo brought a much-needed energy explosion to a night full of ballads.
Icons Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr also shared the stage to perform “Queenie Eye” from McCartney’s latest album, “New.”
Big winners of the night included Bruno Mars for Best Pop Vocal Album and Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams, AKA Smokey the Bear, for both Record and Album of the Year. Daft Punk performed “Get Lucky” later on in the night with a surprise appearance from Stevie Wonder. But the best part? The jam sesh literally got the entire crowd on its feet dancing — Jay-Z, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Steven Tyler were all showing off their sickest moves in one of the best moments of the night.
The supergroup of Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl and Lindsey Buckingham closed the show out with a megamix of rock and roll tracks — 15 minutes over time and got cut off by the credits. Regardless, another year of the Grammys closed out an interesting year in music.
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 1/30/2014 under the headline "Trophy Hunting: Grammys jam out with big collaborations"]
