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Last night, Los Angeles was filled with stars for the biggest music event of the year.
Dubbed the longest concert going with 23 live performances over a three and a half hour period, the guests and viewers alike could not have claimed any boredom.
What would have been the loudest, proudest, greatest festival line up ever, the Grammy nominated stars took to the stage with a quick wardrobe change beforehand of course.
Beyoncé led the way as per with her angelic rendition of the Thomas A. Dorsey gospel classic “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” She may not have won album of the year – losing out to Beck (who?); but her performance was the performance of the night. Do you expect anything else from Queen Bey?
Other (lucky) solo performers were Pharrell, Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Miranda Lambert, Juanes, Madonna, Katy Perry, Sia and AD/DC.
There were ups and downs with all of them including Pharrell’s WTF performance of 2014 classic “Happy” mixed in with The Grand Budapest Hotel, beatnik performance art and a classical orchestra. A crazy mix which worked. Kinda.
The collaborations were a collection of music memories that the singers and audience will probably never forget. Sam Smith and Mary J. Blige sang Smith’s “Stay With Me”; Rihanna, Paul McCartney and Kanye West performed their latest single “FourFiveSeconds”.
Newcomer and legend in country music Brandy Clark and Dwight Yoakam joined forces for Clarke’s 12 Stories composition “Hold My Hand.”
Collaborations or combinations of music were also heard from: Hozier and Annie Lennox, Beck and Chris Martin, Usher and legend Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Common, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Jessie J and Tom Jones, and Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani.
Ed Sheeran was on that stage (performance-wise) more than anyone. He joined both Jeff Lynne’s ELO plus John Mayer, Herbie Hancock & Questlove during the evening.
The awards that were thrown in between performances led to multiple claps of praise.
Sam Smith won four awards, following in fellow Brit Adele’s footsteps. No surprise there. We wonder if each GRAMMY will get a plane seat on route home, or whether they’ll be tossed into the hold with the rest of the luggage.
The biggest surprise of the night was Beck. Who exactly is Beck? The Twitter hashtag #WhoIsBeck started up shortly after he was announced as winner of Album of the Year – beating Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Pharrell. He also took home Best Rock Album ahead of Ryan Adams, U2 and The Black Keys.
Kanye West did a Kanye – embarrassing himself yet again like he did at the 2009 VMA’s with Taylor Swift. He turned away last minute so whether it was a joke that he found hilarious or not, it was stupid.
LL Cool J hosted the event for the fourth year running. We’ll probably see him next year too.
You can view the full list of the winners and nominees from the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards here: http://www.grammy.com/Nominees?genre=All