“T-Swizzle,” as LL Cool J calls her, opened the show with her hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” She was joined onstage by a whole circus of characters, including stilt walkers and fire breathers. We’re all for big stage productions, but this one was a little strange.
Host LL Cool J tried his best to promote the social media aspect of the show. He would read tweets from viewers, but the whole thing came off as forced rather than modern. He also said “hashtag” about 10 times during one speech. #Boring. LL also closed out the show with a performance of his own — with Chuck D and Travis Barker backing him up. They gave a shout-out to Beastie Boys’ founding member Adam Yauch, who died in May. However, a Grammys voice-over ended up cutting off the performance before it finished.
Alicia Keys continued to show off how on fire she is by performing her current hit while playing the drums. Maroon 5 paired with Keys by opening up the performance with their song “Daylight.” Then, Keys took the stage, and instead of playing piano as is often expected of her, Keys worked a snare and floor tom. Look at those arms!
A tribute to Bob Marley brought together a slew of artists inspired by the late Reggae singer. Bruno Mars opened the tribute with a non-Marley song (his own “Locked Out of Heaven”) and then did a duet with Sting on the Police's "Walking on the Moon." Then Rihanna and Ziggy Marley joined them onstage for a group performance of “Could You Be Loved." It was a relatively energetic moment in a show that was overall pretty tame.
Jack White, who recently appeared on THR’s music issue cover, gave an amazing performance of "Love Interruption" with Ruby Amanfu, but snuck in one little extra goodie: the F-word. CBS can’t be happy about that one – especially after failing to bleep Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco's colorful language after the Super Bowl just one week earlier.
STORY: Jack White Covers THR's 2nd Annual Music Issue
After opening the show, the country star did not let her lack of wins deny her from filling the Grammy broadcast with her familiar (and often excessive) excitement. Swift barely seemed to touch her front row seat all night, instead opting for generous applause, standing ovations, stationary dancing and singing the lyrics along with nearly every performance of the night. Her rendition of The Lumineers' "Ho Hey" is already nominated for a 2014 Grammy.
Dressed in a black gown (a more conservative effort than her revealing red carpet dress), Rihanna slowed it down with her performance, singing "Stay" with Mikky Ekko. Her performance garnered positive reactions, with @OrneMelano tweeting: "Sublime Rihanna con Stay #Grammy." Another viewer @cespino1 tweeted: "Damn! I loved Rihanna performance at the grammys! Amazing! Wow!"
Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce, fresh off her Super Bowl halftime show, took their sweet time introducing "triple threat" Justin Timberlake's "Grammy moment," aka his return to music. Timberlake took it back a few decades, with the first part of his performance televised in sepia tone. New York magazine's Vulture sneered: "Oh cool Justin Timberlake is doing his performance in Instagram." Jay-Z took the stage for the "Suit & Tie" portion before Timberlake slowed it down a little, performing "Pusher Love Girl" from his upcoming March release The 20/20 Experience.
Before Katy Perry presented the best new artist category, but before she revealed the winner, she told the Staples Center crowd that she had never even been up for the award. "Well I was never even nominated for this category but I have my own eyelash line. Take that Bon Iver!" she said. (Bon Iver took home the new artist Grammy in 2012.) Fun. ultimately beat The Lumineers, Alabama Shakes, Frank Ocean and Hunter Hayes for the prize.
Plenty of couples appeared under the same roof on Grammy night. Katy Perry and John Mayer attended the awards show, but didn't walk the carpet together with Perry bringing Girls' Allison Williams as her date. Both presented during the main telecast. Meanwhile, Kelly Clarkson — while accepting her Grammy for pop vocal album — gave a shoutout to her fiance Brandon Blackstock, calling him "sexy." Chris Brown and Rihanna were a big focus, with the camera often panning to Brown when Rihanna was onstage. When Brown lost out to Frank Ocean, he was the only person sitting while Ocean went to accept his award.