Politics, pregnancy, and, yes, music— Valley has the highs, lows, and everything in between from the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Adele kicked off the show with a flawless performance of her hit song, “Hello.” Afterword, the host for the evening, James Corden, took the stage and rapped his introduction to the event. He then introduced Jennifer Lopez, who was the first of the evening to really speak out about anything political, mentioning how this is a time when artists must “go to work,” highlighting that the Grammys are not about dresses or even awards, but rather the music, the words, and the voices of the artists. She then presented the award of Best New Artist to Chance the Rapper. This was his first of three wins for the evening; the artist also took home awards for Best Rap Performance for “No Problem” and Best Rap Album for Coloring Book.
Next, The Weeknd took the stage, followed by Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood. Nick Jonas presented the award for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance to Twenty One Pilots for “Stressed Out.” The pair gave a moving and motivational acceptance speech, which concluded with a symbolic removal of their pants. Their pants-less antics inspired host James Corden to bare it all as well as he introduced Ed Sheeran performing “Shape of You.”
The award for Best Rock Song went to the late David Bowie for “Blackstar,” then Kelsea Ballerini and Lukas Graham took the stage to perform a mashup of their hit songs, “Peter Pan” and “7 Years.”
Next up was Beyonce’s much-anticipated performance. The singer, who recently announced her pregnancy with twins on Instagram, a photo that quickly became Instagram’s most-liked photo, was introduced by her mother, Tina Knowles. She gave an artistic, avant garde performance, which some speculated was a recreation of her famous Instagram photo shoot.
Former Fifth Harmony singer Camila Cabello and Thomas Rhett presented the award for Best Country Performance to Maren Morris for her song “My Church.” Next, James Corden took to the audience with a cardboard cutout of his Carpool Karaoke car and enlisted the vocal skills of Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, John Legend, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and more, including Neil Diamond himself to sing the classic “Sweet Caroline.”
Bruno Mars took the stage with a performance of his song “Just What I Like,” followed by Little Big Town introducing Katy Perry by performing a cover of “Teenage Dream.” Perry debuted her new single, “Chained to The Rhythm.”
The rest of the evening was jam-packed with stellar performances, including triple-winner Chance the Rapper, A Tribe Called Quest with Anderson Paak, Alicia Keys with Maren Morris, Sturgill Simpson, and a Bee Gees tribute by Little Big Town, Demi Lovato, Andrea Day, and Tori Kelly. John Legend and Cynthia Erivo, who won for Best Musical Theatre album for The Color Purple, performed an emotional rendition of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” during the In Memoriam tribute. Metallica, despite a malfunctioning microphone, gave an intense performance with Lady Gaga, who crowd-surfed her way to rockstar status.
Adele gave a haunting performance of George Michael’s “Fast Love” in the late singer’s memory, which she abruptly stopped and started again. The singer apologized, stating that she knew this was live TV, but she simply had to start again, as she just could not mess this performance up for George Michael. Bruno Mars, Morris Day, and the Time gave an incredible tribute to the late Prince, performing “Jungle Love,” “The Bird,” and “Let’s Go Crazy”.
Best Urban Contemporary Album went to Beyonce’s Lemonade. Adele took home awards for Song of the Year (“Hello”), Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. In her final acceptance speech, Adele seemed just as surprised as many others that the award hadn’t gone to Lemonade. She spent the latter half of her speech speaking directly to Beyonce, telling her how much she has impacted her life and the entire world and how “monumental” and “groundbreaking” Lemonade is.
Though the evening was full of surprise twists and turns, it was another amazing year at the Grammys.
