On Sunday Feb. 10, the 55th Annual Grammy Awards aired on CBS and featured a wide range of performances as well as some very big awards for prominent members of the music industry.
Mumford & Sons took home the top award for Album of the Year for their album Babel, while Gotye collected the award for Record of the Year for his smash hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” featuring Kimbra. The song also won the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Fun. received the award for Song of the Year for “We Are Young” and also beat out The Lumineers and Frank Ocean for the coveted Best New Artist award.
The Black Keys’ front man Dan Auerbach, along with The Black Keys themselves, took home the most awards with Auerbach winning Producer of the Year and The Black Keys receiving awards for Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song for “Lonely Boy” and Best Rock Album for El Camino.
While the awards were the centerpieces of the show, it would not have been complete without the performances. Many artists and bands matched career best performances, but there was a handful of lackluster ones in comparison.
Among the best included Justin Timberlake’s comeback performance of “Suit and Tie,” a new track off his upcoming album The 20/20 Experience. It showcased Timberlake’s much-missed vocal talent and included some very slick dance moves.
Rihanna gave a vocally stunning performance with Mikky Ekko of her new single “Stay,” and fun. shone with a performance of “Carry On.”
Taylor Swift opened the show with a mediocre performance of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” While it was visually dazzling with its Alice in Wonderland-like theme, her vocals were not as impressive.
The host of the evening LL Cool J closed the show with a tribute to the recently deceased lead rapper of The Beastie Boys, Adam “MCA” Yauch. While his heart was in the right place, the actual performance lacked creativity.
From engaging performances to honorable winners, the Grammys proved once again that it is music’s biggest and most exciting night.