This year’s Grammy Awards consisted of artists speaking out on social issues, Sam Smith winning almost everything, and Taylor Swift dancing (which is something we would pay money to watch all night). Though the night was packed with a good 23 performers, some performances managed to stand out to us a little more than others.
1. Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande performed “Just a Little Bit of Your Heart” and we have to say that we were happy to not only finally hear her perform a ballad at an awards show, but also to see her performing in a gown as opposed to the metallic leotards she usually wears.
2. Madonna
We don’t think there will ever be a time when Madonna doesn’t slay a performance. We’ll take tonight’s performance as a lesson: we all need to get on Madonna’s level. At the age of 56, she still not only looks great but sounds amazing.
3. Ed Sheeran
We found love when Ed Sheeran performed a duet with John Mayer. The combination of the two of them just made our hearts melt.
4. Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine
It’s a little hard to pay attention to anything that’s happening on stage when Adam Levine is involved, so we’ll just go ahead and admit that we don’t remember too much from this performance except for the fact that Adam Levine really wanted us to say yes to something. And who in their right mind would say no to Adam Levine? Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani are pretty much a match made in heaven.
5. Hozier and Annie Lennox
Hozier performed his hit song “Take Me to Church” but we’ll just say that, as much as we love Hozier right now, the main person taking us to church during this performance was Annie Lennox, who stole the performance and put a spell on us during a little ode to Hocus Pocus.
6. Pharrell
Accompanied by Hans Zimmer, Pharrell and his new hat performed a slightly different version of “Happy” tonight. Our favorite part of the performance was his tribute to Mike Brown and the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” movement.
7. Katy Perry
After President Obama’s public service announcement concerning domestic violence and sexual abuse, an angelic looking Katy Perry put the left shark to rest and took the stage and performed a ballad in a beautiful white gown. As much as we enjoyed the left shark, we have to say that we definitely enjoyed seeing a more mature side of Katy during this performance.
8. Rihanna, Paul McCartney and Kanye West
After Rihanna took off that pink dress, she blew us away with her vocals when she teamed up with Paul McCartney and Yeezus to perform their newest single, “Four Five Seconds.” Here’s to hoping that this performance will help Paul McCartney win the Best New Artist award at next year’s Grammys.
9. Sia
In what seemed to be the ultimate plot twist of the night, Sia performed “Chandelier” with the incredibly talented Maddie Ziegler and, to everyone’s surprise, Kristen Wiig. We’ll admit that we thought it was a joke at first but Kristen actually seemed to take her performance pretty seriously and, for that, she earns a ton of our respect.
10. Sam Smith and Mary J. Blige
The Grammy awards probably concluded with Sam Smith’s ex throwing his TV out of his apartment window seeing as how Sam Smith swept the night with four wins and an awesome performance of “Stay With Me” alongside Mary J. Blige. We were overwhelmed with emotion and Sam and Mary J. pretty much proved that they’re all we need.
11. Beyoncé
Queen Bey was the last performer of the night but the wait was definitely worth it. We were expecting to see the Queen smack in the air and perform “7/11,” but instead, she performed a gospel song with an all-male choir and was then followed by Common and John Legend who gave a powerful performance of “Glory,” featured on the official soundtack of Selma.
So tell us, collegiettes. Who were your favorite performers this year?