The 56th Annual Grammy Awards were held at the Staples Center in sunny Los Angeles, California on Sunday January 26th 2014. Music’s biggest night began on the Red Carpet, which was filled with gorgeous gowns, edgy fashion risks, and of course, stunning men.
Beyonce and Jay-Z opened up the show with B’s newest smash hit “Drunk in Love” from her surprise album, Beyonce. Hollywood’s power couple had an epic performance that received a standing ovation.
LL Cool J hosted the show for the first time in his professional career and made his entrance following Beyonce and Jay-Z. LL Cool J’s monologue to begin the evening was incredibly inspiring to say the least. “Music has the power to bring us together like nothing else in the world.” He continued, “music warms us, music unleashes whoever we are and whoever we dream about being.”
He then took a moment to acknowledge Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney and their late friends and fellow Beatles members John Lennon and George Harrison and with that Ringo Starr threw up a peace sign.
Appearances by Starr and McCartney were not the only music legends at the 56th Annual Grammys. Several artists who are recognized music legends in the industry attended the show and some performed including, Paul McCartney. The Grammy’s took a trip down memory lane and Metallica took the stage to perform their song “One.” Their first Grammy performance was in 1989.
Today’s modern artists had the opportunity to perform with legends. It was a very creative twist to promote the Grammys Motto “Music Brings People Together.” Madonna, Mackelmore, and Ryan Lewis, performed Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’s hit song “Same Love.” The “Same Love” performance sent goose bumps to the audience as 33 couples, heterosexual and homosexual exchanged rings as they joined in marriage with the entire world as a witness. Madonna was right when she said, “history will be made tonight,” during E!’s Red Carpet Show.
Before the live broadcast began Macklemore and Ryan Lewis snagged three Grammys during the pre show and won Best New Artist at the top of the live show. “You work your whole life to get to this point,” Macklemore said during E!’s Red Carpet Show. Macklemore made their acceptance speech and took a moment to thank their fans, “without them there would be no us.” He finished the speech by saying, “we made this record without a label, we made it independently.”
Macklemore’s performance was not the first of the evening that touched the audience and the world watching. Hunter Hayes debuted a brand new song “Invisible.” His song spoke to younger people about how you should dare to be different; even if you are sometimes bullied you should never feel alone and you should always strive to be who you truly are.
As if those two moments were not tear-worthy enough, Bruno Mars took home Best Pop Vocal Album for “Unorthodox Jukebox” and dedicated the award to his late mother who passed away last year. “I wanna dedicate this, I want to dedicate this award to my mother. Ma, I know you’re watching. I hope you’re smiling. I love you.”
Other prestigious award winners included Lorde who won 2 of the 4 Grammys that she was nominated for, Best Pop Solo as well as Song of the Year; both for Royals. She is the third youngest artist at 17 years old, to win a Grammy Award. Lorde performed her hit song “Royals” and added a twist to it by singing nearly acapella, “Thank you everyone for making this song explode,” said Lorde.
Daft Punk was awarded Best Pop Group Performance, and Record of the Year for “Get Lucky,” and the most prestigious award of the evening, Album of the Year for “Random Access Memories.” Pharell Williams joked during the acceptance speech by speaking “on behalf of the robots.” He continued, “I’d just like to say, man, thank you.”
Paul Williams was a songwriter for Daft Punks album and he said “I just got a message from the robots and they what wanted me to say is that, as elegant and as classy as the Grammys has ever been is the moment when we saw those wonderful marriages and that same love is fantastic. And it was the height of fairness and love and the power of love for all people, at any time and, any combination.”
The 56th Annual Grammy’s will be a night to go down in history. Inspirational messages, touching performances, and appearances from some of the most prestigious artists of our time. LL Cool J could not have said it any better, “Make some beautiful noise,” he continued, “together we’re making musical history.”
Congratulations to all of the nominees and the winners from everyone at Her Campus C-Mich!