Opinion: 2014 Grammy Awards prove to be entertaining, ridiculous

Meghan Wallis
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 17:06:15 +0000
Music, TV, beyonce, billie joe armstrong, Daft Punk, grammy awards, grammys, jay z, kendrick lamar, ll cool j, lorde, macklemore, madonna, nate ruess, paul mccartney, pink, queen latifah, ringo starr, ryan lewis

Pharrell Williams, Daft Punk and Nile Rogers on stage to accept the Grammy for Record of the Year at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards Jan. 26.
Credit: Courtesy of MCT

The 2014 Grammy Awards were pretty ridiculous, but equally entertaining. I’ve come to expect nothing less, though.

For the big notes of the night, Daft Punk definitely got lucky, winning the biggest award of the night, Album of the Year, for “Random Access Memories.” Other big winners included Lorde and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, winning for Song of the Year and Best New Artist, respectively.

What better way to start off an awards show than with a Beyoncé performance? Bey belted her new single “Drunk in Love” with Jay Z, and like always, it did not disappoint.

Grammys host LL Cool J started off his hosting duties by yelling at us about the awesomeness that is Beyoncé and Jay Z, all while making a few mildly funny jokes.

From then on, the show was a bit out of sorts. The incredibly awesome idealism, mixed with some bizarre collaborations, made for a more than bumpy ride.

Nonetheless, Sunday’s performances were some of the best at the Grammy Awards in years.

The big theme of the night—if you could even call it a theme — was tolerance. Country singer Hunter Hayes performed his new single, “Invisible,” an anti-bullying anthem, and Kacey Musgraves performed “Follow Your Arrow.”

Sara Bareilles and Carole King teamed together to perform a mash-up of Bareilles’ “Brave” and King’s “Beautiful.”

While performing an aerialist routine, Pink sang “Try” before jumping into her smash duet, “Just Give Me a Reason,” with singer Nate Ruess of fun. Pink never fails to put on a show. Not only is she entertaining, but she’s real, strong, beautiful and absolutely magnificent. She puts so much into every single performance. Hands down, best performance of the night.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited to perform a song off of McCartney’s “New” album, on the approximate 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival to the United States.

One of the many surprising collaborations of the night, but probably the most well done, was that of country singer Miranda Lambert and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong performing a tribute to one half of the Everly Brothers, Phil Everly, who died Jan. 6.

Weirdest performance of the night definitely goes to Lorde by a landslide. The 17-year-old performed her hit “Royals,” the lead single off of her debut album, “Pure Heroine.” The girl is a little scary. I mean, did anyone else catch her black-painted fingertips?

The most surprisingly awesome performance of the night was definitely the collaboration between Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar. Not only did we receive an awesome mash-up of their smash hits, “Radioactive” and “m.A.A.d City,” we also got to see the awkwardness that is Taylor Swift getting really into the performance in the front row. I’ve come to expect this at every awards show the singer attends, and last night was pretty epic.

The worst performance of the night was the random collaboration of Robin Thicke and Chicago. I won’t delve into the ridiculousness of that one.

But, by far, the most intriguing part of the night was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ performance of “Same Love” with Mary Lambert. The three were joined by Madonna singing “Open Your Heart,” and Queen Latifah, who married more than 30 gay and straight couples as part of the performance. Obviously, it was a bit overdone and more or less made into a spectacle, but the idea behind it was kind of cool.

So, if you take one thing away from the show last night, aside from the ridiculousness of most of it, take this: It does not matter whom you love, only that you do.