Between 17-year-old Kiwi Lorde’s four nominations and performance slot, over 30 same-sex couples set to marry on-air during Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Same Love, and rumours that Beyonce and Jay-Z would be appearing together on stage; expectations were soaringly high for the Grammy Awards 2014 performances and ceremony. Find out what happened as we recap music’s night of nights…
Aussies on the Red Carpet
By far our favourite piece of red carpet news was that E! News host Giuliana Rancic wore an incredible dress by our very own Mr Alex Perry. The frock, from Perry’s Cruise line, is an orange, full-length, gown with a halter neckline and sheer panels at the bust line. She looked nothing short of incredible and gave a shout out to Alex, calling him “amazing”. It goes without saying that this is a huge coup for Mr Perry who just seems to be going from strength to strength internationally!
John Legend’s wife, model Chrissy Teigan, also opted for an Aussie designer, wearing an incredible gold Johanna Johnson strapless gown with a low cut neckline and gold belt.
While we’re very pleased to report these Aussie’s designs presence on the carpet, we are a little disappointed to report there were no major red carpet disasters or Lady Gaga–in-an-egg-esque arrivals this year, but the Grammys are known for more off-kilter fashion and a few stars did deliver! Watch the arrivals below.
BEST AND WORST GRAMMYS FASHION
The Ceremony
The Staples Center in LA was filled to the brim with major celebs for the 56th annual Grammy Awards.
There were three categories in which Australian acts had nominations; Tame Impala for Best Alternative Music Album category, Hiatus Kaiyote in Best R&B Performance, and The Greencards for Best Folk Album.
As is fairly standard for Awards season, there were some Grammys handed out before the official ceremony begins in an attempt to keep avoid things going way over time (though it never seems to work that way) and all three of these categories fell into that class.
Unfortunately, none of them took it out but a nomination is somewhat of a win in itself so a big congratulations to these homegrown music heroes!
To kick off the official proceedings, none other than Beyonce serenaded the audience from a chair before husband Jay-Z stepped on to the stage to join her for a steamy performance of Drunk in Love, proving once again why they’re the king and queen of RnB. Watch the performance below.
LL Cool J, our host for the evening, was next to take the change with a welcome message for the audience before Anna Kendrick and Pharrell Williams announced the first winner for the night, Best New Artist, which went to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
The performers came thick and fast as Lorde taking the stage to perform Royals (which finished second in yesterday’s Triple J Hottest 100 and went on to win one of the biggest gongs of the Grammys… read on to find out more) straight after the first gong was presented. Watch Lorde perform below.
Following this, the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance was handed to Daft Punk & Pharrell for Get Lucky, and all three plus Nile Rodgers got up on stage to accept their award. Pharrell was wearing a hat that looked a little like an army hat that was odd enough to garner its own Twitter account (@pharrellhat) that got over 8500 followers over the course of the ceremony.
Later in the night, the foursome took the stage with Stevie Wonder for a stellar performance of the winning track — one of the major highlights in the night — and went on to win Record of the Year for Get Lucky and Album of the Year for Random Access Memories. Not bad in an evening!
GRAMMY AWARDS 2014 WINNERS LIST
Katy Perry was up on stage next performing Dark Horse as neck-high flames and dancers surrounded her and was immediately followed by a medley performance from Chicago and Robin Thicke including Blurred Lines. Thankfully, there were no twerking incidents this time around! Watch Katy Perry’s performance below.
Keith Urban did us proud with a performance of Cop Car and one of the most moving moments came right after when John Legend quietly took the stage in a silver suit with a piano and played his song All Of Me which he dedicated to his beautiful wife Chrissy Teigan. Watch both performances below.
After that, it was time for a token award with Best Rock Song going to Dave Grohl. Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear for Cut Me Some Slack.
With that out of the way, the music festival continued with Taylor Swift singing All Too Well and Pink performing Try as she flew from an acrobat’s harness suspended 30 feet in the air. The actual award presenting is beginning to feel a little like filler between all these performances!
Lorde proved her ‘Royal’ status, taking out Best Pop Solo performance despite being up against the likes of Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake. Given none of the Australian musicians took out any awards, we’re tempted to claim the Kiwi as our own! She went on to prove herself once again when she was awarded Song of the Year for Royals — a category for which Katy Perry, Pink, Bruno Mars and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were all up for.
GRAMMY AWARDS 2014 WINNERS LIST
After Lorde’s first award Jay-Z was back up on stage, but this time to accept an award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The winning track is Holy Grail which features none other than Justin Timberlake. Jay-Z was also nominated for in the category for Part II (On the Run) which featured his wife Beyonce. When accepting the award, doting dad Jay-Z said, “I’m gonna tell Blue, ‘Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you’.”
Julia Roberts was a bit of a wildcard presenter on the night; she stepped up on stage to pay tribute to Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney who performed Queenie Eye, receiving a standing ovation from the adoring audience. Other tributes were made to Carole King, who also joined Sara Bareilles on stage for a performance of Brave that showed she’s definitely still got the voice, and Lou Reed.
Finally the Macklemore moment had arrived! As the star and DJ Ryan Lewis performed their track, 30 gay couples prepared to wed on stage and were legally married in front of the world. Afterwards, Madonna, dress as a white cowgirl, jumped on stage with Mary Lambert to finish an incredible performance. Watch how it all played out below.
Alicia Keys and Yoko Ono got up on stage to present Daft Punk with their Album of the Year award and the audience both applauded and breathed a sigh of relief (it was a long ceremony, even by awards ceremony standards) that things were obviously coming to a close with this highest of honours announced.
With a performance by Nine Inch Nails, Dave Grohl, and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, the curtains were closed and the awards said and done for another year!
Watch some of the post-ceremony action from the Press Room below.
