All the Best Grammys Video: Gaga and Elton, Beyonce, MJ's Kids, Taylor Swift and Much More
This year's Grammy Awards actually deserved the "Music's Biggest Night" title. Inside, video of all the best moments, including Lady Gaga's opening duet with Elton John, a speech by Michael Jackson's kids, and performances by Beyonce, Taylor Swift and more.
Here's a list of the videos contained in this post, from top to bottom:
- Lady Gaga's show-opening performance of Poker Face, followed by a duet with Elton John of Speechless and Your Song.
- Michael Jackson's two eldest children's acceptance of a lifetime achievement Grammy on behalf of their father.
- Taylor Swift's acceptance speech following her win of the Album of the Year Grammy for Fearless.
- Beyonce's performance of If I Were A Boy and You Oughta Know.
- Taylor Swift's flat performance of Fairytale before a still-flat duet of Rhiannon and You Belong With Me with Stevie Nicks.
- Quentin Tarantino's introduction of Drake, Eminem and Lil Wayne, in which he made a fool of himself.
- Drake, Eminem and Lil Wayne's (largely bleeped-out) performance of Drop The World and Forever.
- Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood and Usher's performance of Michael Jackson's Earth Song.
- Pink's performance of Glitter In The Air.
- Bon Jovi's performance of We Weren't Meant To Follow, Who Says You Can't Go Home and Livin' On A Prayer.
- A comedic monologue, courtesy Stephen Colbert (who also had an Apple iPad with him).
- A performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water by Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli, accompanied by David Foster on piano.
- An awkward segment featuring presenters Ke$ha and Justin Bieber.
8:20 PM ET: Here's the epic, must-be-seen-to-be-believed video of Lady Gaga opening the show with Poker Face before singing Speechless and Your Song in a duet with Elton John.
10:10 PM ET: Wow. This was just surreal, emotional, adorable. Here's Michael Jackson's two eldest children, Prince Michael and Paris, accepting a lifetime achievement award on their father's behalf. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time we've ever seen them make a lengthy public statement? Anyway, here's the video (footage of the Michael Jackson tribute song is further down in this post).
11:35 PM ET: So, Taylor Swift won the Album of the Year Grammy for Fearless, in one of those upset-but-not-really type situations. A lot of people (read: me) thought Gaga deserved the award, but at least Swift's speech was cute. Here it is.
8:55 PM ET: Here's video of Beyonce performing a mash-up of If I Were A Boy and Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know. Did she upstage Lady Gaga? No, duh. But it was a great effort, nonetheless. Oh, and this: Rachel Sklar thinks that Beyonce's choice of songs means something may not be right in the Knowles-Carter household. Conspiracy! What say you?
10:20 PM ET: Taylor Swift performed Fairytale before teaming up with Stevie Nicks for Rhiannon and You Belong With Me, and—for the first time ever—I actually wanted a Kanye West interruption. If one thing's true, it's that Swift's studio recordings sound a hell of a lot better than her live performances—because this was flat, flat, flat. Nicks was good, though (as per usual).
11:25 PM ET: Someone needs to remind Quentin Tarantino that he's not black, apparently. Maybe he forgot for an hour? Anyway, here's Tarantino introducing Drake, Eminem and Lil Wayne in his own, weird way. #WhitePeople.
11:50 PM ET: And here's the performance: Drake, Lil Wayne and Eminem doing Drop The World and Forever. Most of it was bleeped out, though. Seriously. Didn't they know they were on TV?
10:20 PM ET: Here's the aforementioned performance of Michael Jackson's Earth Song (in 3D) by Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood and Usher.
12:10 AM ET: Tonight, Pink performed Glitter In The Air before actually going up in the air and showing off with some death defying acrobatics.
12:25 AM ET: Here's video of Bon Jovi's performance. The band played a medley of songs, including We Weren't Meant To Follow, Who Says You Can't Go Home and Livin' On A Prayer. [Video Via]
9:00 PM ET: Who said the whole show had to be about music? Stephen Colbert presented the first award of the night—Song of the Year, which went to Beyonce for Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)—after doing a short monologue of jokes. His dream Grammys on-stage pair? "Adam Lambert and any sense of personal restraint."
10:50 PM ET: After an odd, lengthy introduction by Wyclef Jean and accompanied by David Foster on piano, Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli performed an emotional rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water to benefit the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
9:35 PM ET: Well, this was awkward. Here's video of self-described "garbage can chic" Ke$ha with prepubescent-yet-singing-about-girls Justin Bieber, announcing that there's still time left to vote for which song Bon Jovi will perform tonight. The whole exchange was just a train wreck. Ke$ha (I hate having to do the dollar sign every time, ungh) did her best to look strung out—because THAT'S cool—and Bieber flubbed all of his lines. Enjoy!