Rapper Kendrick Lamar took home the most trophies at Grammys with five.
Taylor Swift took home three including Album of the Year for “1989”
Lady Gaga’s tribute was one of the highlights of the night
Lionel Richie, 2016’s MusiCares Person of the Year, was saluted with a tribute kicked off by John Legend performing “Easy.” The other performances were a mixed bag, with Demi Lovato tackling “Hello,” with Lionel visibly cheering her on, Luke Bryan performing “Penny Lover,” Meghan Trainor giving us her take on “You Are,” and Tyrese getting funky with “Brick House,” before Lionel joined them all on stage for “All Night Long.”
Stevie Wonder and Pentatonix performed “That’s the Way of the World” as a salute to Earth Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, who died earlier this month. It was a little disappointing that it was only one song. Maurice had a fantastic vocal range and could pretty much break crystal. Google Earth Wind and Fire ‘September’ or ‘Serpentine Fire’. Stevie also got one of the biggest laughs of the evening when he teased the crowd about the Song of the Year winner since only he could read the envelope which was written in Braille.
Eagles Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh and Bernie Leadon were joined by Jackson Browne for a mellow, and really underwhelming, version of “Take It Easy,” as a tribute to the late Glenn Frey. Even Henley looked relieved when it was over. Again, where was the medley of hits?
One of the main highlights of the night came from Lady Gaga, who thoroughly channeled David Bowie for her tribute to the Thin White Duke, performing a medley that included “Space Oddity,” “Changes,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Suffragette City”, “Rebel Rebel,” “Fashion,” “Fame,” “Let’s Dance,” and “Heroes,” with a guitar lick of “Under Pressure” thrown in.
She even changed her look throughout the performance. Ok, and this is just me, but some of her physical theatrics reminded me of an typical Andrea Martin spoof. So that took a little away from the performance but it was elaborate just like Bowie was.
It’s always a good show to watch and LLCoolJ was a great MC again.
