Another year, another night of me staying up past my bedtime and blogging about music’s biggest night in my jammies. I’ll be blogging live throughout the night… check back for updates! LL Cool J is hosting again this year… I love him! Mike noticed something very interesting about the direction of music – they don’t even televise the best rock album award anymore… sort of sad that we’re so focused on pop that we’re willing to completely marginalize other genres.

I love love love that they’re giving the Music Educator of the Year Grammy Award. This year the winner was Kent Knappenberger. I really wish they would have given it to him live on TV rather than just pointing him out to the audience! I know that my early music educators (along with my parents) were major influences in my life!

The Clothes

• LL Cool J’s purple velvet suit. LOVE it.
• Anna Kendrick’s white dress – I can’t decide if I like it or don’t. I love the sexy cutouts, but think that the top makes her look like she squished her boobs down.
• Krist Novoselic’s 1860’s western inspired suit. Love it!
• Julia Roberts’ little lacy black dress. What an amazing dress!
• Zac Brown’s beanie. Just because it’s everywhere, even with a suit.
• Mary Lambert’s red dress. I seriously love this dress. Modest coverage, beautiful sparkle, great shape!

The Performances

• Beyoncé & Jay-Z: Wow… that was a very sexy performance of “Drunk in Love“. It was a bit of a strange song and strange performance, but she pulled it off without being trashy… Miley Cyrus, take note. I love me some Jay-Z… this was a great collaboration! Take note both Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke. Just sayin’.
• Lorde: I love love love “Royals“. Her jerky performance was a little weird, but I’ll chalk it up to being moved by the music. Still can’t believe that voice comes out of a 17-year-old!
• Hunter Hays: “Invisible” is his new song and is very moving. That said, every time I think I’m starting to really like him (I sing along with the radio) I see a live performance and it seems to just fall flat. It feels like he’s trying way too hard and that it’s really difficult for him to get some of those notes out.
• Katy Perry: While I’m not the biggest fan of her music, I loved her performance of “Dark Horse“. I like the dark, magical aspect of the staging and loved the crystal ball part at the beginning. Very clever with the “burning at the stake” at the end. She might be someone I go see just to see the performance aspect of her show!
• Robin Thicke & Chicago: This was a much better performance by Robin Thicke… he needs to get past all of this Miley Cyrus crap and get back to singing. They performed a medley of Chicago songs and then broke into “Blurred Lines” which sounded amazing with the Chicago horn line!
• Keith Urban & Gary Clark Jr.: This was a great pairing on “Cop Car” – I haven’t heard of Gary Clark Jr before but love his bluesy, mellow voice and mad guitar skills. Keith Urban never fails to delight me with his kick ass guitar playing!
• John Legend: I love his voice… he’s definitely on my list of people to see live. “All of Me” is such an amazing song… beyond the beautiful lyrics, the chord progressions and dissonance is stunning.
• Taylor Swift: She’s still a pretty terrible live singer (I did love her acoustic version of “Red” at the ACMs) but her dress during “All Too Well” was amazing! I hated her awkward head banging while playing the piano… it always feels like she’s trying a bit too hard. Plus, I’m getting tired of her teenage angst songs… it’s time to grow up Taylor and move on to some adult content.
• P!nk & Nate Ruess: Ever since seeing her live a few years back, I’ve absolutely loved P!nk… she is an amazing singer and her performances are always acrobatic and entertaining. I love “Just Give Me A Reason” and am blown away by Nate’s voice.
• Ringo Starr: Ok, this will get me in a lot of trouble, but I just have such a hard time getting on board with the whole Beatles are the best thing ever thing. Ringo Starr even less so… he has a very limited vocal range and honestly I don’t get what all the hoopla around “Photograph” is.
• Kendrick Lamar & Imagine Dragons: While it’s great that Taylor Swift loved their performance and rocked out in the front row, it’s kind of sad that those of us at home listened to a bit of silence because every other word had to be bleeped. I really like Imagine Dragons and “Radioactive“, but to me it was a strange pairing.
• Kacey Musgraves: I love love love her voice and I love “Follow Your Arrow“. I love that her music has that distinct “country” sound to it, but is fresh and young.
• Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr: Honestly, I’m not even sure what “Queenie Eye” refers to. Not my favorite song, and I’m talking about the man who sang my wedding song (“Maybe I’m Amazed”). Not a great song or performance in my book.
• Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, & Blake Shelton: Let me start by saying that I cannot wait to see Willie in a few months. Was this their best performances ever? Not by far. But these men are legends, absolute legends and it’s awesome to see them still playing and singing! They sang “The Highwayman”, “Okie from Muskogee“, and “Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys“. Freaking amazing.
• Daft Punk, Pharell, & Stevie Wonder: WTF? I don’t get it. “Get Lucky” is a catchy tune, but I don’t understand the whole Daft Punk thing and it felt like they ran out of places to stick Stevie.
• Sara Bareilles & Carole King: This was a great matchup. I love how excited to sing Sara Bareilles looked to sing and play with Carole King. I love the song “Brave” and thought they really complimented each other.
• Metallica & Lang Lang: Let me state the obvious. Lang Lang can freaking play piano. What a cool way to intro “One“. And it just goes to show that excellent musicianship translates across genres – from classical to heavy metal. Very cool to see the interaction between them!
• Macklemore, Queen Latifah, & Madonna: I think “Same Love” is such a wonderful song. Gay, straight, religious, not, fat, skinny, it’s all the same. Interesting choice to marry a bunch of folks on TV (gay and straight) and then have Madonna come out to sing. But whatever… point made, I guess.
• Miranda Lambert & Billie Joe Armstrong: These two did a great little tribute to the Everly Brothers with “When Will I Be Loved”.
• Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Lindsey Buckingham, & Dave Grohl: First things first – Lindsey Buckingham can PLAY guitar. This was a rockin’ little medley that was the perfect finish to the show. Or would have been. They cut the end of the performance with commercials. Terrible.

They Got Robbed!!!

• Kacey Musgraves: Seriously. Way better music than any of the other folks in the best new artist category. Her album is absolutely amazing! However, her winning best country album, beating Taylor Swift, was awesome.
• Everyone else in the best pop duo category. Serious, Daft Punk & Pharell over JT & Jay-Z? Or P!nk and Nate Ruess? Lame.
• Macklemore: I love “Royals” but don’t think it should have won song of the year over “Same Love“.
• Everyone else in the record of the year and album of the year – again, I don’t get the Daft Punk thing and I definitely don’t think that was the best recorded song of the year.