The Grammys: Best And Worst Moments (VIDEO | 8 PICS)

Last night’s 54th Annual Grammy Awards has its ups and down. The too-long “awards” show needed some editing, but also yielded some positive, memorable moments. We’ve recapped the best and worst of the Grammys for you below.

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BEST


Dave Grohl’s And Bon Iver’s Acceptance Speeches

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Wait, what? Real people who make music with instruments win Grammys? Yes, and both Grohl and Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon wanted to hit that point home during their speeches. If only Grohl hadn’t killed his point about musicians needing to make music without computer by performing with electronic DJ deadmau5.

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Grohl said onstage, “To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

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Vernon offered similar sentiments. “It’s really hard to accept this award,” said. “There’s so much talent out here… and there’s a lot of talent that’s not here tonight. It’s also hard to accept because you know, when I started to make songs I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here.” He added, “I don’t think the Bon Iver record is the kind of record that would get nominated for a Grammy. I kinda felt like going up there and being like: ‘Everyone should go home, this is ridiculous. You should not be doing this. We should not be gathering in a big room and looking at each other and pretending that this is important.’ That’s what I would say.”

Adele

Just everything about Adele and involving Adele was a good moment. She looked amazing, she sang beautifully and she looked absolutely perfect. Plus, she brought her producer Paul Epworth onstage with her to include him in the honor of winning several awards. So she’s classy too.

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“I also want to say a big thank you to Rick Rubin, who taught me about quality control,” Adele said in her speech for Album of the Year. “He really taught me about what I wanted to be and made me realize stuff that I didn’t ever think I would. And this record is inspired by something that is really normal and everyone’s been through it, which is a rubbish relationship. And it’s gone on to do things that I can’t tell you how I feel about it, it’s been the most life-changing year.”

Tributes To Etta James And Whitney Houston

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Sometimes these sorts of tributes can feel a little forced, especially considering that Houston died only a day before the show. But the tributes to these fallen singers were lovely and genuine. The “In Memoriam” video, although a nice gesture, was unfortunately less so, crowding dozens of names randomly together with no sense of lasting memory.

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Commercials

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Kudos, Grammys. Last night’s awards officially had better commercials than the Super Bowl. Case in point: The Chipotle commercial that was about five minutes long and featured Willie Nelson covering Coldplay.

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deadmau5 Wears Skrillex’s Number On Red Carpet

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Looks like Skrillex needs a new cell phone number. Fellow nominated DJ deadmau5 wore a shirt with Skrillex’s number down the red carpet with the caption, “u mad bro?” Skrillex tweeted, “Haha @deadmau5 just wore my phone number on his fokin shirt on tv gotta retire this phone,” later trying to have the calls forwarded to the prankster himself.

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WORST

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Chris Martin’s Voice

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What happened, buddy? Your vocals on Coldplay’s performance of “Paradise” were about the worst we’ve ever heard on live TV. Luckily there was a lot of glowing black light paint to distract us.

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Chris Brown’s Presence

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We’re not going to say anything about Chris Brown’s “comeback” performances, which were fine in theory. What we are going to do is direct you to this collection of fan Twitter reactions, which is deeply concerning and suggests that the Grammys made a poor decision enabling the singer. Domestic violence is not a joke and not something young music fans should be asking for.