The Highs and Lows of the 2017 Grammys

Adele experienced her own rollercoaster ride of highs and lows at this year’s Grammys, starting the night strong with “Hello,” struggling through her second performance, and eventually ending the evening by winning the three biggest awards of the year. But another diva, Lady Gaga, just may have stolen the show.

Here are the most talked-about moments, for reasons good and bad, of the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

HIGH: Metallica and Lady Gaga rock out on “Moth Into Flame”

It’s Gagatallica! Metalligaga! Yes, one week after blowing away millions of viewers with her acrobatic, pyrotechnic Super Bowl halftime show, Gaga proved she’s more than just a pop star by taking the stage with hard rock veterans Metallica, for a headbanging duet of that band’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct track “Moth Into Flame.” Gaga has long insisted she had a bad-girl metal streak, and on Sunday she proved she can talk the talk and rock the walk. Squeezing into a Metallica cutoff T-shirt and leather fetish-wear short shorts, she fearlessly stage-dove, pulled off some ’80s-metal-video cage-dancer moves, and capably traded vocals with Metallica frontman James Hetfield. Even though Hetfield’s microphone cut out for his first vocal part, he and co-guitarist Kirk Hammett kept the music blazing, while bassist Robert Trujillo provided a booming bottom-end and drummer Lars Ulrich gleefully beat his kit into oblivion, grinning the whole time — especially when Gaga, surrounded by flames, sidled up to him as he played. We’re not sure if her new giant skull-tipped-moth back tattoo was real or just a perfect illusion, but her performance was absolutely sincere.

LOW: The Chainsmokers and Katharine McPhee accept David Bowie’s Grammy

It’s hard to fathom that a legend like Bowie, who received a special Grammys tribute from Gaga last year, never won an actual musical Grammy until after his death. (The only competitive Grammy he won in his lifetime was in the Music Video category in 1984.) This year, Bowie finally won four Grammys, but adding insult to injury, only one of them was presented on the air — and it was accepted, by default, by presenters the Chainsmokers and Katharine McPhee. The Twitterverse expectedly erupted in disgust. (There’s actually a Grammy rule that only relatives are allowed to accept awards in an artist’s absence; maybe neither Bowie’s widow nor his children felt Bowie had received the Grammy respect he’d always deserved.)

LOW: Adele’s George Michael tribute requires one more try

Grammy night was mostly victorious for Adele, but not everything went as planned. She was chosen to lead a heartfelt tribute to George Michael, who died on Christmas Day last year at age 53. No other artists took part in the homage, for which Michael’s upbeat dance-pop song “Fastlove” was converted into a mournful ballad driven by a slowly plinking piano note, weeping strings, and Adele’s plaintive vocals. Unfortunately, shortly into the performance something malfunctioned, and Adele insisted on starting the tribute over. The mood was lost, and despite the wall of photos dedicated to remembering Michael’s life, the focus immediately shifted. The performance became less of a memorial to Michael and more about a diva’s effort to nail every note.

LOW: God only knows why the In Memoriam segment was so brief

Speaking of tributes, while it was touching to hear John Legend and Broadway star Cynthia Erivo sing a slowed-down, piano-fronted version of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” during this year’s In Memoriam segment, God only knows why so many worthy artists were omitted. Obviously, this would have been the perfect moment to pay tribute to Al Jarreau, who died on Grammy day at age 76; instead, a cappella group Pentatonix merely mentioned his passing before performing a snippet of a recent Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, the Jackson 5’s “ABC.” Other overlooked noteworthy names included Suicide frontman Alan Vega, TV songwriter Alan Thicke, Dead or Alive singer Pete Burns, ex-Megadeth drummer Nick Menza, slain Voice star Christina Grimmie, ska legend Prince Buster, PM Dawn’s Prince Be, rapper Shawty Lo, Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt, and former Beastie Boys member John Berry.

HIGH: Bruno Mars parties like it’s 1999

Who knew Bruno Mars could shred on an electric guitar? This tribute went much more smoothly than Adele’s homage to George Michael. The “Uptown Funk” singer was the perfect choice to lead Prince’s former colleagues the Time through a spirited version of “Let’s Go Crazy.” Before he took the stage, the Time began the tribute with a pair of their own (Prince-penned) songs, “Jungle Love” and “The Bird,” with original vocalist Morris Day. The bass was elastic and the beat was grooving. Then Day shouted, “It’s the last call for alcohol. You ain’t got to go home, but you got to keep the party going!” That was Mars’s cue to step up and steal the show. It wasn’t just his vocals that brought back the spirit of the late music legend. He had the moves, and he certainly had the attitude. Maybe it was the sparkly purple jacket that possessed Mars to climax the song with a speedy, electrifying guitar solo that Prince himself would have applauded. Whatever the cause, Mars shined like the sequins on his outfit.

HIGH: Adele says “Hello”

Thankfully, the aforementioned “Fastlove” wasn’t Adele’s only performance of the night. She opened the show on a stage bathed in darkness, looking gorgeous in a Givenchy dress as she sang from the depths of her soul, turning an apology to an old boyfriend into a wounded triumph of emotion. This was classic Adele at her very best.

HIGH and LOW: Beyoncé gives the mother of all crazy Grammys performances

Of course, we must give Beyoncé credit for even showing up to perform at the Grammys while pregnant with twins. And she certainly deserves props for trying to put together a provocative, intricately choreographed spectacle that showcased her nine-times-nominated musical triumph Lemonade. But there’s such thing as taking a multidimensional, dramatic display a bit too far. Her act included visual special effects, flowing scarves, and a skimpy outfit that highlighted her pregnant body. It seems like the display was meant to showcase her femininity and her maternal pride, but much of the message got lost in the glitz. Sure, the sound collage that weaved through her medley of “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” was poetic and meaningful. What wasn’t so inspiring were the over-the-top theatrics, the children dancing in circles, the raining confetti, and, most of all, Beyoncé parading around in a pointy golden tiara like a goddess, even sitting on a throne at one point. There’s art, and then there’s pretension. Beyoncé’s Grammys display came across like, well, pretentious art.

HIGH: The Weeknd and Daft Punk create a new random access Grammys memory

It was strangely appropriate, and probably not coincidental, that Paris Jackson introduced the Weeknd’s performance of his very Michael Jackson-esque Starboy track, “I Feel It Coming.” Backed by the song’s helmet-headed collaborators, elusive electro-duo Daft Punk, the Weeknd sounded fresh and funky. And although he carried the performance for the most part, the moment was notable for being Daft Punk’s return to the stage since the 2014 Grammys, when they jammed on “Get Lucky” with Stevie Wonder and took home the award for Album of the Year.

LOW: The Bee Gees’ tribute is a “Tragedy”

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever, an odd batch of performers gathered for a bizarre and disjointed medley of Bee Gees hits. (Honestly, the Weeknd and Daft Punk would have been much more appropriate for this.) Demi Lovato appeared with her hair pressed, wearing an outfit that made her look like mid-’70s Cher, and she started the bootie-shaking homage with “Stayin’ Alive.” Lovato sounded inspired and excited, but, as often happens when the Grammys try to pack too much into a medley, the tribute quickly became a head-scratcher and veered into cruise-ship/hotel-lounge territory. Tori Kelly, holding a guitar she barely even played, led the band into “Tragedy” — which is what the charade quickly became, even before Little Big Town sang “How Deep Is Your Love.” Andra Day shimmied through “Night Fever,” and then everyone concluded with a reprise of “Stayin’ Alive.” Seriously, once was enough.

HIGH: Katy Perry throws a political party

Rocking a Hillary Clinton-esque white pantsuit, “RESIST” armband, and rose-colored glasses, a newly blond Perry performed her just-released single, “Chained to the Rhythm,” which is loosely about clinging to the illusion of freedom. Building her performance around subtle metaphors, she started inside a house surrounded by a white picket fence — i.e., the American dream. The house soon collapsed like a deck of cards, and pieces spun through the air, before Perry joined Bob Marley’s grandson Skip, who sang the song’s refreshing reggae passage. As the performance ended, the two artists held hands, and the back of the stage set lit up with the preamble to the Constitution. This grown-up Katy clearly isn’t the fluffy pop star who used to wear whipped-cream brassieres and sing about teenage dreams.

HIGH: A Tribe Called Quest are for the people

Other artists besides Perry alluded to the instability in America and the friction under the Trump administration, but A Tribe Called Quest took things to a bold new level. “I want to thank President Agent Orange for perpetuating all the evil you can perpetuate in the United States,” shouted Tribe’s guest collaborator Busta Rhymes, before the group burst into an explosive medley dedicated to former member Phife Dawg, who died last year. Tribe’s message rang out loud and clear, especially during “We the People”: “All you Mexicans, you must go…/All of you bad folks, you must go. Resist, resist, resist!”

LOW: Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood pack little punch on “The Fighter”

As the synthetic beat for this very un-Urbanesque and not-really-very-country song thumped away, Urban was joined by Carrie Underwood, who looked beautiful and sounded great, but appeared self-conscious when she wasn’t singing. Much of time Underwood shimmied and wiggled around the stage awkwardly, looking a little too much like a woman dancing by herself at a college reunion after a few too many glasses of champagne punch.

LOW: Carly Rae Jepsen and Lil Yachty’s Target commercial misses the mark

Technically, this wasn’t part of the Grammys broadcast, but the show announcer actually mentioned this collaboration — a remake of Rob Bass and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” — before cutting to the commercial. The slick advertisement had none of the charm of Gwen Stefani’s Target promo at last year’s Grammys, instead featuring the performers dancing with Swiffers and blatantly shilling various other products. You know, Target’s slogan is “Expect More.” Exactly.

LOW: Sturgill Simpson’s collab has horns, lots of corn

It’s tragic that the Dap-Kings lost their dynamite vocalist Sharon Jones last November to pancreatic cancer, and it was admirable that the Grammys wanted to give them a slot on the show. But they could have chosen a better artist to pair with the Dap-Kings horns than American singer and Best Country Album winner Sturgill Simpson. Simpson strummed away on “All Around You” and sang with conviction, but he was surrounded by way too many horns, turning what could have otherwise been an intimate performance into a hokey spectacle — reminiscent of when a really cool solo artist goes on a talk show and has to play with the house band. Cue sad trombone.

HIGH: Ed Sheeran gets into “Shape”

In contrast to the many Grammys performers who seemed to think more is more, Ed Sheeran stripped his performance down to its bare essence. Playing alone with an acoustic guitar, pedalboard, and synthesizer, he captivated the crowd with his latest No. 1 single, “Shape of You,” never resorting to complex lighting, smoke, or any mirrors. A funky folk-pop storyteller with a great stage presence who says a lot with very little, Sheeran crooned, “Last night you were in my room, and now my bedsheets smell like you,” revealing sentiment without being sappy. As he played, he looped his guitar lines with his effect pedals, turning them into percussive passages that he strummed over. Sheeran’s spirited performance might even have made his pal Taylor Swift wish she decided to attend the Grammys this year.