With awards season well underway, the 55th annual Grammy awards took place on Feb. 10. The Grammys honor popular music in various categories, such as Best New Artist, Best (Genre) Album of the Year, etc. They are also notorious for showcasing popular musicians’ various antics. The antics were plenty this year, beginning with Taylor Swift’s opening performance. She sang her hit song ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and enraged 12 year old girls across the nation by dissing her most recent ex- One Direction’s Harry Styles- by mimicking a British accent in her song. Following her performance, host LL Cool J gave his opening monologue (which was not rapped, much to my disappointment), and then Ed Sheeran and Elton John took to the stage to sing Sheeran’s hit ‘The A Team’ and gave one of my favorite performances of the night.

Other knockout performances included The Black Keys- who cleaned up this year, taking home Best Rock Album, Rock Performance, and Rock Song- teaming up with Dr. John (who sported a memorable Mardi Gras headdress) to sing Best Rock Song winner ‘Lonely Boy,’ and the tribute performance to The Band’s Levon Helm, which was a collaboration between Elton John, Mumford & Sons, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, Zac Brown, Mavis Staples, and T-Bone Burnett.

Another big winner of the night was Frank Ocean, who sang one of my favorite songs, ‘Forrest Gump’ against an incredibly cool video background- if you didn’t catch the performance, I highly recommend watching it on youtube. Ocean also won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z and Kanye (who was nowhere to be seen- perhaps with Kim?) for ‘No Church in the Wild’ and independently won Best Urban Contemporary album of the year. Upon winning, Chris Brown reaffirmed his position as the world’s worst human being and was the only one in the audience not to give Ocean a standing ovation, leaving viewers at home wondering for the millionth time, “Why, Rihanna?”The highlight of the night, however, was the long awaited return of Justin Timberlake, who sang his new songs ‘Suit and Tie’ and ‘Pusher Love Girl.’ His stage presence was fantastic, his falsetto exultant and his dancing spectacular. When following his performance he asked viewers, “Best Grammy’s ever?” even though until this point in the evening I had been watching with mild boredom, I couldn’t help but agree. For you, Justin. For you.