Taylor Swift responded to Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ diss in the most iconic way at the 2016 Grammys. As she took the stage to accept her award for the Album of the Year, Taylor began “I want to thank fans for the last 10 years and the Recording Academy for giving us this unbelievable honour. I want to thank all of my collaborators that you see on this stage; mostly I want to thank my co-executive producer Max Martin who has deserved to be up here for 25 years.”
Taunting Kanye, she said “And as the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”
“But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you are going, you will look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there. And that will be the greatest feeling in the world. Thank you for this moment,” she concluded.
Kanye had rapped in his infamous ‘Famous’ track: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” and added “Why? I made that b*tch famous.”
Lady Gaga’s rocking tribute to David Bowie
Channelling Bowie’s glam rock alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, with red-orange hair, sparkling makeup, a white embellished suit, white shoes and a light pink feathered boa, Gaga sang a variety of his songs, opening with ‘Space Oddity’. She also rocked out while performing tracks such as ‘Suffragette City,’ ‘Fashion’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ and closed with the moving ballad ‘Heroes.’
Bowie died at age 69 on January 10, 2016.
Adele’ unfortunate technical issues
Adele’s return to stage had a bit of glitch to it and no one was happy. The 27-year-old songstress began her performance with ‘All I Ask’ which she co-wrote with Bruno Mars (who also introduced her performance). However, something wasn’t right with the audio playback during the livestream of the performance, causing her to sound a little muted at different moments. Despite going with the flow like a true performer, people could not help but comment on the audio malfunction during what was the most anticipated performance of the Grammys 2016.
Kendrick Lamar’s politically charged performance
Lamar approached the stage shackled up in a jail setting, and began with a verse from his debut single off the album, The Blacker the Berry, before stripping himself of the cuffs around his hands, and dancing under backlight in glow-in-the-dark outfits with his dancers.
Then, the rapper shoots over to the other side of the stage to perform in front of a large audience as a number of people performed an African tribal dance in the background.
Kendrick closed the show with an image of an outline of his city Compton in the background.
Beyoncé’s surprise appearance
Beyoncé stepped out onstage to present the final award of the night, Record of the Year, wearing a daring, long sleeve, white, lace, semi-sheer gown with glittering embellishments, a high button-down collar and two thigh-high slits. She paired the look with metallic sandals and large, glittering, diamond-shaped earrings.