LOS ANGELES: For a 17-year-old from New Zealand, it was a pretty good night at the Grammy Awards.
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Ella Yelich O’Connor, known worldwide as the chanteuse Lorde, didn’t dominate music’s biggest night like her homeland had hoped, but she still managed to claim two of the main trophies: Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Left in her wake were some of the titans of the industry, including Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Pink, Sara Bareilles and rapper Macklemore who sat in their seats and applauded the teenager when her name, not theirs, was called out as the winner.
‘‘To Bruno, to Sara, to Katy, to Justin, I have been so inspired by all of your vocal performances at some point in my life,’’ Lorde, paying tribute to her fellow nominees, said after winning Best Pop Solo Performance for her hit Royals.
Mars did halt the potential clean sweep when he won Best Pop Vocal Album for Unorthodox Jukebox ahead of Lorde’s album Pure Heroine and in the big award of the night, Record of the Year, Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers, trumped the Kiwi with their hit Get Lucky.
Daft Punk were the big winners of the night with Get Lucky winning the Best Pop/Duo Group Performance and their album Random Access Memories picking up Album of the Year, Best Dance/Electronica Album and Best Engineered Album.
Lorde’s co-writer and producer Joel Little reminisced on stage about their success after the Song of the Year win.
‘‘We made this song originally just to give away for free and to be here now in this room with so many legends and people we all admire is a complete honour, so thank you for that,’’ Little told the crowd inside Los Angeles’ 20,000 seat indoor Staples Center stadium.
On Australia Day and a year after Melbourne’s Gotye dominated with three Grammys, including Record of the Year for his hit Somebody That I Used to Know, Australians suffered an award drought.
Keith Urban (Best Country Duo/Group Performance), Perth psychedelic rock group Tame Impala (Best Alternative Music Album), The Greencards (Best Folk Album), Baz Luhrmann for The Great Gatsby soundtrack and Melbourne’s Hiatus Kaiyote (Best R&B Performance) all left the ceremony empty-handed.
Hiatus Kaiyote performed at the Grammy’s pre TV telecast ceremony and did not seem to mind going home empty-handed.
‘‘Pharrell Williams just said he liked us,’’ the quartet’s vocalist Nai Palm said on the red carpet.
The news was better for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, which had a significant role in four Grammy Award wins.
The orchestra worked on the classical album Winter Morning Walks, by US composer Maria Schneider and singer Dawn Upshaw, which dominated the Grammy classical categories.
The album won Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Best Classical Vocal Solo, Best Engineered Classical Album and helped David Frost win Classical Producer of the Year.
Ironically, Lorde, considered the breakout artist of the year, could not manage a nomination in the Best New Artist category, which Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won ahead of Kendrick Lamar, Kacey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran.
The Grammy ceremony has almost become more about live performances involving dream combinations than the awards, with this year’s punctuated with iconic acts.
Stevie Wonder joined Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams on stage to sing Get Lucky, Robin Thicke and classic rockers Chicago sang a classic medley and Macklemore and Lewis were joined on stage by Madonna for a performance that included the nuptials of 34 couples.
The Beatles’ surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s arrival in the US with a performance of a song from McCartney’s latest album, New.
The once secretive Beyonce and Jay-Z sang a steamy version of the diva’s Drunk In Love which forced TV network censors to bleep the lyrics three times.
When Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake won best rap/sung collaboration for Holy Grail, the rapper pointed to his trophy and sent a message to his two-year-old daughter Blue Ivy: ‘‘Daddy’s got a gold sippy cup for you.’’ - AAP