TV audiences may have grown bored with the 56th annual Grammy Awards, but the audience at Los Angeles’ Staples Center maintained a high level of excitement throughout the show Sunday.
The audible thrills started with Beyonce and Jay Z’s sexy performance and plateaued during collaborations between Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons and later when Stevie Wonder joined Daft Punk. TheWrap was inside the Staples Center for all the action — as it happened.
Here of 24 of the seen-and-heard highlights from our reporter on the scene:
3:15 Grammy Award winning music legend Bill Withers’ wife and daughter, all dressed up for the ceremony, at the Starbucks outside Staples Center. Withers won a Grammy for historical album.
4:52 Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich takes stage and asks everyone to sit down and clear aisles. He tells the crowd,”There are things you are going to see here tonight that you’ve never seen on television, let alone live.” He goes on to say, “We’ve got royalty tonight.” Then he talks to Taylor Swift from the stage and asks if she will have fun tonight.
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4:59 Ehrlich cut off by voice on speaker saying, “Five seconds…”
5:04 Crowd goes wild when Jay-Z joins Beyoncé onstage.
5:15 After accepting Best New Artist, Macklemore tries to exit stage down the front but re-directed to exit through the back while Ryan Lewis exits via the front.
5:20 Lorde receives standing ovation from the music industry’s A-list attendees seated in the front section.
5:24 Crowd asked to applaud LL Cool J.
5:47 The biggest applause of the evening so far goes to Robin Thicke and Chicago’s performance.
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6:04 Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear leave the stage all arm-in-arm as a foursome after winning Best Rock Song.
6:22 Pink‘s performance draws rousing applause with the audience jumping to its feet all throughout the venue. The singer’s aerial stunts had the audience in awe gasping. As of this time in the telecast, Pink’s performance was clearly in the top spot based on chitter-chatter among audience.
6:24 When Lorde exits the stage, audience murmurs of, “Awe, she is only 17.”
6:36 While accepting his award for best rap/sung collaboration for “Holy Grail,” Jay-Z scores biggest laugh of the night when he refers to his Grammy award: “Blue, Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you.”
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6:50 Audience blown away by Kendrick Lamar performance with Imagine Dragons. People dancing and lots of whistles and screams as Lamar amps up the room’s energy to new heights.
6:51 Noticeable downturn of energy in the room when country artist Kacey Musgraves performs and pales in comparison to Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons.
7:07 When nominees for Best Pop Vocal Album are being announced, audience members in some of the upper sections of the venue scream out for Lorde to win just before Unorthodox Jukebox announced as winners.
7:30 Majority of audience jumps to their feet dancing and singing along to Stevie Wonder and Daft Punk live collaboration of “Get Lucky.” Loudest so far of the night of the applause-o-meter — clapping, whistles, screams.
7:32 Ehrlich takes the stage and tells the audience they are witnessing history with the performances on the show.
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7:38 Daft Punk, during a commercial break, pose with Nile Rodgers in front row for photographers.
7:42 Pink, being escorted back to her seat after a restroom break, receives applause and cheers as she walks past audience members on way to take her seat.
8:00 Pharrell gives hug to Nile Rodgers onstage just before they all exit the stage from Daft Punk winning Record of the Year. Thomas Bangalter, of Daft Punk, holds his award up in the air facing the crowd just before he exits stage.
8:13 Entire audience on feet clapping and cheering after Madonna, Queen Latifah and Macklemore.
8:17 Some audience members confused whether or not the show is over.
8:36 While Random Access Memories onstage accepting Album of the Year, lots of people in the audience begin to leave the venue after being at Staples for almost four hours.
8:44 Everyone leaving. Various audience members discussing how little battery they have left on phones due to shooting videos all night.