Muppets, Gaga, and Esperanza at Grammy Awards

Listen to Tom’s Grammy Awards review

Last night’s Grammy Awards showcased the young Justin Bieber and the old Mick Jagger, the famous and sometimes the unheard of.

“What the hell?” Those were the first words out of the mouth of a surprised Arcade Fire member after their unexpected win of the biggest Grammy of them all, Best Album. Arcade Fire, an alternative rock band from Montreal, had a critically acclaimed album, but was considered a longshot, at best, to knock off high-profile artists like Eminem, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Lady Antelbellum.

Speaking of Lady Antebellum, they did win the two other most prestigious awards: Best Record and Best Song.

In fact, until Arcade Fire’s surprise win, I was thinking: What is this, the Country Music Awards? So many of the Grammys went Lady Antebellum’s way; five in total.

Speaking of surprises, the biggest one of the night was for Best New Artist. Four of the five nominees, including mega-sellers Justin Bieber and rapper Drake, performed on stage last night, but it was the 5th nominee, the nearly unheard of Esperanza Spalding, a jazz bassist and singer, who took home the prize.

More than the awards, the Grammys are about the show and there were some real showstoppers. The craziest wasn’t Lady Gaga, although she was carried on stage inside an opaque egg, but Ce-Lo Green’s version of his catchy F song (turned into Forget You for the network). Performing it with Gwyneth Paltrow and a stage full of Muppets, Ce-Lo himself looked like a heavyweight muppet butterfly spawned by Elton John.