Ranking all the performances from the 2024 Grammy Awards

The solid 2024 Grammy performances

STEVIE WONDER

Wow – this kills me. Stevie Wonder may be the greatest pop musician of my lifetime and he proved he could still sing with his tribute to Tony Bennett. I think this was one of those ideas that looked better on paper. Wonder and Bennett had performed together and both had success with “For Once in My Life.” Let’s use some technical wizardry to make it appear as if they are singing it again. I don’t know about that. Just seems a little creepy to me. Plus, there was a brief technical glitch transitioning into Wonder’s second number “The Best is Yet to Come” – which Stevie nailed, by the way.

BILLIE EILISH

“What Was I Made For?” was a deserving winner of Best Song. It’s a great song. I have never been sold on Eilish’s overly breathy performance of it, and that was on display last night. There were a couple of moments when her voice dropped a bit and the song actually sounded stronger. I’m hoping to hear her exercise the lower parts of her register down the road. (Oh yeah – Finneas was playing piano – don’t want to omit him.)

BURNA BOY

The historical significance of Burna Boy – both as an artist and as a Grammy performer – cannot be understated. But I found his performance surprisingly tame. I mean, maybe not tame by the standards of you and me, but tame by Burna Boy standards.

MILEY CYRUS

We’re pretty much up to the level where everything was really good by this point. Miley Cyrus did “Flowers” and she did it very well, dropping in some great ad-libs along the way. But she also did a little bit of an Ed Grimley shimmy at the end of the first verse which costs you in these rankings.