As was the case in 2024, the year last night's Grammys was honoring, it was the female performers who rocked the arena formerly known as Staples Center.
Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, and Chappell Roan looked the worldwide audience right in its unblinking eye and helped usher in a new look and sound for the often-stale award show.
Here are a handful of the best performances in what some are calling the most entertaining Grammys in a very long time.

Sabrina Carpenter
The sassy singer known for being short, sweet, and sporting the highest hemlines in pop music took a comical approach to displaying a medley of two of her hits to an audience that might not know her as intimately as readers of this website.
Carpenter's choreography was intentionally clumsy and riddled with missteps, falls, and mistakes. It was a lighthearted parody, in a way, of her own Short & Sweet Tour which often went off without a hitch.
It was actually a brilliant way to stand out in the hugely competitive categories she was nominated for because going head-to-head with the likes of Chappell Roan and Doechii is tough enough. It was also a nod to Goldie Hawn.
In the end Sabrina took home a pair of awards, Pop Vocal Album and Pop Solo Performance. Not bad for her first Grammys.
Her Short N' Sweet Tour continues next month when she heads to Europe to continue the fun.
Doechii
Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon aka Doechii aka The Swamp Princess continued her dominance that spiked in December and hit the national spotlight last night when she performed two tunes off her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape, "CATFISH" and "DENIAL IS A RIVER."
Shortly after her frenetic, gymnastic performance that culminated in ripping her suit off, she won the Grammy for Rap Album, upsetting veterans from Eminem to Common.
"This category was introduced in 1989," she said accepting the award next to her beaming mother. "Two women have won--THREE women have won! Lauryn Hill, Cardi B., and Doechii!"
Currently Doechii doesn't have any tour dates announced but don't be (too) surprised if you see her pop up during Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance Sunday and then share the bill on his tour with fellow labelmate SZA.
Cynthia Erivo
During a tribute for Quincy Jones, one of his peers Herbie Hancock provided the music for "Fly Me To The Moon" for Wicked star Cynthia Erivo. Fans of the film are well aware of what a talented performer the British actress is, but when she took on the 1950s tune made famous by Frank Sinatra she blew everyone to the stratosphere.
And then she took them all to a higher level when the curtain revealed a mini-big band and Erivo - who has previously won a Grammy (2017), an Emmy (2017), as well as a Tony (2016) - was really allowed to let go.
Erivo can become the 20th EGOT winner if she is awarded the Oscar next month from her portrayal of Elphaba Thropp. In 2017 she earned two Oscar nominations for her starring role as Harriet Tubman.
Janelle Monáe
Another highlight of the Quincy Jones tribute was when Janelle Monáe pulled off one of the toughest performances of all: singing and dancing in the style of Michael Jackson on "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."
The song was from the first album Jackson and Jones collaborated on, the 1979 hit Off The Wall and led to a beautiful relationship that would yield the most popular album of all, Thriller.
Even though Monáe tried to stick with late-'70s Jackson (no glove, a semi-afro, and a big bowtie), she couldn't help but moonwalk which is something the King of Pop didn't introduce until the Thriller-era '80s. Still, it worked.
At one point Monáe tossed her jacket off to reveal a shirt that read I <3 QJ. Who caught the jacket and put it on? Taylor Swift of course.
Chappell Roan
The Midwest Princess continued her fairytale victory lap. First it was through the spring and summer festival circuit where drew enormous crowds. And now it has concluded at the Grammys where even reporters have lost their minds when they see her and abruptly cut interviews short to be in her presence.
Sunday Chappell got to star in the most complex production of "Pink Pony Club" to date with countless dancing circus clowns and an enormous equine as she sang the now-familiar tale of disappointing her dear momma by admitting she loves to dance at a WeHo gay bar.
Her all-female band, also in clown costume, rocked the tune out as she straddled the two-story stallion. And when she said, "sing it!" the sold out attendees of the arena obeyed with a deep-throated turn at the chorus.
Minutes later when she was awarded a Grammy for Best New Artist she spent the majority of her acceptance speech focused on the music industry - whose most powerful members were sitting in front of her.
She explained that when she was dropped a few years ago from the label that had signed her as a teen, she suddenly found herself in a precarious situation without health insurance.
"I told myself if I ever won a Grammy and I got to stand up here in front of the most powerful people in music I would demand that labels and the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and healthcare, especially to developing artists because I got signed so young," she said, reading from what looked like a diary.
"I got signed as a minor, and when I got dropped I had zero job experience under my belt. Like most people, I had a difficult time finding a job in the pandemic and could not afford health insurance. It was so devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and so dehumanized to not have help. And if my label would have prioritized artists’ health I could have been provided care by a company I was giving everything to. So record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels we got you, but do you got us?" she asked to thunderous applause.
Chappell has a few summer festival tour dates on her calendar. But what we are all waiting for is a proper headlining tour. Stay tuned for that.