Adele - Recovering from throat surgery, she gave an amazing performance of "Rolling in the Deep." She swept the night, and deserved it for saving the music industry. 2011 was the first time since 2004 that sales increased, and she was the reason. Without her album, they would have decreased again. And she may have spurred people into actually buying other albums as well. 21 has currently sold 6.5 Million Copies (the biggest sales total since 2004), and is on its way to 7 million, and possibly even 8 million before 2013.
Bruno Mars - It was like a mix between Elvis with his moves and Prince with his sound, and I was surprised how good it was. I didn't know much about him before the show, besides "Grenade", but I may have to download "Runaway Baby."
Paul McCartney - He ended the night with an outstanding performance of the "Golden Slumbers Medley" (joined by Bruce Springsteen & Dave Grohl) from the epic 16 minute Abbey Road Medley, which is the ending to The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road. Music lovers should own Abbey Road already, if you don't, well what are you waiting for?
Jennifer Hudson - Performed Whitney Houston's classic "I Will Always Love You." She really did the song justice, one of the few who can, and it was a fitting tribute to Whitney and all the musicians lost in the past year. Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt also did a wonderful job performing a tribute to Etta James. And none of them needed auto-tune or lip syncing, which brings me to the worst...
Worst performance of the night: Chris Brown. I just don't get him. After beating Rihanna he did another thing that irked me, allegedly, when he performed a tribute to Michael Jackson in 2009 and its rumored someone saw him use eye drops to make tears. Trying to use a death to your advantage? Not the way to go. Jennifer Hudson showed how it is done.
WTF? - Nicki Minaj. She performed that seemed based on 1975 horror classic The Exorcist. It was strange even for Lady GaGa. And the song was weak. She would have been better off performing "Super Bass" and bringing Sophia Grace and Rosie on stage. It would have been a feel good moment that still had people talking.
The Foo Fighters also gave two killer performances, and The Beach Boys reunited. The Beach Boys don't sound quite as good, but it was still nice to hear some classic songs. They forgot to call Uncle Jesse aka John Stamos.
