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The Best
Adele: Everything we could have hoped for. Well, that’s not exactly true. A second song would have been nice.
Rihanna: “We Found Love” — this song is as irresistible as it is inescapable, and Rihanna made it come to vibrant life.
Bruce Springsteen: The Boss’s new single, “We Take Care of Our Own,” is unspectacular, but the E Street Band’s power-in-numbers performance got the show off to a roaring start.
Glen Campbell: A touching public farewell for the Alzheimer’s-stricken singer who elicited plenty of smiles with a fun romp through “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
Good Enough
Bruno Mars: He’s no James Brown, but it’s not for lack of effort. All those fleet-footed moves and that pompadour still didn’t move.
Alicia Keys & Bonnie Raitt: With tributes, you want tender and classy. These two personify those qualities, and their version of Etta James’s “Sunday Kind of Love” was just that.
Foo Fighters: Despite plenty of energetic head-banging, hand-clapping and Slayer T-shirt wearing from frontman Dave Grohl, this performance still felt perfunctory.
Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson: Put Clarkson in a duet with any dude — Aldean will do — and she has the voice to make it work.
Maroon 5/Foster the People/Beach Boys: A head-scratching combination of bands to join the reunited pop icons, but you can’t argue with hearing Brian Wilson singing “Good Vibrations.”
Paul McCartney: His mid-show performance of “My Valentine” from his new standards album didn’t hit the spot, but a show-closing jam on the Beatles’ “The End” with Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen made up for it.
Taylor Swift: A fine live performance of a song written about writers who criticized her voice in live performances.
Jennifer Hudson: Her tribute to Whitney Houston wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t need to be. It was touching, heartfelt and well done.
The Civil Wars: Country newcomers seemed to zip through their performance, but they’ll be back in future years.
Blake Shelton: Nothing spectacular, nothing embarrassing.
Tony Bennett & Carrie Underwood: It would have been nice to see Lady Gaga — who was also on Bennett’s “Duets II” album — up there instead.
The Worst
Chris Brown: Lots of gyrating, thrusting, jumping, flipping and even more lip-synching. At least he didn’t get the standing ovation he seemed to be expecting.
Coldplay: Sometimes Coldplay gets a bad rap for being a boring band. They earned that rap tonight, though.
Katy Perry: Fake technical difficulties for a fake singer.
Deadmau5/Chris Brown/Lil Wayne/Foo Fighters: Chris Brown — Chris Brown — gets two performances? This was as much of a mess as you’d expect it to be based on this combination of artists.
A Category of Her Own
Nicki Minaj: Even after sleeping on it, it’s hard to comprehend what we witnessed with this performance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ertainment_pop
