Grammys 2026: the Best and Worst Performances

“Apt.” has been inescapable for over a year, dominating Billboard’s global 2025 charts, so it runs the risk of sounding stale in 2026. Thankfully, Rosé and Bruno Mars breathed new life into their duet on the Grammys stage, delivering a rock-infused rendition to open the ceremony with a bang.

Sabrina Carpenter loves giving her live performances a theme, whether it’s descending from the heavens and kissing aliens at the VMAs in 2024, donning a black belt and hitting karate-inspired choreography on “Saturday Night Live” last year, or cosplaying as a baggage handler at the Grammys on Sunday.

The specific role she inhabits hardly matters, because Carpenter always sells it. The song she performed, “Manchild,” makes no reference to planes or airports, but as usual, she committed to the bit — with a smile on her face, a spring in her step, and pitch-perfect vocals.

Addison Rae did not have the strongest vocals among the Grammy performers, but vibrato and falsetto are not what have made her a star. Her debut album, “Addison,” earned just as much attention for its hypnotic pop music as for Rae’s savvy rollout, which featured eye-catching visuals (watch the music video for “Aquamarine,” you won’t be disappointed) and a flair for theatrics.

Rae is a born performer, and she proved exactly that on Sunday by hanging off the back of a truck, wearing a sparkly purple trenchcoat, and singing “Fame Is a Gun.” Camp!

For many pop music lovers, Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” was the highlight of 2025. As such, many fans were desperate to see Gaga’s weirdness and wonder showcased at the Grammys.

Those fans had their wish granted. Not only did Gaga win a handful of awards, including best pop vocal album and best dance pop recording for “Abracadabra,” but she also gave the standout performance of the night.

Tyler, the Creator didn’t give a predictable or static performance like many of his fellow nominees. Instead, he blended “Thought I Was Dead” from album of the year hopeful “Chromakopia” with “Sugar on My Tongue” from its follow-up album “Don’t Tap the Glass” into one dynamic production, complete with elaborate set pieces and a surprise cameo from Regina King.

Best new artist nominee Alex Warren seemed to suffer from playback issues when he took the stage on Sunday, but even perfect execution wouldn’t have improved his performance much.

Warren sang last summer’s big hit “Ordinary,” just as he did on the “Love Is Blind” season eight reunion, and then again on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and then at the 2025 American Music Awards, and then again at the 2025 VMAs… you get the picture. The ballad was already boring and dry upon release. Now, there’s truly no juice left to squeeze from it.

Lola Young is fresh, fun, and, yes, messy — that’s what makes her an interesting artist on the rise. Unfortunately, her debut Grammys performance was traditional, slow, and snoozy.

It makes sense that Young would want to showcase her vocal prowess on music’s biggest night, but by transforming her now-Grammy-winning hit “Messy” into a piano ballad, she stripped it of the quirks that helped it go viral in the first place.

Not long after delivering a Grammys highlight, Mars returned to the stage for a paint-by-numbers performance of his newest No. 1 hit, “I Just Might,” which lacked the novelty and energy of his duet with Rosé.