Daft Punk very lucky indeed

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This article was published 27/01/2014 (4583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES — Daft Punk claimed record of the year for Random Access Memories and album of the year for their summer smash Get Lucky, giving the French dance duo five trophies at the 56th Grammy Awards.

Collaborator Pharrell Williams spoke for the French dance duo, who were hidden as always under helmets.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis had four trophies and the Seattle hip-hop breakouts swept the major rap categories. The Thrift Shop rappers also won best new artist.

Meanwhile, Lorde won two Grammys including song of the year and Justin Timberlake was also a double winner.

Royals, Lorde’s deadpan indictment of pop-star consumption run amok, was named song of the year Sunday, extending the success of a tune that spent nine straight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

A songwriting prize, the Grammy went to Lorde — a 17-year-old New Zealander — and Joel Little, who also produced the track. In its recorded form, Royals was nominated as record of the year and in the pop solo performance category; Lorde’s album Pure Heroine earned a nod as pop vocal album, too.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis trumped competition including Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Toronto’s Drake — who entered the day with five nominations but lost four of them during the lengthy pre-telecast — to win best rap song, performance and album before claiming best new artist.

“Hoooo. Wow, we’re here on this stage right now,” said an apparently disbelieving Macklemore, standing next to a silent Lewis. “First and foremost, I want to thank our fans, the people that got us on this stage, before there was any media, before there was any buzz about us, before there was a story there were our fans and it spread organically through them, so without them there would be no us. Shout out to anyone repping worldwide.

“I want to say we made this album without a record label, we made it independently, and we appreciate all the support.”

Daft Punk also won for best dance/electronica album for Random Access Memories and best pop/duo group performance for their summer-stealing Pharrell Williams collaboration Blurred Lines.

The pair took the stage clad in huge metal helmets and refused to speak, leaving Williams to do the talking.

“On the behalf of the robots, I’d just like to say, first of all, man, thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Williams, whose floppy tan hat — a little like a Mountie’s — inspired its own Twitter parody account even before the show started.

“Of course they want to thank their families,” he added to laughter. “And of course man, the incredible Nile (Rodgers) and everybody who worked on the record, man.”

The Grammys also included a reunion of the two surviving members of the Beatles as Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr joined forces for Queenie Eye, with the former seated at a brightly coloured piano at centre stage while Starr gamely slammed away on the drums behind him. The cameras captured Yoko Ono swaying to the music in the crowd.

Beyoncé opened the show with her new single Drunk in Love. With steam-sopped hair, she cavorted suggestively around a chair before a tuxedoed Jay Z bopped onstage and led his partner down the stairs by the hand, serenading her with his guest verse and briefly letting his hands fall to her waist as they danced together. The New York rap icon tossed his arm around the pop diva as they exited the stage together.

Later, Jay Z also delivered one of the evening’s most charmingly shambolic acceptance speeches after winning best rap/sung collaboration for his Justin Timberlake hookup Holy Grail. After thanking songwriter The-Dream and Timberlake and “all the typical things,” he addressed his wife Beyoncé in the audience.

“I want to thank God — a little bit for this award, but mostly for that and all the universe for conspiring (and) putting that beautiful light of a young lady in my life,” he said before hoisting the Grammy up. “I want to tell (daughter) Blue that, look, daddy got a gold sippy cup for you.”

During the show, a purple-caped Katy Perry emerged out of a semi-opaque crystal ball to sing her throbbing Darkhorse on a dark forest-themed stage covered with twisty trees and prowling black-clad dancers. By the end of the song, Juicy J watched while Perry — now wearing, for whatever reason, a light-up bikini top — posed with her head tilted back in a tower of flames.

Pink dazzled without props in a flashback to her gravity-defying Glitter in the Air performance four years ago. Suspended high in the air by four wires, she twirled, somersaulted and flipped as she performed Try before being caught by a shirtless dancer and joined onstage by Nate Ruess of fun.

While Drake went home empty-handed in the pre-telecast, he technically still held a nomination for album of the year for his featured role on Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. The news was better for fellow Canadians, including Michael Bublé — who won his fourth career trophy for best traditional pop vocal album but didn’t attend the ceremony — and the Montreal-based Jennifer Gasoi, who won best children’s album.

Elsewhere, Adele claimed her 10th Grammy — this time best song written for visual media for her Skyfall theme — while Rihanna picked up her seventh and the rock supergroup composed of Nirvana members and Paul McCartney won for best rock song.

“I have to say that we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Paul and for Ringo (Starr),” said Dave Grohl. “We banged this out in a couple hours.”

Added McCartney: “He’s right. He said to me, come along and we’ll do a jam on Long Tall Sally. I said we’ve been there, we’ve done that. We should just make something up.’ And this was it.”

Bruno Mars won for best pop vocal album for his Unorthodox Jukebox.

— The Canadian Press