Back to Best New Artist: It was a really strong category, which might mean it's been a stronger than usual year for new music. Yes? No?
Also interesting is that the Best New Artist nominees all have such different sounds. Alabama Shakes and Fun. are opposite ends of the spectrum, musically, though they're both incredible.
Hunter Hayes is here, and he's torn into "Wanted," off his 2012 debut album. Great relationship song -- one of the many that make the ladies love this young, sweet-faced crooner.
Great little heart-melter of a song, which accounts for why it earned Hayes a GRAMMY nod for Best Country Solo Performance.
Hunter Hayes: One to watch. Understated performance.
Maybe fellow nominees the Lumineers voted for Best New Artist winners Fun.. Here's what the Lumineers' Wesley Schultz had to say about them:
"[When] you hear their songwriting, you can tell that they've been doing it for a really long time," said the Lumineers' Wesley Schultz.
Did you know? Hunter Hayes is currently touring as a special guest on Carrie Underwood's tour.
Carrie Underwood is up, keeping things country onstage. Keeping it country in a ball gown, no less.
The set matches the song: she's being blown away. While simultaneously blowing us away with a characteristically fierce, emotional vocal.
Now the blonde country crooner has segued into another hit from 2012's "Blown Away" album, "Two Black Cadillacs." It, too, is sort of about revenge. I'm detecting a theme …
… remember "Before He Cheats," another Underwood hit? That was about revenge, too. Hmm.
This is an ominous song, centered around a cheating husband whose wife and mistress team up to kill him. Thus all the moody effects. The two black Cadillacs of the title represent the cars the two wronged women show up in at the funeral.
Despite the macabre theme, this may be as pop-sounding as Carrie Underwood gets.
She's morphed into a butterfly!
