The Grammys 2014: five things we learned

Pharrell, who won producer of the year, wore the most baffling hat that has ever existed: a thing brown, bulbous, misshapen and large enough for some to wonder whether he might in fact be hiding Bruno Mars within. Comparisons were made, unkindly, to Smokey the Bear, Canadian mounties and the Hogwart's Sorting Hat. @Pharrellhat lived for a brief and beautiful moment last night before being suspended. Quite possibly someone put a hex on it, because …2. Goth-wiccan was absolutely the theme of the nightFrom Lorde's black-dipped talons and gargoyle visuals, to Katy Perry's budget-Tim Burton bacchanal, it felt like everyone had watched The Craft the night before and shared a Google doc to elect "witchy" as the aesthetic du jour. Or, really, du nuit. Poor Steven Tyler, in his wedding-singer white suit, busting out the disco roll arms, seemed to be the only one who didn't get the memo.3. Blue Ivy Carter has a new sippy cupBeyoncé, looking something beyond flawless, and joined by a tuxedoed Jay Z, opened the show with an impossibly seductive and predictably saucy performance of Drunk in Love before spending the rest of the night swirling cognac in her glass and eyeing every other performer with queenly hauteur. Her finest moment of being not-even-that-impressed came when her husband won best Grammy for best rap/sung collaboration. Jay Z raised the award in the air and said, "I wanna tell Blue – look Daddy got a gold sippy cup for you." If we'd been granted a cutaway, we'd probably have seen an infinitesimally raised eyebrow from La Yoncé.4. There are people in this world who believe Kendrick Lamar isn't as good as MacklemoreEven Macklemore himself has said, "Kendrick has a better rap album," and Lamar losing out to him for both best new artist and rap album felt like the biggest injustice in an evening of many (Kanye's absence was particularly conspicuous). But even if he didn't win any actual Grammys, Lamar still won the night – his collaboration with Imagine Dragons was electrifying – the most exciting performance, and more eye-opening even than Queen Latifah plus a curiously geriatric looking Madonna dressed as Colonel Sanders presiding over a mass wedding of 33 gay and straight couples. It may have felt like a mass hallucination, but the marriages – a coda to Macklemore's performance of gay marriage anthem Same Love – were apparently completely legitimate.5. Robots hug tooDaft Punk accepts a Grammy awardDaft Punk cleaned up, winning album of the year for Random Access Memories and both record of the year and best pop duo/group performance for Get Lucky. Watching robots accept awards is, it turns out, strangely touching. Their hugs were tender and careful and their modest nods as they took their tiny gold gramophones spoke louder than, well, the very many old white men (Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails and Lindsey Buckingham) who brought the show to an overdue end.(theguardian.com)ANN.Az