Despite an exciting year in music, the Grammys, which aired on Feb. 8, were anything but exuberant. There was an interesting pattern throughout the night as Maroon 5, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande, all chose to perform ballads from their respective albums. These songs were not singles and awkward choices for a night that was supposed to celebrate the past year in music. These performances would have been fine if the Grammys had more of a balance between ballads and upbeat songs, but the overwhelming amount of slow songs made the show mostly a downer the whole night.

A diamond in the rough, Sia brought her quirkiness to the awards show through her performance of “Chandelier” featuring the dancing of Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night Live fame and Maddie Ziegler, best known from the song’s popular music video. Other stunners were Annie Lennox and Hozier, who both slayed “Take Me To Church” and “I Put A Spell On You,” and Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, who showed off their jazz chops in “Cheek to Cheek.”

As for the awards, it was a Sam Smith dominated night, with the singer taking home three out of the four major awards of the night. The major surprise of the night was Beck winning Album of The Year over Beyonce, which inspired #JusticeForBeyonce to trend worldwide on Twitter.

Overall, the 57th Grammy Awards were definitely repetitive and slow moving, mainly due to the ballads. Here’s hoping to a faster pace show next year.