Grammy Awards 2026: 26 A-List Photos That Sum Up What The Awards Show Looked Like In 2016

It’s almost time to roll out the red carpet for the biggest night in music as this year’s Grammy Awards get underway.

Awards season always puts is in a bit of a nostalgic mood, whether we’re reflecting on show-stopping performances, A-list water cooler moments or some of the more surprising wins that no one could have seen coming.

But given the 2016 trend that’s been dominating social media since the start of the year, we’re feeling even more reflective than usual – and that year’s Grammys just happened to be one of the most action-packed of the modern era.

In 2016, for example, the guestlist included Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and Adele, with the headlines the next day being dominated by feud-settling acceptance speeches, divisive performances and some unusual red carpet fashion choices.

Here’s a closer look at what the Grammys looked like 10 years ago...

In the run-up to the Grammys, Taylor Swift had been keeping a low profile in that pre-Reptuation era, but broke her cover to walk red carpet with her BFF Selena Gomez (and a new bob)

Justin Bieber brought his little brother Jaxon as his guest, and didn’t he look thrilled to be there?

Ariana Grande wore this not-very-Ariana-Grande red ensemble, mere weeks before kicking off her Dangerous Woman album cycle

Sam Smith was also seemingly going through something of a transitional phase wardrobe-wise

Ciara certainly turned heads in this look

Adele was also on the guestlist, having not long unveiled her hit album 25

Someone who’s clearly been taking fashion risks for longer than you might think is Zendaya, who walked that 2016 red carpet in this bowl cut/mullet and suit combo

Lady Gaga’s red carpet look was an homage to her idol David Bowie, who had died just weeks earlier

During the show, Gaga and Nile Rodgers also performed a special tribute to Bowie, which got something of a mixed reception at the time

Adele’s number got an even frostier reaction thanks to some technical issues that had a knock-on effect on her vocals, which she later put down to a mishap involving a piano microphone

LL Cool J returned to host his fourth consecutive Grammys ceremony (before handing over the reins to James Corden the following year)

Interestingly, he and James Corden even presented together during the ceremony, introducing a tribute to Lionel Ritchie

Other on-stage numbers came from Taylor Swift, who opened the show with Out Of The Woods

A suited and booted The Weeknd gave an enthusiastic version of Can’t Feel My Face

The cast of Hamilton also made an appearance via video link to introduce much of the world to the jaw-dropping opening number from the hit show

Justin Bieber kept it pretty casj when it came to his performance

The Hollywood Vampires – made up of Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry and Tommy Henriksen – paid tribute to Motörhead’s Lemmy

The stand-out performance of the night came from Kendrick Lamar, whose medley of songs from To Pimp A Butterfly is still one of our favourite things we’ve ever seen on the Grammys stage

During the ceremony, Kendrick Lamar was also the night’s top winners, picking up five awards in total

Despite his success on the night, though, Kendrick Lamar controversially lost out on Album Of The Year to Taylor Swift, in the second of four record-breaking wins in this category for the I Knew You Were Trouble singer

The former collaborators also posed for a photo once the ceremony was over, making it clear there was no Bad Blood there

Other notable wins of the night included Meghan Trainor beating the likes of James Bay and Tori Kelly to the Best New Artist title, accepting the trophy from the previous year’s winner, Sam Smith

Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk scooped Record Of The Year (oh, and yes, that’s Beyoncé presenting the award)

The Song Of The Year prize, meanwhile, went to an unusually-smartly-dressed Ed Sheeran for his hit Thinking Out Loud

When it came to the awards, Taylor Swift ended the night by calling out Ye over his then-recent song Famous

Then came the final performance of the night, which involved Pitbull teaming up with Robin Thicke and Sofía Vergara entering the stage dressed as a taxi, because hey, why not?