54th Annual Grammy Awards (Concert) on Feb 12, 2012

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles being broadcast on CBS honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. LL Cool J hosted the show. It was the first time in seven years that the event had an official host. Nominations were announced on November 30, 2011 on prime-time television as part of “The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music’s Biggest Night”, a one-hour special broadcast live on CBS from Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live. Kanye West received the most nominations with seven. Adele, Foo Fighters, and Bruno Mars each received six nominations. Lil Wayne, Skrillex, and Radiohead all earned five nominations. The nominations were criticised by many music journalists as Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy missed out on a nomination for Album of the Year despite being highly critically acclaimed and topping many end of year charts. West’s album went on to win Best Rap Album.

A total of 78 awards were presented following the Academy’s decision to restructure the Grammy Award categories. Paul McCartney received the MusiCares Person of the Year award on February 10, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, two nights prior to the Grammy telecast. […]

The day before the ceremony, Whitney Houston died in Los Angeles, and the show’s producers quickly planned a tribute in the form of Jennifer Hudson singing Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”. The awards show began with a Bruce Springsteen performance followed by an LL Cool J prayer for Whitney Houston. Adele won all of her six nominations, equalling the record for most wins by a female artist in one night, first held by Beyoncé. Adele became only the second artist in history, following Christopher Cross in 1981, to have won all four of the general field (Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year) awards throughout her career. Foo Fighters and Kanye West followed with five and four awards, respectively

From paulmccartney.com, January 19, 2012:

It has been confirmed that Paul will perform at this year’s GRAMMY Awards. It will be the 54^th Annual GRAMMY Awards ceremony, taking place in Los Angeles on 12^th February. […] The ceremony will be hosted by LL Cool J and will also feature performances from the likes of Foo Fighters, Rihanna and Coldplay.

Paul McCartney also received the Award for Best Historical Album, for the re-edition of “Band On The Run“.

The participation in the Grammy event was part of a very busy week for Paul McCartney in Los Angeles. As remembered by his publicist Stuart Bell:

Once he touched down in LA, it was quite astonishing what Paul packed into just one week And the coverage? Well, in the space of a week Paul enjoyed the sort of media attention a normal artist could only dream about getting during their entire career. During the trip, Paul was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, performed a special concert which was streamed globally on iTunes, was honoured as the MusiCares Person of the Year (with the likes of Neil Young, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, James Taylor and Katy Perry paying tribute to Paul), won a Grammy and performed twice on the show. The first performance was of ‘My Valentine’ along with Diana Krall, with Joe Walsh on guitar. Then Paul closed the prestigious ceremony with ‘Golden Slumbers’, which ended with an onstage jam with Rusty, Brian, Joe Walsh, Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen! A true one-off moment which takes my breath away just remembering it.
Stuart Bell.

At the 2012 Grammys, you played the Abbey Road medley at the end. It’s you, Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, and Paul all taking solos at the end. What was that moment like for you?

We’d done some of that where different people sit in. Joe had sat in before. We’d done some stuff with Dave. That was another fantastic moment. Fortunately, we had done it enough times. We knew the deal. When you have this thing where there’s three guitars, you have to get used to, “You go first, you go second…” Then there’s four people, five people … You really have to keep an eye on the order of events, who just went, who goes after. It actually worked out. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a real celebratory event.

That’s a word I use a lot, “celebratory.” The whole thing is such a celebration, playing these shows with Paul. It’s a celebration of him. It’s a celebration of this incredible music and the Beatles. It’s a celebration of this era. It’s a celebration of people’s lives. It just all comes together.

It’s five of the biggest rock stars in history and you playing together.

I don’t really know how to connect all those dots. But you don’t have any choice in my position. You just do things. There it is. And it seems to be working.

When you share a mic with Paul for the “love you” coda at the end, you’re completely taking on the John role.

Yeah. I’ve done it so many times now. It’s part of the thing. It’s fun. It’s a moment. It’s not lost on me. I feel very, very lucky.
Rusty Anderson – Interview with Rolling Stone – October 11, 2023

Sir Paul McCartney performs onstage at The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 12, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl perform onstage at The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 12, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney perform onstage at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on February 12, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

Last updated on October 15, 2023

Staples Center

This was the 8th concert played at Staples Center.

A total of 10 concerts have been played there • 2002 • May 4th • Oct 28th • 2005 • Nov 29th • Nov 30th • 2006 • Feb 8th • 2009 • Feb 8th • 2012 • Feb 10th • Feb 12th • 2014 • Jan 26th • 2015 • Feb 8th