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    Here's why Lady Gaga performed without dancers at the 2026 Grammys

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    When Cher created that memorable mess by forgetting to present the Record of the Year award at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night, executive producer Ben Winston immediately spoke into host Trevor Noah's earpiece. “You need to get up and bring her back,” Winston remembers telling Noah, who grabbed a microphone and explained the situation. Cher returned to the stage, and named Luther Vandross, who died in 2005, as the winner. “I assure you that we gave her instructions and I assure you that what she had to do was written on the teleprompter,” says Winston, who however says he is amused by the mix-up. «If I could go back in time, I would want it to happen again. She is happy. She had a lot of fun. We need a bit of anarchy.”

    One day after the Grammy ceremony (here is the list of winners), Rolling Stone he got some behind the scenes story from Ben Winston in the podcast episode Rolling Stone Music Now.

    Justin Bieber's super-fast rehearsals

    Every artist who performs at the Grammys has 90 minutes of rehearsal time, but Bieber was pleased with his performance Yukon after just one test. “He went on stage and played it once,” Winston says. «It was fantastic. Only 7 and a half minutes had passed since the start of the tests. He asked me if I liked it, how it went. When I told him it was wonderful, he replied that we'd see each other on Sunday.” Bieber was about to leave, but Winston asked him to play it one more time, so that the cameramen could at least learn the song. Total duration of the tests: 15 minutes. Biebs' shirtless look wasn't necessarily planned, Winston adds: “I don't think he had decided what to wear until he went on stage.”

    Lady Gaga was unable to perform with the dancers

    Lady Gaga arrived from Japan the morning before the show, so there was no time to rehearse the dancers. Hence the choice of a minimalist and band-focused performance, with a powerful arrangement of Abracadabra thought by Andrew Watt. “If it had been in Los Angeles, there would have been a hundred dancers and it would have been a huge event,” Winston says. «But in reality this stimulated creativity. A few weeks before the show we thought maybe we should give up on her participation, because Gaga kept saying she didn't know what to do. Not only was it amazing that he made it, but I think it was also one of the most unforgettable performances. I think she is really proud of that performance because it was the result of her and her team's genius.” The close-ups of his face under the mask were taken with a camera mounted on a robotic arm, perhaps a first for an awards ceremony.

    Bruno Mars rearranged APT a few days before the ceremony

    The opening number was originally intended for the studio version of ATPhis collaboration with Rosé, but when Winston sat in with Mars and his band the Hooligans during rehearsals, the artist played him a new arrangement. «He told me that since it was the opening of the Grammys he didn't think we should have opted for the pop version. He wanted it to be more aggressive, more energetic.”

    At the Grammys you don't say no to a dove

    The dove on the Sabrina Carpenter show was a last minute idea. In fact, the dove was not part of Friday's tests. “Eric Cook, our wonderful co-executive producer, came to me and said, 'What do you think about the Sabrina Carpenter team's request to add a bird to the performance?'” Winston recalls. “At that point, when you're dealing with everything, you can't help but say yes.”

    Lauryn Hill does what she wants

    Lauryn Hill personally handled her tribute in the segment In Memoriam. The 11-minute performance honoring D'Angelo and Roberta Flack was much more ambitious than originally planned: Winston had envisioned Hill playing his collaboration with D'Angelo Nothing Even Matters And Killing Me Softly. “The initial request was four, four and a half minutes,” explains Winston. «And she replied that she would do it but paying a real tribute to the two artists». Hill contacted the artists, arranged the arrangements and insisted on a poignant image of D'Angelo's abandoned keyboard. Furthermore, she was “always on time, every time.”

    No censorship of political speeches

    “They are creative people who feel emotions,” says Winston. «Their job is to feel emotions and make others feel emotions. It would be strange if they went on stage to thank the sound engineer or the publicist… Obviously they have something to say. This is why they are artists.”

    From Rolling Stone US.

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