Grammys 2018: Watch Kendrick Lamar open the show and Lady Gaga perform Joanne

With a simple, stripped-down introduction, a piano and some very large angel wings, Lady Gaga followed up Kendrick Lamar’s opening to the Grammys 2018.

Since Kendrick Lamar presented some phenomenal visuals to open the Grammys, is it any surprise that he followed up his opening with a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance with “LOYALTY.” with Rihanna? Nope, not at all. Lamar actually has multiple Grammys already from this year’s awards — that award for “LOYALTY.” counted as his fourth, actually.

But what might be more interesting is who followed him up: Lady Gaga, going in the direction she’s kept with Joanne as a record. Of course, she had giant angel wings on her piano, and she laid on them at the end of her short medley of both the title track and “Million Reasons,” because symbolism, but hey, it contrasted quite nicely to the opening Lamar offered.

First up, here’s Lamar opening things as well as part of Dave Chappelle’s opening; U2 also provided an appearance:

In fact, iHeartRadio joked that the night’s already over with its own clip of the performance, showing how the screen displayed “This is a satire by Kendrick Lamar” as the spotlight lit him up:

Alas, it wasn’t over at all — there’s a lot more to get to, including Lady Gaga herself:

Those notes at the end might not have come out particularly right, but it is live, and it’s clear she took the performance really seriously. As she mentioned at the start, Joanne as an album is named after her late aunt.

Next: Who's performing at the Grammys 2018?

There are plenty more performance scheduled for tonight; Cardi B and Bruno Mars have been particularly hyped up, as has the combination of Miley Cyrus and Elton John. Sam Smith and Little Big Town have also already gone up on stage to show what they’ve got. Can anyone top these performances, though? We’ll just have to wait and see. Keep checking here on Culturess for all the latest from the Grammys 2018.