The four-hour Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony had great moments from Missy Elliott, Jimmy Page, Willie Nelson, Elton John, New Edition and more.
Four hours and 22 minutes is a long time to be doing anything except sleeping, even watching a state-of-the-art Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards show that included Willie Nelson, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Page, Stevie Nicks and many more.
Yet it’s a testament to the almost superhuman talent and vision of Missy Elliott that as the show hit the four-hour mark, she had the entire audience out of their seats for a visually and musically explosive medley of her greatest hits — including “Get Ur Freak On,” “The Rain” and the closer, “Lose Control.” She bounded across the stage in an all-gold glitter suit accompanied by rappers, a DJ, approximately 30 lithely limbed dancers and an eye-popping video presentation that spanned the entire width of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center floor — there was so much going on it was hard to know where to look. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been lucky enough to witness a performance from the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it’s something we see far too infrequently these days. She even noted that the evening was the first time her mother had seen her perform live, “Because I didn’t want her to see me talking about bitches and a one-minute man.”
But before you skip to the end of the show, which was livestreamed on Disney+ for the first time and is available for playback now, see below for the other essential moments. Serious music fans will probably want to watch the whole thing — while this year’s prospects initially seemed unpromising considering the absence of inductees Kate Bush and Rage Against the Machine, it was one of the best shows in years. We’re skipping over strong performances from Sheryl Crow (featuring Nicks, Olivia Rodrigo and Peter Frampton), Chaka Khan (including a surreal duet with Sia), tributes to pioneering hip-hop DJ Kool Herc, Zelig-like musician Al Kooper and “Soul Train” founder Don Cornelius and more — but for those without four hours and 22 minutes to spare, dig in for a guide below, in chronological order.
The late George Michael was inducted by Andrew Ridgely, his childhood friend and former bandmate in Wham!, who few people recognized at first due to his long-since-receded hairline. A trio of performances followed, with Miguel starting with a strong “Careless Whisper” (accompanied by the E Street Band’s Jake Clemons on sax), a mediocre “Faith” from Adam Levine, and finally, a stunning version of “One More Try” from Carrie Underwood, who brought the house down with an emotional, soaring performance that makes you wonder why she doesn’t sing songs like that all the time. The tribute video also featured some hilarious quotes from Michael, particularly when he said the two records he first owned as a child were by the Supremes and Tom Jones — noting that his music was somewhere between the two.
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