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Alex Warren is sharing what was going through his mind during his Grammys debut that was plagued with technical issues.
In the March 11 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Warren opened up about his "horrifying" performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards. He took the stage in February to perform his breakout hit "Ordinary" in a medley from the Best New Artist nominees, but while everything went perfectly in rehearsals, the performance fell apart on the big night, per People.
"I've never talked about this. It was horrifying. We rehearsed it all week," he said. "And to this day, I don't know what exactly happened."
Warren knew something was "wrong" immediately before the performance as "everything cut out" in his in-ear devices and he couldn't hear anything. Despite the crew's efforts to help by adjusting the volume, the issues continued.
"I start singing, and all I'm hearing is what's from the other room — like, a crowd mic is on or something," he said. "Once I start getting into the hallway, there's this hallway in the performance, I get the left ear blasting agin, and so it's just the left ear."
The audio used had no mix, so all the "Bloodline" musician could hear was his voice "super loud," which echoed even more when he got in front of the crowd. Fortunately, the in-ears started working correctly as he finally made it to the stage, which itself added another challenge given his fear of heights as it lifted high into the air. However, he was still left disappointed by the difficulties and forced to keep his emotions in check so he didn't cry on stage.
"I was holding back tears 'cause I looked to my left and right and everyone's like, 'You did so good,' and everyone's screaming," he said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is really, really emotional.'"
He continued, "The whole entire Grammys, my head was on my wife's shoulder the entire time. I did not wanna look up. I did not wanna talk to anybody. It was really bad."
Warren ended up getting some much-needed comfort and support from 2025 Best New Artist winner Chappell Roan, who assured him that he did great despite the snafu.
"She was like, 'Dude, if anyone understands, it's the people in this room, and you sounded amazing,'" he recalled. "I was down, and I think she could tell, and she came up to my table and was the sweetest ever."