Grammys pick top 25 moments

Elvis Costello compares it to competing in both a beauty pageant and a bullfight, while Bono evokes the image of a ballplayer “swinging for the fence” in front of a crowded stadium. Beyonce, meanwhile, skips the sports analogies and says that performing on the Grammys or winning one of the trophies is “the ultimate, there’s nothing higher.”

Those are some of the celebrity interviews tonight on the two-hour special “My Night at the Grammys,” which airs at 8 p.m. on CBS.

The show celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Grammys and is part retrospective, part countdown, with the top 25 performances during the show’s broadcast history, dating to 1971. There have been more than 800 performances telecast in that time; a “blue-ribbon” panel narrowed the candidates to 50, with the final ranking determined by Internet votes.

Some of those performances are no surprise -- Aretha Franklin’s dramatic last-minute substitution for Luciano Pavarotti in 1998, or Ricky Martin’s exhilarating performance of “Cup of Life” in 1999 -- but some eyebrows will be raised by the candidate that finishes No. 1. Let’s just say younger rock fans are no idiots when it comes to stuffing the ballot box with e-votes.

-- Geoff Boucher