‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’ 2014: Ariana Grande, Jason Derulo sing during pre-show

Even before “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” officially starts on ABC Tuesday night, there was an opportunity while the network counted down the top female artists of all time to watch some performances that were pre-taped in Los Angeles. (While we’re not going to say too much about this list at the moment, but it was somewhat weird to see Celine Dion ranked below Adele, Lady Gaga, and a number of other people.)

Now, let’s turn to some of those performers from the show, who decided to be both fun and emotional.

Ariana Grande, “The Way” – One of the best things about this show is that you have an opportunity to really put to rest some of the songs that have been completely overdone over the course of the past year, and this song has been played a ton. That’s no slam against it so much as just a statement that even Ariana at this point is probably ready to try to move on to some other things rather than having to continually perform this song at every show under the sun.

Jason Derulo, “Marry Me” – Jason is one of those guys that we see perform at a ton of awards shows, and this is the sort of performance that we wish he had more opportunities to give. It was completely sweet and emotional, and very different in some ways to the high-energy numbers that we so often see him performing. It also proves that the guy has one heck of a voice, even if he does not get that many opportunities to show it off these days.