LOS ANGELES -- A cappella has never been a power player at the Grammys, but a win on Sunday for Pentatonix -- who shot to prominence on YouTube and have had an incredible year because of it -- stamps the streaming video phenomenon as a legitimate force in the music biz.
Pentatonix won its first Grammy in the Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella category for ”Daft Punk,” a four-minute medley that touches on "Get Lucky," Celebrate," "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "One More Time."
The night before, they performed at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards gala, singing a tribute medley of Bee Gees songs before Barry Gibb came onstage.
Pentatonix' five members — Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola — stopped by Mashable's selfie-stick station (see above) before heading into the Nokia Theatre, where their win was announced.
Pentatonix says now-#Grammy-winning "Daft Punk" going viral was when they knew something was up: https://t.co/xyXPS5hwBZ— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) February 9, 2015
The group, which now has a YouTube audience of 7.5 million subscribers, won the third season of NBC's The Sing-Off, then went on to release several medley covers, including Beyonce's greatest hits and "Gangnam Style."
Pentatonix was one of only three acts so sell more than a million album copies in 2014 with That’s Christmas To Me (the others being Sam Smith and Taylor Swift), and recently signed to a major label.