Urban on his 'Sunshine' Collaboration with Miguel

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Some of music's brightest stars came together Friday night to kick off the countdown to the Grammy Awards and celebrate this year's nominees and ET's Rob Marciano was backstage to speak with country crooner Keith Urban and other performers at the annual Grammy Nominations Concert.

One of the night's most memorable performances was a collaborative number by Urban and R&B star Miguel of the Bill Withers classic Ain't No Sunshine. "I loved playing with Miguel tonight - it was really, really cool getting to do that with him. I hope we get to do something else," Urban revealed.

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Urban -- who described the performance as "unusual" -- said the duo tried to keep their version of the much-covered song simple and unique. "We purposefully tried to take it to a slightly minimal place. And it's tricky because it's a song that been covered a gazillion times by everybody, and we just tried to make it our own tonight."

For his part Miguel -- who initially joked that Urban was "not easy to work with" -- praised his experience with the country star. "Keith is honestly, hands-down probably the coolest guy I've got to work with, especially on a collaborative. 'Keith can we make some music? This is the official request and I'm doing it on television,' said Miguel in a pitch directly into the camera.

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Rob also caught up with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who picked up an impressive seven Grammy nominations including Best New Artist, Song of the Year for Same Love and Album of the Year for The Heist. "It's unbelievable," said Lewis when asked about the awards sweep. "I think the fact that we're here as independent artists is a testament to the changing times of the music industry," added  Macklemore. "And the way that we've been embraced buy radio and by mainstream pop culture this year is beyond any expectations we had of this album."

Watch the video for more, including interviews with Arsenio Hall, Ed Sheeran and Mary Lambert, the singer-songwriter nominated along with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for Same Love.

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles January 26 on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. 

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