Paul McCartney, Kanye West and Rihanna performed a pop collaboration of "FourFiveSeconds" at the 2015 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. The former Beatle fervently strummed the song's energetic riff and joined in on the choruses as the singer and rapper sang verses. The threesome performed in front of a white-light backdrop that later lifted to reveal dark draperies. West and Rihanna faced one another as the song closed, leading an audience clap-along that included Kim Kardashian and Jay Z.

On E!'s red carpet special before the Grammys, West explained how the unique collaboration came together.

"I'm executive producer of Rihanna's album, and I said I'd done a few songs with Paul McCartney, and she couldn't get past this record," he told Ryan Seacrest. "She had to have it on her album. ... So now we at the Grammys doing it."

Seacrest asked West when Rihanna's "R8" album would be released. The rapper was reluctant to answer.

"I'm not sure about what her release date is," he said. The track will also be included on West's upcoming album.

Last week, the powerhouse ensemble released the dreamy black-and-white video for the acoustic single. In the video, the threesome are wearing denim as suggested by West, which Rihanna explained in the behind the scenes video.

"Kanye came up with the idea of just doing some real street, denim, all-American-type look," she said. "Denim never goes out of style. It's classic, it's iconic, just like the [expletive] Beatles."

The track was written by a nine-person team that included McCartney and West. It has received more than 18 million views on YouTube. Jeff Peretz, who teaches music theory to producers at New York University's Clive Davis Institute says of the song, "Kanye singing through the vocal pitch correction is not as obnoxious as it's been in the past, so I guess he's trying to be taken a little bit more seriously as a vocalist, and that kind of works."

Related