Everybody loves a good musical number, including a drugged nun who's being held in a hospital for the insane and a borderline sociopathic TV star saying goodbye to her friends.
TV was a treasure trove for musical moments in 2013—some of them coming from the unlikeliest of places like American Horror Story: Asylum. With three musical shows on—Glee, Nashville and Smash (RIP)—and three big singing competitions, you couldn't escape these great musical moments. We went through and picked out the best ones to save you the trouble.
American Horror Story: Asylum was the type of show in which we never expected to find a grand musical number, but Ryan Murphy and Co. delighted audiences by having Jessica Lange perform "The Name Game" as drugged-out nun Sister Jude. Why? Because Jessica Lange wanted to perform a song and dance number, that's why. Amazing.
Then we had a whole bunch of nuns singing in NBC's The Sound of Music Live! Audra McDonald knocked "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" out of the park. Carrie Underwood was crying. We were crying. The execs were crying when they saw the ratings the next day.
Speaking of tears, Glee had us in them pretty much the entire tribute episode to Cory Monteith, but no performance was as moving as Lea Michele's version of "Make You Feel My Love."
On the other side of the spectrum there was Smash. While everybody had their own feelings about Smash, there's no denying it had some great musical moments. Who could forget Jeremy Jordan's introduction with "Broadway, Here I Come"?
30 Rock said goodbye to viewers in January and it did it in style. Jane Krakowski's Jenna Maroney sang a song from her Broadway version of the ficitional Rural Juror. The song was nominated for an Emmy—but lost! It's OK to say a song with the non-word "flerm" made you cry.
Over in singing competition land, American Idol introduced us to the beautiful sounds of Candice Glover. Watch and listen and try not to be moved by her rendition of "I (Who Have Nothing)."