The second day of the Democratic National Convention featured loving endorsements of Kamala Harris, pointed attacks on Donald Trump, and a rollicking dance party.
Just weeks after switching candidates to run against Trump on election day in November, Democrats wanted to paint a picture of unity and joy for voters.
Party superstars Barack and Michelle Obama used their speeches to not only endorse Harris, but to call out Trump for what they allege was racist behaviour while they were in the White House.
And with the formalities of this event already dispensed with in a virtual roll call earlier this month, organisers decided to hold a dance party instead.
These were the biggest moments from day two of the Democratic Convention.
Michelle Obama calls out Trump
The biggest applause of the night was reserved for former first lady Michelle Obama, who has never held elected office, but remains one of the Democratic party's biggest drawcards.
At the 2016 Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton was facing off against Trump, Obama gave a speech that would become the party's mantra for years to come.
"When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don't stoop to their level," she said.
"No, our motto is: 'When they go low, we go high'."
Eight years later, with Democrats once again running against Trump, but this time branding him "weird" in a popular campaign strategy, all eyes were on the tenor of Obama's speech.
Would she continue to encourage Democrats to rise above, or would the gloves finally be off?
The answer is — a bit of both.
Her speech was a full-throated endorsement of Harris, with Obama declaring that "hope is making a comeback".
But she also claimed that when her husband Barack Obama was in office, Trump did "everything in his power to make people fear us".
"See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black," she said to rapturous applause.
"Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?"
This was a reference to Trump's claim that undocumented immigrants are crossing the border and taking what he described as "Black jobs".
Obama also warned Democrats that while changing from President Joe Biden to Harris just weeks ago has reinvigorated the campaign, they cannot get complacent.
"No matter how good we feel tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day, this is still going to be an uphill battle, so we cannot be our own worst enemies," she said.
Michelle Obama's husband Barack was also there
Former president Barack Obama was the headliner tonight. He was also, in his words, "the only person stupid enough to speak after Michelle Obama".
Early in his speech, he paid tribute to his "brother" and former VP Joe Biden.
He made no mention of the role he's said to have played in the pressure campaign to encourage him to stand down, but praised Biden for "the rarest thing there is in politics: putting his own ambition aside for the sake of the country".
Obama contrasted this with Trump, who he said "has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago".?
"There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories," he said.?
And then he got big laughs when he added that Trump had "this weird obsession with crowd sizes".
"I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbour who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day," Obama said.?
The roast was well received by the crowd. But when they booed, Obama said: "do not boo, vote".?
Like his wife did before him, Obama seemed to want to warn against complacency.?
"For all the incredible energy we've been able to generate over the last few weeks, for all the rallies and the memes, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country."
In endorsing Harris, he spoke of the pressure she put him under when she was California's attorney-general and he was in the White House.?
"After the home mortgage crisis, she pushed me and my administration hard to make sure home owners got a fair settlement," he said.?
For all his pep talking, Obama also had some sober reflections on modern American life.?
"We chase the approval of strangers on our phones," he lamented.
"We build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves, and then we wonder why we feel so alone."
Most Americans did not want to live in a country that had become so bitter and divided, he said.?
"We want something better. We want to be better. And the joy and the excitement that we're seeing around this campaign tells us we're not alone."
Doug Emhoff makes his pitch to be America's First Gentleman
As vice-president, Harris may be famous, but she's not exactly well known by American voters.
Day two of the convention was all about introducing her to America, with speeches from her friends and family.
Her husband Doug Emhoff and her stepson Cole gave the crowd a glimpse into the blended family they have created together.
"We might not look like other families in the White House, but we are ready to represent all families in America," Cole said.
Doug also recalled the early days of his relationship with Harris, recounting the rambling, nervous voicemail he left for her to set up their first date.
"'Hey, it's Doug, I'm on my way to an early meeting. Again, it's, Doug.' I remember I was trying to grab the words out of the air, and just put them back in my mouth. And for what seemed like far too many minutes, I hung up," he said.
"By the way, Kamala saved that voicemail. And she makes me listen to it on every anniversary."
The Harris campaign has made much of Emhoff's image on social media as a wife-guy, a zaddy, a walking green flag, and a second gentleman who is happy to cede the spotlight to the woman in his life.
He has campaigned for Americans to have more abortion access and once said that "lifting women up so that they can carry out important roles is a very manly thing".
The last woman to get this close to the presidency, Hillary Clinton, sometimes struggled to rein in her husband Bill on the campaign trail.
Emhoff, meanwhile, used his speech to stress that he will be cheering his wife on from the sidelines.
"She's ready to lead," he said.
"She brings both joy and toughness to this task, and she will be a great president we will all be proud of."
No longer a formal vote count, the 'roll call' became a star-studded dance party
The traditional "roll call", once the formal process to nominate a candidate that the convention was built around, transformed the DNC into a dance party.
The real roll call had already been done. Delegates — the people tasked with representing their state party votes for the candidate — took part in an official count online.
Today, a DJ made things more fun. As each state's delegation was invited to pledge their votes from the floor, Grammy nominee DJ Cassidy spun a tune somehow connected with that state, starting with Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.
Texas got Beyonce's Texas Hold 'Em, Idaho had The B-52s' Private Idaho and New York, of course, got Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.
When it was Georgia's turn, Atlanta rapper Lil Jon burst into the arena for a surprise live performance, with some lyrical twists. The words to his hit Get Low were changed from "to the window, to the wall" to "VP Harris, Governor Walz".
Lil Jon wasn't the only celebrity who was part of the party. Actors Sean Astin (Stranger Things), Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) and Wendell Pierce (The Wire) joined their state delegations (Indiana, Texas and Louisiana respectively).
Earlier in the night, singer Patti LaBelle and rapper Common performed.
Organisers made 'adjustments' to cope with the 'raucous applause'
While things may have looked polished on television on the opening day of the convention, there were some issues behind the scenes.
Delegates and guests were stuck on stationary shuttle buses and in long queues outside the venue for hours, thanks to security screening bottlenecks. Inside, too many speakers spoke beyond their assigned times.
It forced producers to make programming changes on the run, dumping some content including a performance from singer James Taylor.
But Biden's big speech still started 40 minutes late, pushing it out of television prime-time.
In what might be considered some pretty incredible spin, organisers suggested the cause was too much excited cheering.
"Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people," convention officials said in a statement.
DNC executive director Alex Hornbrook said organisers were "working with our speakers and making some other adjustments" to keep things on track today.
The official program began earlier and, even allowing for "raucous applause", things seemed to run more smoothly.
