The pall of Whitney Houston’s untimely death hung over the proceedings Sunday evening at Staples Center, and it was addressed more than once. Host LL Cool J led the star-studded assemblage in a prayer at the outset. Jennifer Hudson fought back tears to poignantly render “I Will Always Love You” in her honor.
“We love Whitney Houston,” Alicia Keys said on behalf of everyone, before presenting the first award alongside Bonnie Raitt, who also saluted “the one and only Etta James,” who died last month.
But ultimately the 54th Grammy Awards were still a night of celebration, particularly for British songbird Adele and long-running rock band Foo Fighters, both of whom racked up record-tying numbers of wins.
Adele, the heavy favorite heading into Sunday’s ceremony, fulfilled every prediction that she would dominate by scoring trophies for all six of her nominations, including a sweep of the top prizes: album of the year for her heartbroken, heralded second effort “21” as well as song and record of the year for its indelible lead-off smash, “Rolling in the Deep.”
Along with victories for best pop solo performance, best pop vocal album and best short form video, Ms. Adkins’ half-dozen awards tie her with Beyoncé for the most wins in a single night by a female artist, one more than Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Alison Krauss, Lauryn Hill and the previous English sensation, the late Amy Winehouse. (In a moving pre-telecast moment, she was posthumously bestowed her sixth competitive Grammy, winning best pop duo/group performance for her duet with Tony Bennett on “Body and Soul.”)
Adele, radiantly beautiful in traditional ’50s elegance yet clearly looking nervous before her first on-air win was announced, was her usual affable self from the start. “I can’t believe I’m getting emotional already,” she said, accepting best pop solo performance for “Someone Like You.” “My life changed when I wrote this song, and I felt it before anyone even heard it, I just felt it.
“Seeing as it’s a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back.”
Adding to Adele’s Grammy coronation (which also scored four awards for her producer and co-writer Paul Epworth) was her first live appearance since suffering vocal-cord hemorrhaging and undergoing throat surgery in October. She unsurprisingly brought the house down, garnering a standing ovation for her performance of “Rolling in the Deep.”
Foo Fighters, who rocked through “Walk” before a horde of bouncing fans inside a Coachella-style tent across the street from Staples Center, went 5-for-6, crushing the rock, hard rock and metal competition and losing only for album of the year. (Dave Grohl knew they would fall prey to the Adele juggernaut: “I don’t think we’re gonna be walking home with that one,” he told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet.)
The band did, however, up its overall tally to 11, which vaulted it past the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, Metallica and Coldplay on the list of most Grammy-honored groups of all-time. Foo Fighters now rank fourth, behind U2 (22 wins), bluegrass darlings Alison Krauss & Union Station (who rose to 15 with two more wins Sunday night) and Dixie Chicks (who have 13).
The five Foo wins also ties the record for most in a single night by a group, a distinction jointly held by U2, Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum. (That last one also took home best country album this time, for “Own the Night.”) Kanye West, who led with seven nominations, won four more Grammys, all in rap categories, raising his total to 18.
“To me this award means a lot,” noted Grohl, a black coat covering his Slayer T-shirt, as the group gathered to accept for best rock performance, “because it shows that the human element of making music is what’s most important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft – that’s the most important thing for people to do.”
The crowd’s cheers rose and continued to grow louder. “It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about sounding absolutely correct. It’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here (your heart) and what goes on here (your head). … Long live rock ’n’ roll!”
Yet rock ’n’ roll was far from the only flavor from a program that opened with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band delivering their socially charged new single, “We Take Care of Our Own,” and closed with a second turn from Paul McCartney, feted Friday night as the MusiCares Person of the Year. Mid-show he crooned his new jazz-pop single, “My Valentine,” in a white tuxedo; fittingly, he finished off the ceremony with the finale from Abbey Road: “Golden Slumbers” > “Carry That Weight” > “The End.”
Among other turns were a duet between country stars Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, a collaboration teaming Rihanna with Coldplay, a salute to soon-to-retire Glen Campbell featuring the Lifetime Achievement Award winner alongside Blake Shelton and the Band Perry, and a tribute to the Beach Boys involving Maroon 5, Foster the People and a reunion of the surviving Hall of Famers, who sang “Good Vibrations.” (Still to come: a review of the performances.)
Noticeably absent: Bon Iver, aka singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, winner for best new artist. He reportedly turned down an invitation to play and had been outspoken about what he perceived as the Grammys’ irrelevance.
Frankly, I thought he gave one of the most honest and real acceptance speeches of the entire occasion. While also thanking the voters (“sweet … sweet hookup,” he stammered) and the city of Au Clair, Wisc., he admitted that “it’s really hard to accept this award. There’s so much talent out here on this stage, and there’s a lot of talent that’s not here tonight. …
“And it’s also hard to accept because, you know, when I started to make songs, I did it for the inherent reward of making songs. So I’m a little bit uncomfortable up here. But with that discomfort I do have a sense of gratitude, and I want to say thank you to all the nominees, all the non-nominees who have never been here, and never will be here.” (Fellow nominee J. Cole quietly clapped his approval.) “All the bands I’ve toured with, all the bands that inspired me, all the artists.”
That was genuine, forthright and real … as compared with the over-the-top production, fairly early in the proceedings, that marked the return of Chris Brown, performing at the Grammys for the first time since he dropped out of 2009’s broadcast. (His attack on Rihanna the night before that ceremony led to both their absences, an assault charge for Brown and a career low.)
But 2011 saw a stupefying comeback for Brown behind his smash album F.A.M.E., proving pop fans are forever eager to forgive and forget the foulest behavior. Apparently so is the music industry is, as Brown was rewarded with best R&B album. I’ll give him this much: the win seemed to humble him, rather than inflate his ego: “First and foremost,” he said, “I gotta thank God, and thank the Grammys for letting me get on this stage and do my thing. All my fans, I love you. We got one. Thank you.”
The evening’s truly time-stopping moment, however, came late in the telecast, when Jennifer Hudson – who just Friday night had been on Piers Morgan’s CNN show recounting what an immense inspiration Houston had been for her – emerged to sing one of the late legend’s signature songs, “I Will Always Love You.” Dressed in black, with only the accompaniment of a piano and sorrowful silence throughout Staples Center, Hudson appeared to fight back tears as she sang the song, ending with the line, “Whitney, we will always love you.”
The show started off by addressing the unavoidable: “There is no way around this,” LL Cool J said shortly after being introduced. “We’ve had a death in our family.” He then led the audience in a prayer to “our fallen sister.”
“Heavenly father, we thank you for sharing our sister Whitney with us,” he began, as cameras panned across the bowed heads of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood, Nicki Minaj and Miranda Lambert, among many more. “Today our thoughts are with her mother, her daughter and all of her loved ones.
“And although she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit, and to have her lasting legacy of music to cherish and share forever, amen.”
Trustees Awards this year went to New Orleans producer and bandleader Dave Bartholomew, jazz engineere Rudy Van Gelder and the late Steve Jobs. In addition to Campbell, other Lifetime Achievement Award honorees included iconic Supremes vocalist Diana Ross, Latin pop innovators Sergio Mendes and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Southern rock veterans the Allman Brothers Band, country legend George Jones, Stax Records’ famous Memphis Horns and boundary-busting urban music pioneer Gil Scott-Heron, who died last May.
The Associated Press contributed to this report, primarily regarding Adele’s and Hudson’s performances.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images.
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Grammys 2012: a night of triumphs and sorrow; Adele wins six, Foo Fighters take home five is a post from: Soundcheck