Taylor Swift won the top honor, Album Of The Year, at Sunday evening’s 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, for Fearless. 20-year-old Taylor Swift became the youngest person to ever score the GRAMMY for Album of the Year. In fact, Swift won her first four GRAMMYs tonight, thanks to her album Fearless.
However, it was Beyonce Knowles who was the most prolific, scoring 6 awards: • Song of the year for her hit, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” • Best R&B song for “Single Ladies,” • Best R&B contemporary album for I Am … Sasha Fierce, • Best R&B female vocal for “Single Ladies,” • Best female pop vocalist for her song “Halo” , • Best traditional R&B performance for “At Last” from the movie Cadillac Records.
Other big winners included Kings of Leon, who were awarded the Record of the Year GRAMMY, and Jay-Z and the Black Eyed Peas, who won three GRAMMYs a piece. The night was also full of memorable performances like a duet between Elton John and Lady Gaga, aerial acrobatics from P!nk and an all-star, 3D tribute to Michael Jackson.
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52nd Annual GRAMMYs RECAP:
The show opened with Lady GaGa, dressed in a turquoise, sparkling leotard with a long neckline and high-shoulders that looked like wings. The singer also sported pink, shimmering upside-down triangles over her eyes. On a set dubbed The Fame Factory, Gaga performed “Poker Face” with dancers dressed as factory workers. She was dropped into a vat and a moment later, came out on a two-sided piano, sitting across from Sir Elton John. Both vocalists wore matching sequined glasses as they sang GaGa’s “Speechless”, which turned into Elton’s “Your Song”. The Rocket Man changed the lyrics of the tune to “How wonderful life is with Gaga in the world”.
Lady GaGa & Elton John
Stephen Colbert welcomed the crowd to the 52nd annual GRAMMY Awards. He announced that he brought his daughter to the show and told her to “have a good time and stay away from Katy Perry”. He then stated that the crowd should be thankful for Susan Boyle, who he described as a “48-year-old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes”, since she saved the music industry. Colbert then took out an iPad to read the nominees for Song of the Year.
Check out Stephen Colbert’s Opening Speech:
Stephen Colbert presents the award for Best Song of the Year:
Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” won the GRAMMY for Song of the Year but since the singer was getting ready for her performance, she wasn’t able to accept the GRAMMY. In her place, the guys she wrote the song with, Thaddis Harrell, Terius Nash and Christopher Stewart, accepted the award.
J-Lo introduced Green Day, who performed “21 Guns” with the cast of American Idiot, the upcoming Broadway show based on the band’s music.
When in Rome stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel presented the GRAMMY for Best Country Album to Taylor Swift. The shocked 20–year-old said “Oh my God!” as she stood up, hugged her mother who was sitting next to her, and accepted the award. She said that after performing in grade school, people would tell her they’d see her at the GRAMMYs some day, but she wrote it off as an “impossible dream”. Swift then said she felt like, at that moment, she was accepting an impossible dream.
Simon Baker of the TV show The Mentalist introduced Beyonce, who walked down the aisle followed by men dressed in black SWAT gear. They marched to the stage where Bey performed “If I Were a Boy” then covered Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” before going back into “If I Were a Boy”. The set earned her a standing ovation.
Beyonce
Seal announced that singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen had won a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He then introduced P!nk, who took the stage alone and wrapped in a thin sheet, performing “Glitter in the Air”. She walked down the aisle, through the crowd and removed the sheet, showing off her body, which was covered by just a skimpy bikini and some thin white strips of fabric. P!nk then grabbed some silk that was hanging from the rafters. She was raised up and spun around as if she were in Cirque du Soleil, continuing to sing the whole time. The aerial performance wasn’t over yet though – she was brought down, dipped in water and taken back up again to spin some more. The wet singer thanked the impressed crowd.
P!nk
Country signers Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert took the stage to announce Loretta Lynn had been bestowed with a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. They then handed out the Best New Artist GRAMMY to the Zac Brown Band.
Miley Cyrus brought the Black Eyed Peas out to the stage. The group performed “Imma Be” then “I Gotta Feeling”. During the set, videos fans had submitted of themselves singing the tune were played behind the Peas.
Black Eyed Peas
The Jonas Brothers introduced Lady Antebellum, who performed “Need You Now”.
Singer Juanes and The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco handed out the Best Comedy Album GRAMMY to Stephen Colbert for his A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All album. When accepting the trophy, Colbert said that since it was a Christmas record that won him the GRAMMY, he had to thank Jesus Christ “for having such a great birthday”.
Multi-GRAMMY winners Ringo Starr and Norah Jones announced that Bobby Darin had won a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. They then gave out the GRAMMY for Record of the Year to Kings of Leon for “Use Somebody”. As the band accepted the award, they said they were “a little drunk but happy drunk”.
Norah Jones and Ringo Starr present the award for Record of the Year:
Robert Downey, Jr. introduced three opera singers, each belted out a lyric and the third one turned out to be Jamie Foxx. The actor/singer then performed “Blame It” with T-Pain, Doug E. Fresh and Slash on guitar, playing the riff from the end of “November Rain”.
Jamie Foxx
Alice Cooper joined Katy Perry, whom he called “voluptuous”, to present the Best Rock Album, which went to Green Day for 21st Century Breakdown. After accepting the trophy, singer Billy Joe Armstrong said he was going to “go have shots with Kings of Leon”.
Actor Chris O’Donnell introduced Best New Artist GRAMMY-winners Zac Brown Band with singer-songwriter Leon Russell. They performed “America the Beautiful”, “Dixie Lullaby” and “Chicken Fried”.
Ryan Seacrest introduced Taylor Swift, who sang “Today was a Fairytale”, a tune from the Valentine’s Day soundtrack. Swift then brought out her idol, Stevie Nicks, and together, the two performed Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and Taylor’s “You Belong with Me”. The two hugged once they were done.
Taylor Swift
Lionel Richie spoke about Michael Jackson and how the singer wrote songs to inspire and give hope to people. He then introduced a 3-D performance of one such tune, “The Earth Song”, from the This Is It concert film, which is now on DVD. Celine Dion, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson and Carrie Underwood sang the track along with MJ’s voice. During the set, the camera cut to Beyonce, who was rocking out to the song while wearing her 3-D glasses. The performance earned a standing ovation from the crowd.
MJ 3D Performance
Lionel Richie then returned to the mic to announce that The King of Pop won a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. To accept the trophy, Michael’s kids, Prince and Paris Jackson, along with their cousins, came to the stage. The children thanked the crowd and MJ’s fans and promised to continue spreading their father’s message of love.
Sheryl Crow introduced Bon Jovi, who sang their new single, “We Weren’t Born to Follow”, then brought out Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, who helped the guys out on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, the band’s one and only number one country song. Nettles then revealed the results of the online voting in which fans could decide which Bon Jovi song the group would sing. The band then performed that winning track – “Livin’ on a Prayer”.
Tenor Placido Domingo and rapper-actor Mos Def joked about working together in the future, then presented the GRAMMY for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration to Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West for “Run This Town”. Jay and Rihanna accepted the award, along with Jay’s nephew, five-year-old Julez (Solange Knowles’s son).
Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean got the crowd to speak Creole then thanked America for their support of his homeland following the destructive earthquake that hit there on January 12th. Wyclef introduced Andrea Bocelli and Mary J. Blige, who performed “Bridge over Troubled Water” with David Foster on piano. The track is for sale at iTunes.com/Target with all proceeds benefiting the American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
President and CEO of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, spoke about the GRAMMY Foundation’s efforts over the past year. He also mentioned how the GRAMMY’s MusiCares Foundation honored Neil Young yesterday. Portnow then discussed how he hopes that in the upcoming years, more children are insured the gift of music education and less music is acquired illegally.
Adam Sandler brought out the Dave Matthews Band who performed “You and Me” along with dozens of musicians.
Ricky Martin and Glee’s Lea Michele gave out the GRAMMY for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance to Beyonce for “Halo”. The singer admitted to being nervous and with her voice shaking, thanked her husband, Jay-Z, and her fans.
Rapper/actor LL Cool J brought out Maxwell, who performed “Pretty Wings”. The singer then introduced Roberta Flack, who joined him on a version of her song “Where is the Love”.
A montage of those the music industry lost over the past year played. It ended with late guitar virtuoso Les Paul. Crazy Heart star Jeff Bridges spoke about Paul’s legacy, including his famed guitar, then Bridges introduced Jeff Beck, who played the instrument in a tribute to Les. Beck performed one of Paul’s favorite tunes, “How High the Moon”, with singer Imelda May doing the vocals.
Quentin Tarantino introduced Drake with Eminem and Lil Wayne, who performed Wayne’s “Drop the World” and Drake’s “Forever”, though the television audience didn’t hear much of it, no doubt because the censors were working overtime. Blink 182’s Travis Barker was behind the kit for the set.
Drake, Eminem & Lil Wayne
Carlos Santana and John Legend presented the coveted GRAMMY for Album of the Year to Taylor Swift for Fearless. Upon hearing her name, the singer’s jaw fell and her mouth stayed agape until long after she reached the stage. She dedicated the trophy to her parents for their support and said when she is 80, she’ll be telling the story of how she won the GRAMMY for Album of the Year in 2010 to her grandkids.
At 20, Taylor is the youngest person ever to win Album of the Year, taking that title from Alanis Morissette, who was 21 when she won.
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Nick Cannon was able to Live-Blog the show and interview a ton of celebs…
Check out that ‘ish HERE >
Nick Cannon’s GRAMMYs Interviews:
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More Galleries:
Green Day – GRAMMY Performance >
Lady Gaga and Elton John – GRAMMY Performance >
Pink – GRAMMY Performance >
52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards – Arrivals >
52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards – Salute To Icons PHOTOS! >
Check out GRAMMYs.Radio.com – featuring exclusive performances, fan polls, photo galleries and more.
ALSO… Listen to GRAMMYs Radio, an online station featuring the music of all your favorite nominees!
