It all started with an egg. Lady Gaga arrived on the red carpet encapsulated in a translucent oval pod, hazily waving from the inside. For “The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards,” the industry’s stars gathered together for a night of performances and to honor the accomplishments of the past year. And perform they did. So much so that the National Academy Of Recording Arts and Sciences only managed to squeeze in 10 awards in the three and a half hour broadcast. Perhaps even the Academy is finding its 109 categories too unwieldy to show a fair sampling of the actual awards.
But even with so few of the results broadcast, the awards did garner some genuine surprises. Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, but Arcade Fire snatched Album of the Year away from them for “The Suburbs.” Jazz cellist and singer Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist, dashing Justin Bieber’s GRAMMY hopes for this year.
But missing were John Legend, who took home three trophies, and Jay-Z, who also won three. And though many of those on stage were actual nominees performing nominated works, not much attention was paid to highlighting it, so the point of the awards seems to have been lost amid a great concert.
However, one would be ungrateful to complain too much about an evening packed full of performances. The opening number, honoring recuperating Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, set the tone with a powerhouse medley of Franklin songs performed by Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, Christina Aguilera, Yolanda Adams and Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine).
There were old-timers Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand. There were newcomers Bieber, Drake and Bruno Mars. And the ubiquitous, fire-headed Rihanna performing twice. Lady Gaga hatched out of her egg looking like Judy Jetson meets “I Dream of Jeannie” to perform her new song, “Born This Way.” Miranda Lambert gave a simple performance of her song “The House That Built Me,” making one wonder why they aren’t listening to more country music. And Cee Lo Green channeled a feather-covered Elton John to perform his “F*** You” (reworded for television as “Forget You”) with Gwyneth Paltrow and some Jim Henson puppets.
Following are the award results that were broadcast during the show. A full list of all 109 winners is available at Grammy.com.
Album of the Year
Arcade Fire, “The Suburbs”
Record of the Year
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum, Lady Antebellum & Paul Worley, producers; Clarke Schleicher, engineer/mixer
Best Rap Album
Eminem, “Recovery”
Best New Artist
Esperanza Spalding
Song of the Year
“Need You Now,” Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum)
Best Country Song
“Need You Now,” Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum)
Best Pop Vocal Album
Lady Gaga, “The Fame Monster”
Best Rock Album
Muse, “The Resistance”
Best Female Country Vocal Performance
Miranda Lambert, “The House That Built Me”
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Train, “Hey, Soul Sister (Live)”
