U2 sweep 5 Grammy awards

U2 were the big winners on Wednesday, February 8th, at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, nabbing trophies in all five of their nominated categories. U2 took home the prestigious Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb as well as Song of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own"; and Best Rock Song for "City of Blinding Lights."

None of the other multiple nominees came close to sweeping their categories. Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and John Legend went into the Grammys with eight nominations a piece, and each one took home three awards. Stevie Wonder and Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas each had six nominations and received two awards. Beyonce also had six nominations, but she only received one trophy. 50 Cent started the evening with six nominations and Gwen Stefani had five, but both were snubbed by the Grammy voters and came away empty-handed.

Green Day surprised many by beating out heavily-favored West and Carey for Record of the Year with the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." John Legend was named Best New Artist.

Holograms of the animated group Gorillaz opened the show, performing their nominated song "Feel Good Inc." with rappers De La Soul. Madonna came onstage towards the end of their performance and interacted with the holograms while singing "Hung Up," the first single from her latest album Confessions on a Dance Floor.

This year's awards show did not have a host, and the presenters' introductions were very straightforward, leaving much of the focus of the telecast on the musical performances. Instead of using presenters, several of the performances were introduced by video clips of the artists discussing the songs they were about to sing.

Presenters included Teri Hatcher, Tom Hanks, Matt Dillon, Jenna Elfmann, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Destiny's Child, Big and Rich, Michael Buble, Santana, Chris Brown, Queen Latifah, Ellen Degeneres, and Dave Chappelle.

The 48th Annual Grammy Awards were held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and broadcast on CBS. Photos and video of the event can be found at grammy.com.


PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

John Legend performed "Ordinary People" seated at a grand piano and backed by a string orchestra.

Among the musicians backing Kelly Clarkson's performance of "Because of You" was a little girl seated at keyboard, representing the little girl in Clarkson's video of the song.

There were very few technical problems during the show, save for some of the crew's conversation that was accidentally broadcast during Sugarland's performance of "Something More."

After a performance of "Vertigo," U2 was joined onstage by R&B singer Mary J. Blige for a powerful rendition of the band's song "One."

Ellen Degeneres introduced Paul McCartney's performance by walking onstage and announcing, "Our next performer needs no introduction" and then walking right off again. McCartney sat at the keyboard and sang "Fine Line" from his most recent album, but the crowd went wild when he and his band launched into the Beatles song "Helter Skelter."

In a pre-recorded video clip, Mariah talked about the influence her religious grandmother had on her life. After the clip was played, Mariah came onstage to sing "We Belong Together." Then she sang the inspirational song "Fly Like a Bird" backed by a gospel choir.

Several artists, including Steve Tyler, Ciara, John Legend and Joss Stone, performed a medley of Sly and the Family Stone's hits. During the song "I Want To Take You Higher," the 61-year-old Sly Stone -- who hasn't been seen onstage for 19 years -- came onstage with his hair cut in a blond mohawk and wearing wraparound shades. He played keyboard and sang during part of the song and then strolled offstage. The band included a number of members of the original Family Stone.

Jay-Z and Linkin Park performed their mashup hit "Numb/Encore" and started to sing the Beatles' classic "Yesterday" when all of a sudden Paul McCartney came on stage and joined them to finish the song.

Kanye West and Jamie Foxx performed "Gold Digger" dressed as drum majors with dueling marching bands. Later in the song a group of female step dancers representing the gold diggers battled it out with a male step team wearing T-shirts that read "Broke Phi Broke."

Newly-married Christina Aguilera sang the Leon Russell classic "A Song for You," accompanied by jazz great Herbie Hancock on piano.

The evening ended with a performance saluting the musicians of New Orleans and the late soul legend Wilson Pickett. Bonnie Raitt, The Edge, Elvis Costello, Yolanda Adams, and New Orleans musicians Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Dr. John sang Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can" made famous by the Pointer Sisters. Bruce Springsteen and Sam Moore -- of the soul duo Sam & Dave -- joined the group, with Moore singing Pickett's signature song "Midnight Hour."

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Before presenting the first award of the evening, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys sang an impromptu a capella version of his hit "Higher Ground" in memory of the late Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kelly Clarkson barely kept her composure during her acceptance speech for Best Female Pop Performance for "Since U Been Gone." When she came back later to accept her award for Best Pop Album for Breakaway, Clarkson said that she had cried enough backstage and would be able to get through her second speech without tears.

When U2 got up to accept their award for Song of the Year, Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" was played by mistake.

Superbowl winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers introduced American Idol winner Clarkson's performance, calling her a fellow champion.

Kanye West went up to accept one of his awards and said, "I had no idea, I had no idea" before whipping out a piece of paper that had the words "THANK YOU LIST" printed in big bold letters on the back. Unfortunately the joke fell flat, and he didn't get many laughs

PERFORMANCE SET LIST

Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." and Madonna - "Hung Up"

Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone

Coldplay - "Talk"

John Legend - "Ordinary People"

Sugarland - "Something More"

U2 - "Vertigo" and "One" with Mary J. Blige

Paul McCartney - "Fine Line" and "Helter Skelter"

John Legend - "Ordinary People"

Mariah Carey - "We Belong Together" and "Fly Like a Bird"

Keith Urban - "You'll Think of Me"

Faith Hill - "The Lucky One"

Sly and the Family Stone Tribute:
Van Hunt, John Legend, Joss Stone - "It's A Family Affair"
Fantasia, Devin Lima - "If You Want Me to Stay"
Maroon 5 and Ciara - "Everyday People"
Will.I.Am- "Dance to the Music"
Stephen Tyler, Joe Perry, Robert Randolph, Sly Stone and member of the original Family Stone band - "I Want To Take You Higher"

Jay-Z and Linkin Park - "Numb/Encore" joined by Paul McCartney for "Yesterday"

Bruce Springsteen - "Devils and Dust"

Kanye West and Jamie Foxx - "Gold Digger"

Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera - "A Song for You"

Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, Bonnie Raitt, The Edge, Elvis Costello, Yolanda Adams, and New Orleans musicians Irma Thomas and Dr. John- "Yes We Can Can"

THE SCENE BACKSTAGE

Best New Artist winner John Legend says that new artists really aren't new: "Well, nobody is a newcomer. Anybody who wins Best New Artist is only new to the general public. They always work a lot, you know, beforehand to get a record deal, to get the album out, that's a long struggle. We did it, we struggled, we took a while to get noticed, we got turned down by a lot of labels including the one I'm signed to now. It's takes time, and that's normal."

John Legend added that he doesn't believe in the famous Best New Artist jinx: "And just so y'all know, I don't believe in New Artist jinxes. Everybody talked to me about this Best New Artist jinx, I don't believe in it. And the Beatles won Best New Artist, Mariah Carey who's like one of the top selling female artists of all time won Best New Artist, Alicia Keys... So, if that's a jinx, I'll take that jinx, very nicely."

Kelly Clarkson tells how excited she was to win: "I'm just so excited! You don't think it's ever going to happen to you. So, did you see the people -- I was against a Beatle, for crying out loud! I had no chance in hell, I don't know how this happened."

Kelly Clarkson said she has always been a big fan of the Grammys: "I used to watch this show like every year, it was like a family thing, we had one television and I'd be like, 'this is my night. And y'all are all watching the Grammys whether you like it or not.' And I'd sit there and watch it and then go perform in my room, with a hairbrush on the commercial breaks and come back. And it really is like, my 10-year-old self is just loving it right now. And I keep crying!"

Joe Hahn of Linkin Park announced that they had hired a producer for their next album: "We actually have really big news that we announced just today. We chose a producer for our next record, we're gonna go with Rick Rubin, I guess I'm gonna get a producer credit on there too, yeah. But that's not as important as that we're gonna go with Rick Rubin, and the record is gonna come out this year, probably late summer or soon thereafter."

Chester Bennington of Linkin Park explained the idea behind their performance of "Numb/Encore" with Jay Z and Paul McCartney: "Danger Mouse mixed Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album and that kind of inspired the idea of tonight, performing 'Numb/Encore', being nominated for this wonderful award, we thought it would be really amazing to try to tie all those things together and we did. Sir Paul McCartney was gracious enough to be really into the idea and supportive, and we really pulled it off. We won the Grammy, and we played with Paul McCartney, and it's pretty much been the most kick ass day any of us have ever had."

Freddie Stone says that the Family Stone is planning to reunite and do new things together: "We have been talking about going on tour. We talked about that, talked about doing some different kinds of things, evolutionary type of things, because Sly and the Family Stone does not... We have some new things, put it that way. We've all experienced life, and we've gone separate ways and we've come back."

Freddie Stone says that Sly Stone is excited about the new material he is working on: "Oh does he have? Oh yeah! In fact we correspond and he plays stuff over the phone for me. 'Freddie man, hey Freddie, listen to this, you gotta hear this, man!' And he's jazzed."

Freddie Stone says that Larry Graham was missing from the Family Stone reunion only because he got sick: "Larry was here today! Larry was here today. He was ill, he came in today, and he was going to be a part of it... He got ill and that's why he's not here."

Ciara on the Grammys energizing her: "You know what, this is truly an honor for me. First time attending the Grammy Awards, first album for me, first time being nominated, and just to think about everything I was nominated for this year, I feel so blessed, so thankful. Like, it's exciting and it's motivating at the same time. Like I'm so ready to go finish recording, I'm ready to put out another song, I'm excited. I feel really blessed, absolutely."

Burt Bacharach, who won Best Pop Instrumental Album for At This Time, reflected on why his music has stood the test of time: "Maybe when Hal David and I wrote those songs, what the world needs now is love, that was just as applicable 30 years ago when we wrote it, it's about 50 times more now."

Clown of Slipknot spoke about the hard work and sacrifices bands go through to be successful: "You know you talk to a lot of artists, and a lot of bands that want the dream, and there are very few bands that really get the gift, and with getting the dream, there is so much sacrifice to be able to obtain your dream, to live it for real."

Dan Tyminski of Allison Krauss and Union Station said how exciting it was to be nominated and to win: "Well, I mean it's so nice to even be acknowledged at all. It's a cliche but we were thrilled to be here and that we were nominated. We never expected to win, and it's, you know, you can take my heartbeat right now, and it's way up."