ADELE WINS,
PRAISES BEYONCE
Even though Adele flubbed one of her live performances at the Grammys, she walked away the belle of the ball: She took home all five awards she was nominated for Sunday night, including album, record and song of the year.
She beat Beyonce in the top three categories with her comeback album 25, and repeated her accomplishments from 2012, when the British star also won Album, Song and Record of the Year at the Grammys. She’s the first artist in Grammy history to sweep the top three categories twice, and now has a total of 15 Grammys.
Adele used her speech to honor Beyonce and her groundbreaking Lemonade album, which was also nominated.
“But I can’t really accept this award. And I’m very humble and I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyonce. This album you made, the Lemonade album, is so monumental,” Adele said to her fellow singer at the Staples Center in Los Angeles when accepting the Album of the Year trophy.
The night for Adele wasn’t all good though: The singer, who had trouble with her live performance at last year’s Grammys, asked to restart her tribute to George Michael, telling the audience: “I can’t mess this up for him.” She stopped and used an expletive after singing some of a new arrangement of Michael’s Fastlove, as videos and photos of Michael played in the background.
Michael died on Christmas Day. A number of other icons were honored Sunday, including Prince: Bruno Mars worked the guitar like a pro while singing the icon’s Let’s Go Crazy.
Mars was also a winner Sunday—he won for his producing work on Adele’s album. Adele’s other wins included Best Pop Vocal Album and Pop Solo Performance.
Beyonce was the talk of the show. In glittery gown, gilded crown and gold choker, a pregnant Beyonce took the Grammy stage in a lengthy performance of two songs from
her critically acclaimed album Lemonade.
She earned a loud applause from the audience, including daughter Blue Ivy and husband Jay Z. Beyonce, who walked into the show with nine nominations, only won two: Best Music Video ( Formation) and Urban Contemporary Album ( Lemonade).
Like Adele, David Bowie—who died last year from cancer—won all four awards he was nominated for.
Blackstar, his final album released days before he died, won Best Alternative Music Album and Engineered Album, NonClassical, among others. Adele and Mars worked overtime onstage, each performing twice. Adele kicked off the show with Hello and Mars and his groovy band gave a memorable performance of That’s What I Like— as Jennifer Lopez and Rihanna watched closely, looking impressed. Chance the Rapper won the first award in the live telecast for Best New Artist. He also won Best Rap Album.