If last year’s Grammys were owned by Adele (and they ever so thoroughly were), then this year’s ceremony saw the men take back the reigns. The top awards were all won by men – Gotye got Record of the Year, for Somebody That I Used to Know, while the male trio of fun. got Song of the Year for We Are Young, and Mumford & Sons picked up Album of the Year for Babel – an album that made a major impact on the US Billboard 200 chart last year, selling over 600 000 copies upon release. Miguel won Best R ‘n B Song for Adorn and the Black Keys injected their brotherly rock into more than a few categories – scoring Best Rock Album, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for Lonely Boy.
Tribute was paid to Levon Helm, the late singing drummer from The Band, and Justin Timberlake made his cool comeback in a black and white performance with a shoop-shoop band accompanying him and Jay-Z jumping up from his seat to join in. Even Ed Sheeran got to perform his song The A-Team with Sir Elton John. As for the ladies – well, aside from Carrie Underwood’s magic dress that displayed various fairylike images on it, they didn’t leave much to post to Twitter about. Thank heavens for Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes who had a verse in the Helm tribute – I can’t wait to watch her and that band grow even stronger.
Adele still managed to make a cameo this year – the awards opened with her being presented the Pop Solo Performance statue for the live version of Set Fire to the Rain. And she really does look set to add an Oscar to her many awards, at that ceremony in two weeks’ time.
In the meantime, maybe next year the awards will even out the balance?
The winners are:
Album of the year
Babel, Mumford & Sons
Record of the Year
Somebody That I Used to Know, Gotye featuring Kimbra
Song (goes to writer)
We Are Young – fun.
Best new artist
fun.
Pop vocal album
Stronger, Kelly Clarkson
Dance/electronica album
Bangarang, Skrillex
Rock album
El Camino, The Black Keys
Alternative album
Making Mirrors, Gotye
R&B album
Black Radio, Robert Glasper Experiment
Rap album
Take Care, Drake
Country album
Uncaged, Zac Brown Band
Americana album
Slipstream, Bonnie Raitt
Pop solo performance
Set Fire to the Rain (Live), Adele
Pop duo/group performance
Somebody That I Used to Know, Gotye featuring Kimbra
Dance recording
Bangarang, Skrillex featuring Sirah
Traditional pop vocal album
Kisses on the Bottom, Paul McCartney
Rock performance
Lonely Boy, The Black Keys
Hard rock/metal performance
Love Bites (So Do I), Halestorm
Rock song (goes to writer)
Lonely Boy (performed by the Black Keys)
R&B song (goes to writer)
Adorn (performed by Miguel)
Traditional R&B performance
Love on Top, Beyoncé
R&B performance
Climax, Usher
Urban contemporary album
Channel Orange, Frank Ocean
Rap performance
N—– In Paris, Jay-Z and Kanye West
Rap/sung collaboration
No Church in the Wild, Jay-Z & Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean and The-Dream
Rap song (goes to writer)
N—– In Paris (performed by Jay-Z and Kanye West)
World Music Album
The Living Room Sessions Part 1, Ravi Shankar
South African musician Hugh Masekela performs at the pre-telecast Grammy ceremony. He was up for Best World Music Album.
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, via The Grammys
For the full list of winners, head on over here.
