U2, Alicia Keys, and the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” were the big winners at last night’s Grammy awards. U2 walked away with three awards, Keys took home four honors, while the “O Brother” soundtrack won five awards.
U2 opened the show with a performance of “Walk On.” Quickly after the performance they would beat the Backstreet Boys, R.E.M, and ‘NSync for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or group. U2 also won Record of the Year for “Walk On.”
Among Keys’ honors were Best New Artist, Best R’B album, and Best R’B song for “Fallin’.” She also turned in a performance which had her dancing the salsa to a remixed version of “A Woman’s Worth.”
One of the biggest upsets of the night belonged to the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. It beat out Keys and U2 among others, to take home the award.
Train also brought in an upset in the category of Best Rock Song. U2 had two nominations but “Drops of Jupiter” was good enough for give the award to Train.
Other winners included Outkast, Nelly Furtado, Coldplay, Linkin Park, Sade, and the Pink/Mya/?Lil Kim/Christina Aguilera collaboration “Lady Marmalade.”
The win for the “Moulin Rouge!” prompted a moment of humor from host Jon Stewart. “You have the ‘Moulin Rouge!’ girls sitting behind the Backstreet Boys. That would make them the Soggy Bottom Boys.”
The Grammy telecast was also full of all-star performances. Those who took to the stage included Dave Matthews Band, a teaming of *NSync and Nelly, Train, a medley from “O Brother Where Art Thou,” Bob Dylan, Mary J. Blige, a Nelly Furtado/Steve Vai collaboration, and Outkast.
Unlike previous award shows, the 9/11 tributes were contained to just two performances, Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning,” and the Billy Joel/Tony Bennett duet “New York State of Mind.”
While making his annual speech, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences president Michael Greene went on to attack online music piracy.