Adele’s rolling in Grammy Awards as stars pay tribute to Whitney Houston

By DIANE KING
Published on Monday 13 February 2012 08:55

BRITISH singer Adele emerged as the top winner at the Grammy Awards, winning six trophies including record, song and album of the year.

The talented Londoner, who also made a triumphant comeback from vocal cord surgery on the Grammy stage, sobbed as she won the night’s final award – album of the year – for 21.

It was last year’s top-selling album with more than six million copies sold and remains lodged at the number one spot on this year’s charts.

Her victories tied her with Beyonce as having registered the most wins by a woman in one evening.

“Mom, gold is good!” Adele shouted as she took the album of the year trophy.

The celebration of Adele, a big-voiced, soulful singer, came on a night where the Grammys marked the loss of one of music’s great female voices in Whitney Houston, whose death cast a shadow over music’s biggest night.

But while her death lent a sombre overtone to the evening’s show, it did not overwhelm it, perhaps best proved by the show’s rollicking, closing jam session featuring Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Dave Grohl.

The night’s other big winners were Grohl’s Foo Fighters, who won five Grammys. They noted that they made album Wasting Light in a garage.

“To me, this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what’s most important. Singing into a microphone, learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do,” said Grohl as the band accepted their best rock performance trophy for Walk.

British singer/songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae also picked up a Grammy for best R&B performance for Is This Love, while Amy Winehouse, who was found dead last year following a battle with drugs, scooped a posthumous award for best pop duo/group performance.

The 27-year-old’s parents, Mitch and Janis, were invited to jointly accept the Grammy for her collaboration with Tony Bennett on the track Body And Soul.

“We shouldn’t be here, our darling daughter should be here. These are the cards that we’re dealt,” said Mitch after he was called on stage by Bennett.

Paying tribute to his daughter, Houston and Etta James who died earlier this year, he added: “Long live Whitney Houston, long live Amy Winehouse, Long live Etta James. There’s a beautiful girl band up in heaven.”

The show started off on a sombre note, as host LL Cool J told the audience: “There is no way around this. We’ve had a death in our family.”

He then led the audience in prayer to “our fallen sister”.

He said: “Though she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit.”

In his performance of Runaway Baby, Bruno Mars also mentioned the death, saying: “Tonight we’re celebrating. Tonight we’re celebrating the beautiful Miss Whitney Houston.”

Stevie Wonder said: “To Whitney up in heaven, we all love you.”

At last night’s other awards ceremony, the Bafta film awards, silent film The Artist swept the board, winning seven awards including best film, leading actor and best director.

But its leading lady, Berenice Bejo, lost out in the outstanding actress award to Meryl Streep, who picked up the prize for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Actor-turned-director Paddy Considine and Diarmid Scrimshaw won the gong for outstanding debut for Tyrannosaur.

Christopher Plummer won the best supporting actor award for Beginners.

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