Editor’s Note: I’m sad. What a great talent. Here’s a bio.
CBS The 54th annual Grammy Awards got under way with a song and a prayer Sunday, as the Recording Academy tried to focus on music’s biggest night after of the death of one of music’s biggest names – Whitney Houston.
RIP Whitney Housten Passed Away on the Eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards
Houston died on the eve of the Grammys at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was preparing to attend a pre-Grammy party. Her death cast a huge shadow over the event, and after Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened the show, host LL Cool J said: “There is no way around this. We’ve had a death in our family.”
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Pictures: Grammy Awards red carpet arrivals
Special Section: The 2012 Grammys
Special Section: Death of a pop diva
The rapper read a prayer for Houston, who died on the eve of the Grammys at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was preparing to attend a pre-Grammy party. Her death cast a huge shadow over the event.
Stars like Lady Gaga and Miranda Lambert bowed their heads in silence. So did Mitch and Janis Winehouse, parents of Grammy winner Amy Winehouse, who died in July at age 27.
Then, LL Cool J introduced a clip of a glowing Houston singing one of her best-known songs, “I Will Always Love You.” He then said: “Whitney, we will always love you.”
But the show must go on – and it did with a performance from Bruno Mars, and another from Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt.
Adele was the first star to pick up an award during the telecast, winning best pop solo performance for “Someone Like You.” She won another two of her possible six Grammys before the ceremony began, including best pop vocal for her bestselling album “21.”
Other winners at the pre-telecast ceremony included Kanye West and dance/electronica DJ Skrillex, who won three each. Taylor Swift also won two trophies for her rebuke to her critics, “Mean.” The folk-country duo The Civil Wars also won two.
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The Foo Fighters were the top winners in the pre-telecast ceremony, taking four out of their possible six trophies, including best rock album for “Wasting Light” (the album is also up for album of the year).
Before the death of one of pop music’s most important figures, the pre-Grammy buzz focused on whether Adele – 2011′s top-selling artist and set to make her first public performance on the show since having vocal cord surgery – would be the queen of the Grammys. Although Kanye West led all nominees with seven and Bruno Mars and the Foo Fighters tied Adele with six nominations, she was favored to sweep all of her categories.
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But as show time neared, the focus remained on Houston’s death. A tribute to Houston featuring Jennifer Hudson was to take place during the main ceremony.
Grammy show producer Ken Ehrlich said Houston’s death was “too fresh in everyone’s memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn’t recognize Whitney’s remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years.”
More Houston tributes from nominees and presenters are expected during the three-and-a-half hour Staples Center show.
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