Amy Winehouse and Kanye West were the top winners at last night's Grammy Awards. Despite being granted a travel visa late on Friday, Winehouse still performed via satellite from London, which was arranged when it was thought that she would be denied a visa. She won five awards: Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album for "Back to Black" and Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance for "Rehab." Winehouse thanked her parents, her record label and her husband "my Blake, incarcerated" in her acceptance speech.
Kanye West earned four awards: Best Rap Solo Performance for "Stronger," Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Southside" with Common, Best Rap Song for "Good Life," and Best Rap Album for "Graduation."
Entertainment Weekly has a nice breakdown of the winners in the other categories:
Carrie Underwood (two country-category trophies for "Before He Cheats"); Rihanna and Jay-Z (Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for the ubiquitous "Umbrella"); Justin Timberlake (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "What Goes AroundComes Around" and Best Dance Recording for "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows"); Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters, who split most of the trophies in the rock categories; and even Barack Obama, who beat Bill Clinton for Best Spoken Word Album.
[From EW.com]
The upset of the evening came when Herbie Hancock unexpectedly won album of the year for "River: The Jonie Letters."
Here are Kanye and Amy's acceptance speeches, many thanks to RedLasso. We'll have another post shortly with the performance videos.
Kanye West's Acceptance Speech
Amy Winehouse's Acceptance Speech
Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures from the arrivals last night. Pictured are Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Cyndi Lauper, Beyonce in a Barbie gown, Solange Knowles in an even worse sack-like dress, Fergie looking bumpalicious, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Foo Fighters, Daughtry, Herbie Hancock, Jay-Z, Seal and Natalie Cole, Amy Lee, Kelis, John Legend, Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Wilkerson, and Maroon 5.