America
Sam Smith, Pharrell Williams score big at Grammy; Indian artists win too
Los Angeles, Feb 9
Singers Sam Smith, Beck,
Beyonce Knowles and Pharrell Williams Sunday night dominated the 57th
Grammy Awards ceremony, which saw Indian artists Ricky Kej and Neela
Vaswani winning too.
The "Stay with me" fame singer Smith had a
huge night as he scooped four Grammy awards -- Record of the Year, Song
of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist.
Williams's
single "Happy" gave him a reason to smile as he got Best Pop Solo
Performance and Best Music Video for the song. Best Urban Contemporary
Album award also went to Williams for his album "G I R L".
The
award ceremony had another surprise package with musician Beck nixing
popular names like Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith to take away the
Album Of The Year trophy for his album "Morning Phase". Beck took home
another trophy in the Best Rock Album category for his album. The album
was also awarded with the Best Engineered Album in the non-classical
category as well.
Kej's collaborated album with South African
musician Wouter Kellerman "Winds Of Samsara" won the Best New Age Album
trophy, and Vaswani walked away with an award in the Best Children's
Album category for being the narrator of the audio version of book "I Am
Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World
(Malala Yousafzai)".
Hosted by rapper LL Cool J, the ceremony was
attended by stars like Taylor Swift, Enrique Iglesias, Lady Gaga,
Nicole Kidman and Barry Gibb.
Meanwhile, Knowles dominated the
R&B categories by winning Best R&B Performance and Best R&B
Song for "Drunk in love". Her self-titled album also won the Best
Surround Sound Album.
Among other awards, rapper Eminem's "The
monster" featuring Rihanna won a trophy in the Best Rap/Sung
Collaboration and his "The Marshall Mathers LP2" was awarded the Best
Rap Album trophy, making it his sixth win in the category. In the past,
he won for albums like "Recovery" and "Relapse".
If Eminem and
Rihanna's collaboaration helped them scoop an award, the Best Pop
duo/group performance trophy went to "Say something" by A Great Big
World with Christina Aguilera.
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album was given to "Cheek to Cheek" by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, who also performed on stage.
"Frozen"
also bagged two awards. The film's "Let it go" won Best Song Written
for Visual Media. Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media also went
to "Frozen".
The night not only focussed around music, but also
highlighted the power of music and its ability to fight social menace
like domestic violence.
US President Barack Obama made a video
appearance at the ceremony to share a powerful message, urging Americans
to end violence against women and girls.
Obama also asked
artists to tell their fans to join "It's On Us", which is White House's
ongoing campaign to help put an end to sexual assault on college
campuses.
Following the powerful video message, a domestic abuse
survivor Brooke Axtell shared her painful experience after which singer
Katy Perry took to stage in a white gown to sing "By the grace of god",
which inspired hope.
Other performers of the night included
AC/DC, Rihanna, Paul McCartney, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, Madonna,
Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Kanye West, who crooned at Grammys for the
first time in six years.
The Recording Academy label not only
honoured the music personalities, who stood out with their music and
entertained music-lovers across globe, but also launched an initiative
to safeguard the interact of music-makers for the generations to come.
Through
the initiative named The GRAMMY Creators Alliance, music artists will
be channel the voice of future generations of artists and advance
policies that put music-makers first.
Launched by Recording
Academy president Neil Portnow along with singer-actress Jennifer Hudson
and OneRepublic singer and producer Ryan Tedder, the alliance has been
created to push for increased remuneration for artists in the digital
age.