Grammy Awards Deliver Some Surprises
Sunday evening was all glitz and glamour at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards as music-lovers gathered to honor artists who stood out above the crowd in the past year – and the evening proved to be full of surprises. No one seemed to be more astonished at their success than the band members of Arcade Fire, as the Canadian indie rock group took the Album of the Year Grammy for The Suburbs. They followed up frontman Win Butler’s acceptance speech with an impromptu performance of Ready to Start, to the delight of the audience. Consisting of Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Will Butler, Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, Jeremy Gara and Sarah Neufeld, the band features a variety of instruments in their music, including guitar, drums, bass guitar, violin, viola, piano, cello, double bass, xylophone, glockenspiel, French horn, accordion, keyboard, harp, mandolin, and even a hurdy-gurdy.
Another surprise win was Esperanza Spalding grabbing the Grammy for Best New Artist. Oregon-born Esperanza is best known for her talent as a jazz bassist and singer. Having been the recipient of the 2005 Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship, going on to become the one of the youngest professors in the history of the renowned Berklee College of Music, there is no doubt that Esperanza Spalding has loads of talent as well as a loyal and growing fan-base.
The evening started off with Cristina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams paying tribute to the legendary ‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin, who has achieved eighteen competitive Grammys and two honorary Grammys during her very successful career. The entertainment continued with the first live performance on TV for Lady Gaga, and she didn’t disappoint her fans as she emerged from a pod on stage in an outlandish costume and proceeded to belt out Born This Way.
Other highlights on the list of winners include Lady Antebellum claiming Country Album of the Year and Song of the Year with Need You Now; Pop Vocal Album went to Lady Gaga for The Fame Monster as well as Female Pop Vocal Performance for Bad Romance; the award for Best Rock Song went to Neil Young for Angry World; Muse took the honors for Best Rock Album The Resistance; R&B Song and R&B Album were claimed by John Legend & The Roots for Shine and Wake Up! respectively; Rap Solo Performance for Not Afraid and Rap Album for Recovery went to Eminem; La Roux claimed Electronic Dance Album; and The Black Keys were awarded Alternative Music Album.
