Grammy Awards 2013: Mumford & Sons win top honour; Ravi Shankar and Black Keys shine!

The Grammy Awards 2013 celebrating the best talent in the arena of music were kick started by today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles by a stage performance by pop star Taylor Swift.

Resham Sengar

Los Angeles: The Grammy Awards 2013 celebrating the best talent in the arena of music were kick started today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles by a stage performance by pop star Taylor Swift who seemed to be doing an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with her immoderate performance of the song "We`re Never, Ever Getting Back Together" which was replete with surrealist art swirls and a Mad Hatter to set the ball rolling for an evening full of fireworks. Was she inspired by Lady Gaga, we wonder? The host for the evening is LL Cool J who welcomed the guests and the viewers warmly by saying, "Welcome to the greatest music show on Earth." LL called out some of the night`s biggest stars and their hometowns: Justin Timberlake from Tennessee, Adele from England, Rihanna from Barbados. The Grammy for the best pop solo performance has been bagged by Adele for her single number “Set Fire to the Rain,” from her “Live at the Royal Albert Hall” disc. “Thank you so much. This is amazing. I just wanted to come and be part of the night. I loved it last year, obviously,” said Adele who looked pretty in a red floral dress. The award was presented by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull. Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley sang a medley to take the night ahead. While Lambert sang her ballad “Over You” but Bentley’s “Home,” however, did not seem to be appropriate for an awards event owing to its imagery of blood-patched landscapes. R&B singer Miguel was paired with rapper Wiz Khalifa for the remix of "Adorn.” Post the performance, Carrie Underwood received the award for country solo performance for her “Blown Away" which also won the country song award for writers Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins earlier during the pre-telecast ceremony and song of the year has been awarded to Fun.'s "We Are Young" featuring Janelle Monae. Indie rock band Fun. received the song of the year baguette for their hit song “We Are Young” and the band gave a humorous award acceptance speech. “Everyone can see our faces and we are not very young — we’ve been doing this for 12 years,” Ruess said as he and his band mates collected the award on stage. Next in line was arena folk band Mumford & Sons that performed its “I Will Wait” introduced onstage by Johnny Depp. A tuxedo clad Frank Ocean appeared victorious in the urban contemporary album award category that pitted him directly against his arch rival Chris Brown, as Ocean’s critically acclaimed solo debut album, “Channel Orange,” was chosen the best of all the nominees. Ocean also happens to be the year’s most nominated artist. “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson emerged the winner for the pop vocal album award for her CD “Stronger” in a category that included heavyweights like Florence and the Machine, Fun., Maroon 5 and Pink, all of whom Clarkson praised during her award acceptance speech. “I did not expect to win!” she said with great excitement. Paul McCartney won the best traditional pop vocal album for "Kisses On The Bottom" and Beyonce Knowles awarded for best traditional R&B performance for her song "Love On Top" from her album "4". Along with McCartney, the strong contenders for the prize were Michael Buble's (“Christmas") and Carole King ("A Holiday Carole"). But the highlight of the show during its first hour of broadcast was the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach took home five trophies – one of them being producer of the year for himself and three with his group including rock performance, rock song and rock album for “El Camino.” Rihanna got a standing ovation for her clap-worthy performance of "I Want You to Stay" as the camera caught her on and off lover Chris Brown looking on in awe of the songstress. However, Rihanna lost the award for best rap/sung collaboration to Jay-Z, Kanye and Frank Ocean for their single “No Church in the Wild” at the 55th edition of the awards ceremony. Album of the year nominees Black Keys jammed with New Orleans jazz musicians and Alicia Keys showed her drumming skills while singing a duet with Adam Levine much to the delight of the entire audiences. Black Keys won an award for best rock performance for "Lonely Boy” and the Zac Brown Band further strengthened its position as a new-generation country powerhouse by winning the 55th Grammy Awards country album trophy for its “Uncaged” album. Bruno Mars was the first one to begin the much-awaited Bob Marley tribute by singing reggae modulated "Locked Out of Heaven." Mars was joined by Sting who moved on to sing "Walking on the Moon." Rihanna and Ziggy Marley took the tribute to the next level. Kelly Clarkson instantly won hearts when she sang “A Natural Woman”. Grammy Awards voters named New York Indie rock trio Fun. as the year’s best new artist for the song “We Are Young”. “All right, I didn’t think we were gonna win this one — Frank Ocean, the Lumineers, everyone is so awesome,” Fun. member Nate Ruess said after he and band mates Jack Antonoff and Andrew Dost arrived on stage to collect their trophies. One of the biggest-selling singles of 2012 “Somebody That I Used to Know,” the hugely famous collaboration between Australian electronic pop artist Gotye and New Zealand pop singer Kimbra, won the record of the year Grammy award. The record of the year award recognizes performance and record production. On his remarkable win, Goyte said “I’m really at a loss for what to say after receiving an award from the man standing behind us with a cane,” referring to pop star Prince, who announced the category winner. “I feel blessed to be part of this award, and I couldn’t share it with anyone more amazing than this artist here, said Kimbra who accompanied Goyte onstage to collect the trophy. Katy Perry announced handed over the trophy to Fun. for the best new artist category. Sixty days after his death, Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar won the best world music album Grammy for "The Living Room Sessions Part 1" covering a wide range of Indian classical styles. He was also honoured with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement award at a glittering ceremony. The sitar maestro's daughter Anoushka, who too was nominated in the same category for her album "Traveller" accepted the Grammy on behalf of her late father. At the pre-awards ceremony, Anoushka Shankar and the musician's other daughter and singer Norah Jones accepted the posthumous Grammy Award. The Indian music icon was among seven artistes, including Carole King and the Temptations, named as Lifetime Achievement Award honourees. Although Ravi Shankar’s wife Sukanya showed up at the event, yet she chose not to go on stage stage. The widely popular English folk rock band Mumford & Sons were the winners of the Grammy’s topmost honour for their album “Babel”. Expressing surprise at their unexpected win, Mumford & Sons front man Marcus Mumford said, “We figured we weren’t going to win because the Black Keys have been sweeping up all day — and deservedly so.” The band’s Marcus Mumford was bleeped when he remarked that they did not win last year because of 2012’s winner Adele who was on stage to present the award to the group. Mumford’s spouse Carey Mulligan wiped her tears as she watched her hubby being honoured for his feat. The curtains were brought down by the host LL Cool J. He joked, “By day, I do a little hosting and acting. At night, I do a little rapping.” JJ brought Chuck D to join him on stage to honour the American hip hop band Beastie Boys that lost their partner Adam Nathaniel Yauch in 2012. The finale was supposed to be the highlight of the event and it sure lived up to the expectations. The curtains were brought down by the host LL Cool J. He joked, “By day, I do a little hosting and acting. At night, I do a little rapping.” JJ brought Chuck D to join him on stage to honour the American hip hop band Beastie Boys that lost their partner Adam Nathaniel Yauch in 2012. The finale was supposed to be the highlight of the event and it sure lived up to the expectations.