The 51st Grammy Awards

The music industry's biggest honor was bestowed to many artists tonight at the 51st Grammy Awards. In an attempt to attract viewers there were more performances than actual awards announced, many of the trophies being given before the main Grammy ceremony. The big winners of the night were Allison Krauss and Robert Plant who won five Grammy Awards for their joint record "Raising Sand." They won "Album of the Year", "Record of the Year" for "Please Read This Letter","Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" for "Rich Woman" along with two other awards in the country/bluegrass categories. Lil Wayne won four Grammy Awards including "Best Rap Album", Coldplay won three Grammy Awards including "Best Rock Album" and "Song of the Year" for "Viva La Vida", Adele won two in the categories of "Best New Artist" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance." Jennifer Hudson won her first Grammy for "Best R&B Album" and Duffy won for "Best Pop Vocal Album."

The performances tonight were varied and interesting with U2 starting off the show with their new single off of their forthcoming album, Jennifer Hudson recieved a standing ovation for her performance of "You Pulled Me Through" which is a song off of her album, for which she won the Grammy Award. Other performers dueted including, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, Al Green, Justin Timberlake, Boys II Men and Keith Urban, Justin Timberlake and T.I., Stevie Wonder and The Jonas Brothers, with Robert Plant and Allison Krauss being the second to last performers of the night before taking home "Album of the Year." The final performer was Stevie Wonder who played through to the credits.

The Red Carpet was full of hits and misses. Some of the hits included Carrie Underwood in a form fitting golden floor length number, Katy Perry and Sara Bareilles both in pink, and Adele who was reportedly styled by Vogue Editor Anna Wintour. Black was a hit for several women including Duffy who looked chic in a knee length dress accessorized with black heels, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift looked glamerous and mature and Kate Beckinsale wowed in a form fitting black dress which expanded past the knee.

Some of the misses included Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul (who I don't think has wowed on the Red Carpet all award season), Jennifer Hudson, who's dress from the front was a total miss but from the back was actually quite nice. When performing J.Hud redeemed herself in a glittering black number. Nikki Cox was also a fail on the red carpet and LeAnn Rimes turquois knee length dress was ill accessorized and a red carpet miss.

There were some mixed dresses. Jordin Sparks wore a floor length glittering black dress which was nice but also a bit too much for her and did not properly showcase the American Idol winner. Fantasia Barrino and Kelisha Cole also wore black knee length dresses that shimmered but were not good enough to call it a hit but not bad enough to qualify as a failure. While LK considered Leona Lewis to be a miss, I think it was a bad choice in color. The light gold form fitting gown did not properly accent Leona's skin tone. If she had gone for a darker, more bold color it would have been a total hit and if she had pulled back her hair instead of leaving it down she would have rocked the red carpet.

Whitney Houston was the first to present and was stunning, while she seemed a little inebriated she looked great and apparently her performance at Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party last night was a total home run for the diva. Katy Perry and Leona Lewis were egregiously overlooked at the Grammy's this year. Both should have been nominated for "Best New Artist" instead of The Jonas Brothers who have released three albums and therefore are not new. Another noteworthy mention was M.I.A. who performed "Paper Planes" while nine months pregnat. Not only that but her due date was the day of the Grammys!

That does it for the Grammy Awards, now onto what I have to say about the BAFTAs.

Congrats to Kate for winning even though she was nominated against herself. She delivered a great speech, and did you notice how pissed off Kristin Scott Thomas was? HI-larious. Penelope Cruz kept her speech short and to the point and it was great to see how excited Kate was for her, apparently the two have become quite close this award season. I think Kate was happy for Penelope who was the odds on favorite to sweep the "Best Supporting Actress" categories until Kate was nominated in that category for "The Reader." Mickey Rourke got one step closer to the Academy Award, although I still contend that Sean Penn still stands a chance to win at the Academy Awards because Penn has won the Critics Choice Award and Screen Actors Guild Award and several critics awards including Los Angeles Film Critics Awards, etc. Heath Ledger of course won and good for him and the film which has been sadly overlooked in the main categories.