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TAYLOR SWIFT ROCKS & ADELE FALTERS AT GRAMMY AWARDS
TAYLOR SWIFT won a total of just three GRAMMYS last night, which included the prestigious Album Of The Year, after opening the 58th annual GRAMMY AWARDS with a performance of “Out Of The Woods.” Her acceptance speech called out KANYE WEST by telling young women “not to let anyone else take credit for your success.” It was a classy way for TAYLOR, who became the first woman to win the award twice, to answer back to KANYE’s current track where he claims to have made TAYLOR famous. At the same time, people were asking what was up with ADELE. Singing “All I Ask,” her vocals were, shall we say, all over the place. The PR spin machine quickly went to work saying there were audio problems (blame the sound man), mic cord across piano and that it sounded good at The Staple Center, but not on TV where a million plus viewers had tuned in. Sort of a real problem when JUSTIN BIEBER sounds better than ADELE. The other big winners were MARK RONSON and BRUNO MARS’ “Uptown Funk” for Record of the Year along with Best Pop Duo/Group Performance; ED SHEERAN’s “Thinking Out Loud” for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, and a tearful MEGHAN TRAINOR for Best New Artist, which led to a sobbing acceptance speech. Outside of the Big Four, the night belonged to KENDRICK LAMAR, who earned five GRAMMY AWARDS (including a Best Video nod for TAYLOR SWIFT’s “Bad Blood”), took home Best Rap Album for “To Pimp A Butterfly,” which was presented to him by ICE CUBE and son O’SHEA JACKSON, and Best Rap Song for “Alright.” Aside from the awards, he arguably had the performance of the night with a stirring live version of “The Blacker The Berry” — set against a prison backdrop that was the dark side of “Jailhouse Rock” — followed by a frantic, declamatory “Alright” in front of a raging bonfire. ALABAMA SHAKES’ four GRAMMYS included Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song (“Don’t Wanna Fight”), Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, later killing with a performance of “Don’t Wanna Fight,” in which BRITTANY HOWARD howled up a storm in an outfit that recalled SISTER ROSETTA THARPE. CHRIS STAPLETON earned a pair of GRAMMYs for Best Country Solo Performance and Country Album Of The Year, which was presented to him by KAM and GARY SINISE. Stirring tributes to MAURICE WHITE, GLENN FREY, DAVID BOWIE and B.B. KING were given standing ovations. Needless to say, LL COOL J did an outstanding job as host.