The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles being broadcast on CBS honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. LL Cool J hosted the show. It was the first time in seven years that the event had an official host. Nominations were announced on November 30, 2011, on prime-time television as part of "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live! – Countdown to Music's Biggest Night", a one-hour special broadcast live on CBS from Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live.Recording Academy, CBS enter 10-year Grammy deal , Associated Press, June 21, 2011 Kanye West received the most nominations with seven. Adele, Foo Fighters, and Bruno Mars each received six nominations. Lil Wayne, Skrillex, and Radiohead all earned five nominations. The nominations were criticised by many music journalists as Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy missed out on a nomination for Album of the Year despite being highly critically acclaimed and topping many end of year charts. West's album went on to win Best Rap Album.
A total of 78 awards were presented following the academy's decision to restructure the Grammy Award categories. Paul McCartney received the MusiCares Person of the Year award on February 10, 2012, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, two nights prior to the Grammy telecast.
On February 8, 2012, the academy announced that the 54th Grammy Pre-Telecast Ceremony would stream live internationally. The ceremony took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center and was streamed live in its entirety internationally at Grammy's official website and CBS Television Network. The ceremony was co-hosted by Dave Koz and MC Lyte. A total of 68 awards were presented in the Pre-Telecast ceremony. The official poster was designed by architect Frank Gehry.Architect Frank Gehry Creates Official Artwork for the 54th Annual Grammy , Grammy.org December 8, 2011
On February 7, 2012, following Etta James' death on January 20, 2012, The Recording Academy announced a tribute performance Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt. The day before the ceremony, Whitney Houston died in Los Angeles, and the show's producers quickly planned a tribute in the form of Jennifer Hudson singing Houston's "I Will Always Love You". The awards show began with a Bruce Springsteen performance followed by an LL Cool J prayer for Whitney Houston.
Adele won all of her six nominations, equalling the record for most wins by a female artist in one night, first held by Beyoncé. Adele became only the second artist in history, following Christopher Cross in 1981, to have won all four of the general field (Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year) awards throughout her career. Foo Fighters and Kanye West followed with five and four awards, respectively. With his win for Best Musical Theater Album (for The Book of Mormon: Original Broadway Cast Recording), producer Scott Rudin became the 11th person to become an EGOT winner.
Ratings The anticipation for the show's tributes to Whitney Houston greatly helped increase the ratings for the 54th Grammy Awards, which became the second highest in its history with 39.9 million viewers (trailing only behind the 1984 Grammys with 51.67 million viewers). The rating was 50% higher than in 2011. This remains the highest-rated Grammy telecast on 21st-century U.S. television.
Pre-telecast
Performers Kim Burrell, Le'Andria Johnson, Kelly Price and Trin-I-Tee 5:7 Joyce DiDonato Steve Earle Rebirth Brass Band The Civil Wars
Presenters Gerald Clayton Chick Corea Brandon Heath Arturo O'Farrill OK Go Corinne Bailey Rae Esperanza Spalding Jimmy Jam
Main telecast
Performers The following performed: Artist(s)Song(s)Bruce SpringsteenThe E Street Band"We Take Care of Our Own"Bruno Mars"Runaway Baby"Alicia KeysBonnie RaittTribute to Etta James"A Sunday Kind of Love"Chris Brown"Turn Up the Music""Beautiful People"Jason AldeanKelly Clarkson"Don't You Wanna Stay"Foo Fighters"Walk" RihannaColdplay"We Found Love""Princess of China""Paradise"Maroon 5Foster the PeopleThe Beach BoysCelebrating the Beach Boys' 50th anniversary"Surfer Girl""Wouldn't It Be Nice""Good Vibrations"Paul McCartneyDiana KrallJoe Walsh"My Valentine"The Civil Wars"Barton Hollow"Taylor Swift"Mean"Katy Perry"E.T.""Part of Me"Adele"Rolling in the Deep"The Band PerryBlake SheltonGlen CampbellHomage to Glen Campbell"Gentle on My Mind""Southern Nights""Rhinestone Cowboy"Tony BennettCarrie Underwood"It Had to Be You"Jennifer HudsonTribute to Whitney Houston"I Will Always Love You"Chris BrownDavid GuettaLil WayneFoo Fightersdeadmau5"I Can Only Imagine""Rope""Raise Your Weapon"Nicki Minaj"Roman's Revenge" (Intro)"Roman Holiday"Paul McCartney Bruce SpringsteenDave GrohlJoe WalshRusty AndersonBrian RayPaul WickensAbe Laboriel Jr."Golden Slumbers""Carry That Weight""The End"
Maceo Parker was scheduled to pay tribute to Clarence Clemons following the montage of those that had died in 2011 although his tribute was dropped in the 24 hours leading up to the awards show to make room for the Jennifer Hudson tribute to Whitney Houston.
Presenters
Alicia Keys & Bonnie Raitt - presented Best Pop Solo Performance LL Cool J - introduced Chris Brown Fergie & Marc Anthony - presented Best Rap Performance Reba McEntire - introduced Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson Jack Black - introduced the Foo Fighters LL Cool J - introduced Rihanna and Coldplay Mario Manningham, Victor Cruz & Pauley Perrette - presented Best Rock Performance Ryan Seacrest - paid tribute to the Beach Boys and introduced Maroon 5, Foster the People, and the remaining members of the Beach Boys Stevie Wonder - played Love Me Do on the harmonica and introduced Paul McCartney. Common & Taraji P. Henson - paid tribute to Gil Scott-Heron and presented Best R&B Album The Civil Wars - introduced Taylor Swift Neil Patrick Harris - presented Song of the Year LL Cool J & Kate Beckinsale - introduced Katy Perry Miranda Lambert & Dierks Bentley - presented Best Country Album Gwyneth Paltrow & Ceelo Green - introduced Adele Taylor Swift - presented the Glen Campbell tribute and introduced Blake Shelton, The Band Perry, and Glen Campbell Carrie Underwood & Tony Bennett - presented Best New Artist LL Cool J & Questlove - introduced Chris Brown, David Guetta, Deadmau5, and the Foo Fighters Drake - introduced Nicki Minaj Lady Antebellum - presented Record of the Year LL Cool J & Diana Ross - presented Album of the Year
Nominees and winners The winners per category were:
General Record of the Year "Rolling in the Deep" – Adele Paul Epworth, producer; Tom Elmhirst & Mark Rankin, engineers/mixers "Holocene" – Bon Iver Justin Vernon, producer; Brian Joseph & Justin Vernon, engineers/mixers "Grenade" – Bruno Mars The Smeezingtons, producers; Ari Levine & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers "The Cave" – Mumford & Sons Markus Dravs, producer; Francois Chevallier & Ruadhri Cushnan, engineers/mixers "Firework" – Katy Perry Stargate & Sandy Vee, producers; Mikkel S. Eriksen, Phil Tan, Sandy Vee & Miles Walker, engineers/mixers
Album of the Year 21 – AdeleRyan Tedder, Jim Abbiss, Adele Adkins, Paul Epworth, Rick Rubin, Fraser T Smith & Dan Wilson, producers; Jim Abbiss, Philip Allen, Beatriz Artola, Ian Dowling, Tom Elmhirst, Greg Fidelman, Dan Parry, Steve Price, Mark Rankin, Andrew Scheps, Fraser T Smith & Ryan Tedder, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer Wasting Light – Foo Fighters Butch Vig, producer; James Brown & Alan Moulder, engineers/mixers; Joe LaPorta & Emily Lazar, mastering engineers Born This Way – Lady Gaga Paul Blair, DJ Snake, Fernando Garibay, Lady Gaga, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Jeppe Laursen, RedOne & Clinton Sparks, producers; Fernando Garibay, Lady Gaga, Bill Malina, Trevor Muzzy, RedOne, Dave Russell, Justin Shirley Smith, Horace Ward & Tom Ware, engineers/mixers; Gene Grimaldi, mastering engineer Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars B.o.B, Cee Lo Green & Damian Marley, featured artists; Dwayne "Supa Dups" Chin-Quee, Needlz & The Smeezingtons, producers; Ari Levine & Manny Marroquin, engineers/mixers; Stephen Marcussen, mastering engineer Loud – Rihanna Drake, Eminem & Nicki Minaj, featured artists; Ester Dean, Alex da Kid, Kuk Harrell, Mel & Mus, Awesome Jones, Makeba Riddick, The Runners, Sham, Soundz, Stargate, Chris "Tricky" Stewart, Sandy Vee & Willy Will, producers; Ariel Chobaz, Cary Clark, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Alex da Kid, Josh Gudwin, Kuk Harrell, Jaycen Joshua, Manny Marroquin, Dana Nielsen, Chad "C-Note" Roper, Noah "40" Shebib, Corey Shoemaker, Jay Stevenson, Mike Strange, Phil Tan, Brian "B-Luv" Thomas, Marcos Tovar, Sandy Vee, Jeff "Supa Jeff" Villanueva, Miles Walker & Andrew Wuepper, engineers/mixers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineerSong of the Year"Rolling in the Deep"Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth, songwriters (Adele) "All of the Lights" Jeff Bhasker, Stacy Ferguson, Really Doe, Kanye West & Malik Yusef, songwriters (Kanye West featuring Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie) "The Cave" Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford & Country Winston, songwriters (Mumford & Sons) "Grenade" Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, The Smeezingtons & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Bruno Mars) "Holocene" Justin Vernon, songwriter (Bon Iver)Best New ArtistBon Iver The Band Perry J. Cole Nicki Minaj Skrillex
PopBest Pop Solo Performance"Someone like You" – Adele"Yoü and I" – Lady Gaga "Grenade" – Bruno Mars "Firework" – Katy Perry "Fuckin' Perfect" – P!nkBest Pop Duo/Group Performance"Body and Soul" – Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse"Dearest" – The Black Keys "Paradise" – Coldplay "Pumped Up Kicks" – Foster the People "Moves Like Jagger" – Maroon 5 & Christina AguileraBest Pop Instrumental AlbumThe Road from Memphis – Booker T. JonesWish Upon a Star: A Tribute to the Music of Walt Disney – Jenny Oaks Baker E Kahe Malie – Daniel Ho Hello Tomorrow – Dave Koz Setzer Goes Instru-Mental! – Brian SetzerBest Pop Vocal Album21 – AdeleThe Lady Killer – Cee Lo Green Born This Way – Lady Gaga Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars Loud – Rihanna
Dance/ElectronicBest Dance Recording"Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" – SkrillexSonny Moore, producer & mixer "Raise Your Weapon" – deadmau5 featuring Greta Svabo Bech Joel Zimmerman, producer "Barbra Streisand" – Duck Sauce Armand Van Helden & Alain Macklovitch, producers; Armand van Helden & Alain Macklovitch, mixers "Sunshine" – David Guetta & Avicii Tim Bergling, David Guetta & Giorgio Tuinfort, producers; Tim Bergling, mixer "Call Your Girlfriend" – Robyn Klas Åhlund & Billboard, producers; Niklas Flyckt, mixer "Save the World" – Swedish House Mafia Steve Angello, Axel Hedfors & Sebastian Ingrosso, producers; Steve Angello, Axel Hedfors & Sebastian Ingrosso, mixersBest Dance/Electronic AlbumScary Monsters and Nice Sprites – Skrillex Zonoscope – Cut Copy 4x4=12 – deadmau5 Nothing but the Beat – David Guetta Body Talk Pt. 3 – Robyn
Traditional Pop Best Traditional Pop Vocal AlbumDuets II – Tony Bennett The Gift – Susan Boyle In Concert on Broadway – Harry Connick, Jr. Music Is Better Than Words – Seth MacFarlane What Matters Most – Barbra Streisand
Rock Best Rock Performance"Walk" – Foo Fighters"Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" – Coldplay "Down By the Water" – The Decemberists "The Cave" – Mumford & Sons "Lotus Flower" – Radiohead
Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance"White Limo" – Foo Fighters "On the Backs of Angels" – Dream Theater "Curl of the Burl" – Mastodon "Public Enemy No. 1" – Megadeth "Blood in My Eyes" – Sum 41
Best Rock Song"Walk" – Foo FightersFoo Fighters songwriters "The Cave" – Mumford & Sons Mumford & Sons, songwriters "Down By the Water" – The Decemberists Colin Meloy, songwriter "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" – Coldplay Coldplay, songwriters "Lotus Flower" – Radiohead, Radiohead songwriters
Best Rock AlbumWasting Light – Foo Fighters Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) – Jeff Beck