Event held on February 12, 2012
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. 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.
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 ""), producer Scott Rudin became the 11th person to become an EGOT winner.
Ratings.
The anticipation for the show's tributes to the late Whitney Houston greatly helped increased 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.
Main telecast.
Performers.
The following performed:
Presenters.
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Nominees and winners.
The winners per category were:
General.
Record of the Year
Album of the Year
Song of the Year
Best New Artist
Pop.
Best Pop Solo Performance
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Best Pop Instrumental Album
Best Pop Vocal Album
Dance/Electronic.
Best Dance Recording
Sonny Moore, producer &amp; mixer
Best Dance/Electronic Album
* "I Would Do Anything for You" (Foster the People) (T)
* "I'll Be Waiting" (Adele) (T)
* "Life on the Nickel" (Foster the People) (T)
* "No One's Gonna Love You" (Cee Lo Green) (S)
* "Rolling in the Deep" (Adele) (T)
Production, Classical.
Aldridge: Elmer Gantry
Byeong-Joon Hwang &amp; John Newton, engineers; Jesse Lewis, mastering engineer (William Boggs, Keith Phares, Patricia Risley, Vale Rideout, Frank Kelley, Heather Buck, Florentine Opera Chorus &amp; Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra)
Judith Sherman
* Adams: Son of Chamber Symphony; String Quartet (John Adams, St. Lawrence String Quartet &amp; International Contemporary Ensemble)
* Capricho Latino (Rachel Barton Pine)
* 85th Birthday Celebration (Claude Frank)
* Insects &amp; Paper Airplanes – Chamber Music of Lawrence Dillon (Daedalus Quartet &amp; Benjamin Hochman)
* Midnight Frolic – The Broadway Theater Music of Louis A. Hirsch (Rick Benjamin &amp; Paragon Ragtime Orchestra)
* Notable Women – Trios by Today's Female Composers (Lincoln Trio)
* The Soviet Experience, Vol. 1 – String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich &amp; His Contemporaries (Pacifica Quartet)
* Speak! (Anthony De Mare)
* State of the Art – The American Brass Quintet at 50 (The American Brass Quintet)
* Steve Reich: WTC 9/11; Mallet Quartet; Dance Patterns (Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich Musicians &amp; So Percussion)
* Winging It – Piano Music of John Corigliano (Ursula Oppens)
Classical.
"Brahms: Symphony No. 4"
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
"Adams: Doctor Atomic"
Alan Gilbert, conductor; Meredith Arwady, Sasha Cooke, Richard Paul Fink, Gerald Finley, Thomas Glenn &amp; Eric Owens; Jay David Saks, producer (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
"Light &amp; Gold"
Eric Whitacre, conductor (Christopher Glynn &amp; Hila Plitmann; The King's Singers, Laudibus, Pavão Quartet &amp; The Eric Whitacre Singers)
"Mackey: Lonely Motel – Music from Slide" – Rinde Eckert &amp; Steven Mackey; Eighth Blackbird
"Schwantner: Concerto for Percussion &amp; Orchestra"
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Christopher Lamb (Nashville Symphony)
"Diva Divo"
Joyce DiDonato (Kazushi Ono; Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon; Choeur De L'Opéra National De Lyon)
"Aldridge, Robert: Elmer Gantry" – Robert Aldridge &amp; Herschel Garfein
Artists with multiple nominations and awards.
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In Memoriam.
Amy Winehouse, Nick Ashford, Phoebe Snow, Jerry Leiber, Steve Jobs, Heavy D, Sylvia Robinson, Nate Dogg, M-Bone, Jimmy Castor, George Shearing, Roger Williams, Ray Bryant, Gil Cates, Fred Steiner, Dobie Gray, Ferlin Husky, Larry Butler, Wilma Lee Cooper, Harley Allen, Liz Anderson, Charlie Craig, Barbara Orbison, Frank DiLeo, Steve Popovich, Tal Herzberg, Bruce Jackson, Johnny Otis, Benny Spellman, Don DeVito, Roger Nichols, Stan Ross, Joe Arroyo, Facundo Cabral, Marv Tarplin, Esther Gordy Edwards, Carl Gardner, Cornell Dupree, Jerry Ragovoy, Gene McDaniels, Joe Morello, Gil Bernal, Frank Foster, Ralph MacDonald, Leonard Dillon, Clare Fischer, Bert Jansch, Andrew Gold, Bill Morrissey, Warren Hellman, Hazel Dickens, Gary Moore, Gerard Smith, Doyle Bramhall, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Camilla Williams, Milton Babbitt, David Mason, Andy Kazdin, Alex Steinweiss, Bill Johnson, Jessy Dixon, Don Butler, Clarence Clemons and Whitney Houston.
References.
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