It's Ladies Night At The Grammys

Beyonce Brought Home 6 Awards

It was a huge night for BEYONCÉ, who set a record for women with six GRAMMY AWARDS at the STAPLES CENTER in LOS ANGELES last night at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY AWARDS. BEYONCÉ's awards included Song of the Year and a writer's award, for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and also included R&B Female Vocal and R&B Song, for "Single Ladies," Contemporary R&B album for "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" and Traditional R&B performance for her recording of "At Last" from the film "Cadillac Records."

Women ruled the night as 20-year-old Country-pop princess TAYLOR SWIFT collected four awards, including Album of the Year for "Fearless," the biggest-selling album of the year. "For me, genres have really become something that I don't think people focus on anymore," said SWIFT after the event. "Country music is my love. [But] when you're making music, I think the healthiest thing to do is remove titles or stereotypes from what you're trying to do. It's not country versus rap ... it's not anything you don't make it. It's about trying to make an album you hope is good enough to win Album of the Year." 

TAYLOR is the youngest artist in history to win the GRAMMY for Album of the Year. She is also the first solo female Country winner ever of the award, and the first solo female winner in more than a decade.

The show kicked off with the anticipated opening pairing LADY GAGA and ELTON JOHN. The LOS ANGELES TIMES described it as "the eye-popping opening sequence, LADY GAGA faced off with her 1970s forebearer in flamboyant fashion, ELTON JOHN, both their faces smeared with blotches of makeup as they played a big-budget version of dueling pianos. They joined other members of the pop music elite who dressed to the nines, hoping to remind the world and perhaps themselves that the beleaguered music business can still sparkle."

Big winners BEYONCÉ and SWIFT lost their bids for Record of the Year to a suprise win by the KINGS OF LEON for their hit "Use Somebody."

The New Artist award went to the ZAC BROWN BAND, who had the hit "Chicken Fried," a song that defended the U.S. military's defense of Americans' right to beer and fried chicken. 

3D Tribute To Michael Jackson

A tribute to MICHAEL JACKSON was done in 3-D. "Earth Song," was from the posthumous concert film "This Is It," and had the audience wearing 3-D glasses to watch the film, while CÉLINE DION, JENNIFER HUDSON, SMOKEY ROBINSON, CARRIE UNDERWOOD and USHER added live vocals. Then LIONEL RICHIE, JACKSON's writing and singing partner in the "We Are the World," introduced two of JACKSON's children, PRINCE MICHAEL and PARIS, who wore black suits and red armbands and caused tears to well for many in the crowd. "We would like to thank God for watching over us for these past seven months and also our grandma and grandpa for their love and support," said PRINCE MICHAEL. "We'd also like to thank the fans, because he loved you so much."

THE TIMES wrote "The most electrifying -- and most buzzed-about -- performance teamed EMINEM, LIL WAYNE and DRAKE in an expletive-laced rap that resulted in multiple bleeps of the audio during their delivery of hip-hop newcomer DRAKE's song 'Forever.'" 

Lots of folks are still talking about the sexy performance put on by PINK. Her high flying act is worth a look if you missed it -- and another look if you caught it the first time. Watch her here.

The Grammy Awards Help Haiti

The Recording Academy is helping raise funds for those affected by the HAITI earthquake by making performances from the show available for download, including those by SWIFT, BEYONCÉ, THE BLACK EYED PEAS, ELTON JOHN and LADY GAGA, JEFF BECK, ANDREA BOCELLI and MARY J. BLIGE.

The full list of award winners can be viewed here.

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