59th Grammys: Adele's Do-Over Is A Night To Remember, With Three Big Wins; Chance The Rapper, Bowie Win

Big Night For Adele ( DFree / Shutterstock)

Even with a misstep, it was ADELE's night to shine, with three GRAMMYs in the major categories, including Album, Song and Record Of The Year, to go along with her two in the afternoon for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance, for a field-leading five (tied with DAVID BOWIE)  The much-hyped battle of the divas between her and BEYONCE never took place, with QUEEN BEY limited to a Best Urban Contemporary Album nod and an earlier Best Music Video award.

The 59th ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS got underway tonight at STAPLES CENTER in L.A. with an opening spot from what was to be the lady of the night, who welcomed everyone by performing a soaring "Hello" which immediately set the tone for the evening, beaming at the close like she nailed it... and did.

The MC for the night, JAMES CORDEN, was CBS' pick to succeed LL COOL J, and he proved a refreshing addition.  He literally rolled down the stairs for his entrance, losing a shoe in the process, and mock-yelled at his back-up dancers, calling it a "disaster," before proceeding with a clever sing-song rap describing what we were about to see.  He would remain an affable, self-effacing MC, the perfect fan/geek for what will undoubtedly be many more spots to come.

JENNIFER LOPEZ handed out the first GRAMMY of the evening to BEST NEW ARTIST CHANCE THE RAPPER, who won his second of the day. The CHICAGO hip-hop star was considered a bit of an underdog to the likes of THE CHAINSMOKERS, so it was a mild surpruse.

"Glory be to God," said CHANCE, who also gave praise to his parents and his home city.

A politicized PARIS JACKSON introduced THE WEEKND and DAFT PUNK, who proved an apt pairing on "I Feel It Coming," from his latest album, "Starboy," with a space-age "Star Wars" set that perfectly incorporated neo-disco's favorite robots doing that thing they do. 

JOHN TRAVOLTA abandoned the teleprompter for notes to introduce KEITH URBAN and CARRIE UNDERWOOD's "The Fighter," and if there's any doubt "country" has entered the pop mainstream, this very high-spirited pairing laid that completely to rest. 

NICK JONAS handed out the GRAMMY for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance to TWENTY ONE PILOTS for "Stressed Out," The duo of TYLER JOSEPH and JOSH DUN made good on their vow watching the GRAMMYs in their underwear a year ago, accepting the awards in their boxer shorts, marking their remarkable rise from COLUMBUS, OH, frat band to arena-filling hybrids pop-rockers.

ED SHEERAN then followed up his dynamic SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE performance with a similarly urgent rendition of "Shape Of You." An unlikely sex symbol, the recurring line, "I'm in love with your body," seemed to raise the collective temperature of the room.

DAVID BOWIE took home his fifth posthumous award of the night (counting the one for his art director), earning the on-air award for Best Rock Song for "Blackstar," from KATHARINE McPHEE and THE CHAINSMOKERS.

In one of the more ingenious GRAMMY mash-ups of the night, KELSEA BALLERINI and LUKAS GRAHAM exchanged verses on their respective childhood hits, "Peter Pan" and "7 Years," to surprisingly effective affect.

TINA KNOWLES then came on-stage to introduce her daughter, BEYONCE, "with a mother's pride," and it was an apt segue, because QUEEN BEY was in all her royal earth mother glory, wearing a crown and a SHIVA-like gown that proudly revealed her twin belly, as she interspersed spoken word bytes from "Lemonade" with songs like "Love Drought" and "Sandcastle." The shimmering show-stopper Its pro-feminist choral line and BEY's maternal glow earned the evening's first standing ovation, as proud hubbie JAY Z, BLUE IVY in tow, kvelled with pride.

MAREN MORRIS took home a pretty good consolation prize, earning BEST COUNTRY SOLO PERFORMANCE for "My Church," remembering her experiences at GRAMMY CAMP.

CORDEN then pulled out his "Carpool Karaoke" shtick for a fun ride, enlisting TIM McGRAW, FAITH HILL, JENNIFER LOPEZ, JOHN LEGEND and NEIL DIAMOND himself for a "Sweet Caroline" singalong in a cutout auto. 

BRUNO MARS was up next with "That's What I Like," a crowd-pleasing dance number that showed how he can galvanize an audience as he stopped midway to improvise. 

LITTLE BIG TOWN offered a tiny sample of "Teenage Dream" before bringing on KATY PERRY to perform her just-released reggae-tinged earworm, "Chained To The Rhythm," singing in front of a picket fence before joined by BOB MARLEY's maternal grandson, SKIP, as the U.S. CONSTITUTION is projected over the duo for the finale.

STAX legend and GRAMMY winner WILLIAM BELL was joined by GARY CLARK JR. for a blues jam that included a classic rendition of "Born Under A Bad Sign."

Then, it was BEYONCE's turn, for her first win of the evening, as "Lemonade" took home the Best Urban Contemporary Album prize.

MAREN MORRIS and ALICIA KEYS turned up in dueling sparkly body suits, proving a formidable cross-genre combination for the former's "Once," but the emotional high point of the evening came with the surprise ADELE tribute to GEORGE MICHAEL, a torchy, slowed-down "Fast Love," which she stopped about 45 seconds in, let loose a bleeped expletive and asked the orchestra to start again, "because I owe it to him."

The result was a riveting performance that ended with a chant of "I miss my baby" and a tear-filled finale to the evening's second standing ovation of the night.

CHANCE THE RAPPER won his third GRAMMY of the day, with Best Rap Album over some stiff competition, namely hip-hop royalty DRAKE and KANYE WEST.

A misfiring mic that lost all of JAMES HETFIELD's vocals couldn't stop LADY GAGA from living out the words to METALLICA's "Moth Into Flame" as she crowd-surfed and generally carried on like a heavy metal howler to a backdrop of fire and LARS ULRICH furiously clobbering the skins. 

Then it was time for Country Album GRAMMY winner STURGILL SIMPSON to front the DAP-KINGS' horn section for a suitable genre-bending blues-country  "All Around You."

DEMI LOVATO took the stage for the BEE GEES tribute in front of an audience that included a beaming BARRY GIBB. The crowd-pleasing segment started with LOVATO belting out "Stayin' Alive," then featured, in turn TORI KELLY ("Tragedy"), LITTLE BIG TOWN ("How Deep Is Your Love") and ANDRA DAY ("Night Fever") that got BARRY and everyone else for that matter to their feet.

Former winner in the category (18 years ago, she noted) CELINE DION presented SONG OF THE YEAR honors to ADELE, who once again apologized for cursing, and her co-writer GREG KURSTIN, earlier a winner of the GRAMMY for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical.  It was her second GRAMMY, including the one she won in the pre-telecast.

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST then took the stage for the evening's most politicized performance, joined by ANDERSON .PAAK, BUSTA RHYMES and CONSEQUENCE for a rousing "We The People" that included RHYMES calling out "Agent Orange," the piped-in vocals of the late PHIFE DAWG and a closing refrain of "All of you bad folks/You must go... Resist!" It was both old school and right on time. Yep, this GRAMMY had something for everyone.

The much-ballyhooed PRINCE tribute lived up to its billing, as THE TIME resurrected "The Bird," complete with JEROME BENTON supplying the mirror for lead singer MORRIS DAY, dapper as always, to comb his hair while JAY Z resurrected the famed shuffle in the aisles. At that point, BRUNO MARS hit the stage, complete with glittering purple suit, EDWARDIan collar and a replica of PRINCE's curled clef-guitar for an incendiary "Let's Go Crazy," one of the evening's true highlights. 

CHANCE THE RAPPER left no doubt he was the newcomer of the night, taking his three wins and dominating with a rousing gospel rave-up, "How Great," featuring GRAMMY winners KIRK FRANKLIN and a belting TAMELA MANN fronting a robe-wearing choir that turned the place into a BAPTIST church. 

CORDEN pretended to mix-up introduction to KANYE WEST and RECORDING ACADEMY chief NEIL PORTNOW in one of the evening's best bits. "Thanks for warming up the crowd for me," deadpanned PORTNOW. "I appreciate it."

PORTNOW's speech centered on inclusion and unity. "in times of triumph and tragedy, we turn to song," he added. 

JOHN LEGEND joned CYNTHIA ERIVO to sing "God Only Knows" for the IN MEMORIAM section, which started with LEONARD COHEN and PRINCE and ended with SIR GEORGE MARTIN.

ADELE took home Record Of The Year for "Hello," praising her competition BEYONCE by saying, "I want you to be my mommy," then topped it off with a win for "25."

She started crying onstage, then praised BEYONCE's "Lemonade" album as "monumental... The way you make me and my friends feel is empowering. I love you, and always will."

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