Adele shines at sometimes-somber Grammy ceremony

LOS ANGELES — British singer Adele was the big winner at the Grammys on Sunday, taking home six statues at an awards ceremony that attempted to balance celebration of the industry with remembrance of pop great Whitney Houston, who died the day before.

With her six awards, including album, record and song of the year, Adele matched Beyonce for most Grammy wins in a night by a female act. Beyonce set the record two years ago.

Adele's "21" was 2011's best-selling album. It's sold more than six million units in the United States.

Veteran rockers Foo Fighters followed Adele with five wins, including rock album, rock song and rock performance.

Adele was triumphant in her first performance since vocal cord surgery forced the cancellation of a tour and months of vocal rest. As the world wondered whether her voice would still soar, she answered with her performance of her hit "Rolling in the Deep," and received a sustained standing ovation from the crowd.

"I can't believe I'm getting emotional already," she said in picking up the pop vocal performance award. "And seeing as it's a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back."

Among the evening's performers were Chris Brown, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, who kicked off the show by performing his new song "We Take Care of Our Own," a rousing song that references the troubles of the nation. Nicki Minaj's over-the-top theatrical performance featured fire, levitation and an exorcism theme.

But the evening's most moving moment came as Jennifer Hudson — who has called Houston an inspiration and one of her biggest idols — emerged to sing one of Houston's signature songs, "I Will Always Love You." Hudson appeared to fight back tears as she sang the song, ending with the line, "Whitney, we will always love you."

The show started off on a somber note as host LL Cool J appeared in black and told the audience: "There is no way around this. We've had a death in our family."

He then led the audience in prayer to "our fallen sister, Whitney Houston.

"Heavenly father, we thank you for sharing our sister Whitney with us," he said, as celebrities like Lady Gaga and Miranda Lambert bowed their heads in prayer. "Though she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit."

He introduced a clip of a glowing Houston singing "I Will Always Love You."

In his performance of "Runaway Baby," Bruno Mars also mentioned the death: "Tonight we're celebrating. Tonight we're celebrating the beautiful Miss Whitney Houston."

Houston died on the eve of the Grammys at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she was preparing to attend a pre-Grammy party.

Still, while Houston's death cast a shadow over the night's winners, it did not obscure them.

Justin Vernon, whose band Bon Iver beat Minaj, The Band Perry, J. Cole and Skrillex for best new artist, accepted the award with mixed emotions.

"It's really hard to accept this award. Well, there's so much talent out here, like on this stage. There's a lot of talent that's not here tonight. It's also hard to accept because when I started to make songs I did it for the inherent reward of making songs, so I'm a little bit uncomfortable up here," he said. "But with that discomfort I do have a sense of gratitude. I want to say thank you to all the nominees, all the non-nominees that have never been here and never will be here."

None of the nominees with Austin ties, including Austin-based musician Marcia Ball, won awards Sunday.

Ball, who was nominated in the best blues album category for "Roadside Attractions," was beat out by the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Other nominees with ties to Austin were Sarah Dodds and Shauna Dodds, who were nominated in the best recording package category for their work on Reckless Kelly's "Good Luck & True Love," and Brandon Bell, Gary Paczosa, Sangwook "Sunny" Nam and Doug Sax, who were nominated in the best engineered album category for Sarah Jarosz's "Follow Me Down." All three awards were handed out during the pre-broadcast ceremony.

Additional material from American-Statesman staff writer Peter Mongillo.