This years Grammy Awards pulled in 39.9 million viewers, up 12.2 million from last year, and giving the Grammy’s their second highest ratings since attracting 43.9 million viewers in 1984. On the heals of Whitney Houston’s passing Saturday, a shadow was cast over this years Grammy’s, and it was a shadow that loomed over the entire telecast until Jennifer Hudson took the stage for her emotionally charged, a Capella rendition of Houston’s hit “I Will Always Love You”. In an interesting turn of events, and one that left many confused, the Grammy’s opened with a rather upbeat performance from “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen. The night saw many performances from the likes of The Foo Fighters, Chris Brown, Coldplay, Rhianna, Niki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, and Bruno Mars, but none were as anticipated or well received as Adele.
After cancelling her tour last year and undergoing vocal surgery Adele returned to the stage, quite triumphantly, performing her uberhit “Rolling In The Deep”. She not only gave the best performance of the night (other than Jennifer Hudsons tribute to Whitney Houston), but she swept the Grammy’s, winning awards in all six categories she was nominated in. It’s not much of surprise seeing as how her album “21” saved the sinking record industry, selling more digital copies than other album in history, and spending 49 weeks in the top 5 on the charts. Clocking in at just over 3 hours, it is surprising that the Grammy’s were able to achieve the viewership that it did, but thinking about the telecast, the performances of both Adele and Jennifer Hudson alone justify it and goes to show that while record sales are down, music isn’t dead.