Beck wins rock album of the year at Grammys 2015

Los Angeles, February 9

Advertisement

Singer Beck bagged the best rock album of the year honour for 'Morning Phase' at the 56th Grammy Awards after edging out with Beyonce, Sam Smith, Pharrell and Ed Sheeran for the top prize.

Rapper Kanye West, who famously interrupted Taylor Swift when she beat Beyonce at the MTV Video Music Awards, almost walked onstage when Prince announced Beck's name.

Though Beck, 44, won album of the year, Beyonce, Pharrell and Rosanne Cash were the top winners with three Grammys each.

Prince, who earned a standing ovation when he walked on stage, made a statement before he introduced the award.

"Albums — you remember those? They still matter. Like books and black lives, they still matter," he said.

Earlier, Pharrell won best pop solo performance for a live version of 'Happy,', released in 2013. He also won best music video for the song as well as best urban contemporary album for "G I R L," beating Beyonce.

"I am going to moonwalk my way off the stage right now," said Pharrell, wearing a blazer and shorts.

Pharrell's performance of 'Happy' was dramatic with background dancers in black, musicians in yellow and a choir in white.

When the chorus was supposed to come in, Lang Lang played the piano skillfully. Hans Zimmer also played the guitar.

"Thank you, God," Pharrell, in a bell-boy hat, said at the end of the performance, adding, "I am at your service lord."  

Rihanna gave an impressive vocal performance of 'FourFiveSeconds' with Paul McCartney to her right and Kanye West to her left. Her hair was slicked back and she rocked a black suit like her co-stars

Katy Perry, in all white, sang the ballad 'By the Grace of God' after a woman who had been abused talked about getting help and moving on with her life.

A video of President Barack Obama appeared before she spoke, and he encouraged artists to help out.

"It's on us, all of us, to create a culture where violence isn't tolerated," he said.

India's Ricky Kej, Vaswani win at Grammy, Anoushka loses

Bangalore-based musician Ricky Kej and activist Neela Vaswani won at the 57th Grammy awards for their work in album 'Winds of Samsara' and the documentary on Malala Yousafzai, respectively.

Kej was declared a winner for his collaborative album 'Winds of Samsara' in the New Age Album category. The artiste teamed up with South African flautist Wouter Kellerman on the album.

A self-taught musician Kej, 33, has previously composed soundtracks for Kannada films. 'Winds of Samsara' is his 14th studio album.

Other albums nominated in the category were 'Bhakti' by Paul Avgerinos, 'Ritual' by Peter Kater and R Carlos Nakai, 'Symphony Live In Istanbul' by Kitaro and 'In Love And Longing' by Silvia Nakkach and David Darling.

Vaswani, who is the author of the short story collection 'Where the Long Grass Bends' and memoir 'You Have Given Me a Country', won the trophy in the Best Children's Album category for 'I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai)'.

In the album, she had narrated the audio version of the book of the same name.

Anoushka Shankar, 33, daughter of late sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, lost in the best world music album category. It was her third nomination in the category.

This year she was nominated for 'Traces of You', her seventh album featuring her half-sister Norah Jones on the track 'The Sun Won't Set'. — PTI