She was a continent away, but that didn't stop troubled British soul-singer Amy Winehouse from being the main attraction at last night's Grammy Awards as she took home five awards, including best new artist.
But the singer herself struggled to live up to the preshow hype as the visibly jumpy 24-year-old labored through shaky but stirring performances of "You Know I'm No Good" and her signature smash "Rehab."
In a towering rose-accented beehive and a black ruffled minidress, she hit a few ragged notes before a supportive audience in a London club. Afterward, she looked completely stunned as it was announced that she won record of the year for "Rehab."
But while Winehouse waited offscreen to perform via satellite, the night's other big winner with four awards, Chicago rapper Kanye West, made the best of actually being in Los Angeles.
West delivered a literally electric performance of his Grammy-winning hit "Stronger." The staging -- lights low, West in a glowing vest and shades -- looked like a scene from a video game.
But the shades were gone and the lights were up during his tentatively sung but heartfelt performance of "Hey Mama," a tribute to his mother and former manager Donda West, who died last year of complications from cosmetic surgery.
With "Mama" shaved into the back of his head, the notoriously mercurial rapper/producer gave a characteristically pompous acceptance speech, during which the wrap-it-up music threatened to cut him off.
"It would be in good taste to stop the music," West said -- and the music stopped.
Undeterred, he closed by dedicating the award to his mother.
Ever mindful of the past as it tries to stay relevant in today's fragmented pop world, last night's Grammy Awards show kicked off with a smooth nostalgic touch.
Seated at a piano looking elegant in a '50s-style clover-green gown, pop superstar Alicia Keys belted out "Learnin' the Blues" as a video duet with a young Frank Sinatra. In recognition of the Grammy's 50th anniversary, it was a self-consciously classy but fluid connection of the old with the new.
Though there were a few noticeably forced collaborations, the Grammys last night did a better job with the old-school/new-school duets. Continuing the minitradition of reuniting acts from yesteryear, the Grammys featured the Time, the Prince-produced funk band from the 1980s, whose biggest hit from the decade was "Jungle Love." The band, which hadn't played together in more than 15 years, performed a snippet of that cut, mashing it with Rihanna's "Umbrella."
