The other big winners were the Foo Fighters, who won five Grammy awards and Kanye West, who was the night's top nominee with seven and eventually took home four awards.

But it was the loss of Whitney Houston, who died the night before the Grammys that took spotlight.

American Idol star Jennifer Hudson performed I Will Always Love You in honor of the singer. Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt performed a tribute to another late artist: Etta James.

While these deaths lent a somber overtone to the annual Grammy Awards show, it did not overwhelm it. This was perhaps best proved by the ceremony's closing number, a live jam session featuring Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Dave Grohl among others.

Six awards for Adele
Adele won six Grammy awards including the 'big three': for Rolling In The Deep as record and song of the year and '21' as album of the year. This release, featuring Chris "Daddy" Dave, Ash Soan, and Leo Taylor on drums plus Lenny Castro on percussion, was also named best pop vocal album plus Someone Like You as best pop solo performance and short video.

Five awards for the Foo Fighters
The Foo Fighters won five Grammy awards, for best rock album ('Wasting Light'), best rock performance plus best rock song and best long form music video (Walk). The Foo's Grammy as best hard rock/metal performance caused once again some debate about the validity of this category since the band is generally considered not 'hard' enough to qualify as 'hard rock/metal' in the underground metal scene.

Other winners in the main categories
Gospel artist Kirk Franklin bagged two awards for 'Hello Fear': as best gospel album and best gospel song.

Drummer, background vocalist, and pianist Sean Carey plus the rest of his band Bon Iver also took home two Grammy Awards: as best new artist and best alternative music album.

So did Skrillex (real name: Sonny Moore) for 'Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites', which was awarded as best dance recording and as best dance/electronica album.

Body And Soul by Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse - another artist who recently passed away - was awarded as best pop duo/group performance. Tony took home a second Grammy for 'Duets II' as best traditional pop vocal album.

Alison Krauss won two Grammy awards: for best Bluegrass album (for 'Paper Airplane') and for best engineered album, non classical. The singer has now won 28 Grammy awards making her the most decorated Grammy living artist of all time.

Drummer Alex González (DW, Paiste) and his band won a Grammy in the Latin field as best latin pop, rock or urban album for Maná's 'Drama Y Luz'. Stephen Marley, one of Bob Marley's sons, won a Grammy for 'Revelation Pt 1: The Root Of Life' as best reggae album. Tinariwen's 'Tassili' was awarded as best world music album.

Jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington took home top honors for best jazz vocal album for 'The Mosaic Project'.

On the show, you could see Gretsch artist Taylor Hawkins perform live with his band the Foo Fighters in a jam with dj/producer Deadmau5 (real name: Joel Thomas Zimmerman):

Gibraltar artist Alan Wilson performed live too with country star Taylor Swift. Taylor was awarded with two Grammys for best country song and best country solo performance for Mean.

Another Gretsch and Gibraltar artist, Levon Helm, won a grammy for 'Ramble At The Ryman' as best Americana album.

There was also a tribute to the recently reunited Beach Boys that featured Maroon 5, Foster the People (featuring Mark Pontius on drums) plus Mike Love, Al Jardine and Brian Wilson, who are the three remaining members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.

Less categories, full list
The 54th Grammy ceremony also marked the first edition since a major overhaul of the categories last year: they were trimmed from 109 to 78. The elimination of 31 music categories inclduing Latin jazz, traditional gospel, Native American, Polka, and Hawaiian music was received with mixed feelings.

The full winners list in all categories will be available at www.grammy.com