GRAMMYs Are A Lot Of fun. For Ocean, Gotye
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — New York indie-pop-rock trio fun. and New Orleans R&B sensation Frank Ocean each collected a pair of GRAMMY Awards Sunday evening.
Gotye and Kimbra won record of the year for "Somebody That I Used to Know" and Mumford & Sons claimed best album for "Babel."
Belgian/Australian alternative rocker Gotye -- real name Wouter De Backer -- actually earned three awards, earning statuettes in the pre-telecast ceremony for best alternative music album ("Making Mirrors") and pop duo/group performance for "Somebody That I Used to Know."
"There are so many incredible songs in this category ... but also so many artists and pieces of music that aren't recognized by the Grammys this year," the 32-year-old Gotye said while accepting the record of the year award. "... I feel unworthy to be up here receiving this, but thank you."
fun. took home GRAMMYs for best new artist and song of the year for "We Are Young."
"We're so old," fun. lead singer Nate Ruess joked on stage. He also heaped praise on his fellow band members -- Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff -- calling them "two guys who are just the most amazing band mates that anybody could ask for."
With six nominations, fun. -- small F and period at the end -- tied Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, Mumford & Sons and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys for the most nominations heading into "Music's Biggest Night." fun. was the only nominee to score nods in all the top Grammy categories of record, album and song of the year.
Ruess was surprised by the band's win for best new artist, citing the strength of the competition -- Ocean, the Lumineers, Alabama Shakes and Hunter Hayes.
Ocean won for best urban contemporary album for "Channel Orange." He beat out Chris Brown, with whom Ocean allegedly got into a brawl recently outside a West Hollywood recording studio.
Ocean also won for best rap/sung collaboration for his work with Jay-Z, Kanye West and The-Dream on "No Church in the Wild."
English folk rockers Mumford & Sons won album of the year for "Babel," which includes the hits "I Will Wait" and "Below My Feet." The band's Ben Lovett praised The Recording Academy for giving props to British bands.
"There's a few of us out there and the Grammys have opened their arms to us," he said.
The wide array of top award winners was a sharp departure from recent Grammy ceremonies, which saw dominating wins by single performers -- such as Adele last year, Lady Antebellum in 2011 and Beyonce in 2010.
The GRAMMYs also included the traditional show-stopping moments (Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, J-Lo's dress to name a few). There were also emotional tributes to Bob Marley and Levon Helm, lead singer of The Band.
Adele, who presented the album of the year award to Mumford & Sons, won for best pop solo performance for "Set Fire to the Rain."
A pair of "American Idol" alums also took home prizes. Carrie Underwood won best country solo performance for "Blown Away" while Clarkson won best pop vocal album for "Stronger."
"Blown Away" was also named best country song earlier in the day.
The Black Keys won for best rock performance for "Lonely Boy," while the Zac Brown Band took the prize for best country album for "Uncaged."
Brown accepted the award by thanking his band: "To all my guys who've always backed me up and backed my play no matter what it was."
