Big Winners: Plant & Krauss, Lil Wayne, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay

By Jim Abbott
The Orlando Sentinel

(MCT) With the 51st annual Grammy Awards in the books, it's time for the show's producers to start looking for more superstar duets for next year.

Here's a quick look at 3 ½ hours of music:

_The big winners

In a Grammy surprise, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant won five awards _ the night's biggest take _ for their genre-bending "Raising Sand," a haul that included best album and best record for "Please Read the Letter."

Jennifer Hudson, fresh from her Super Bowl triumph, provided one of the evening's most emotional moments with her early win for best R&B album. She held back tears as she thanked God and "my family in heaven, and those who are here today." That award was presented by a loopy-looking Whitney Houston.

For its seven nominations, Coldplay won for best rock album for "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends," best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals, and best song for "Viva la Vida."

Lil Wayne, up for a leading eight nominations, took best rap album for "Tha Carter III" and awards for rap solo performance, rap performance by a duo or group, and rap song for "Lollipop." His performance with Robin Thicke, Allan Toussaint, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and trumpeter Terence Blanchard was a show-stopper.

British singer Adele was honored as best new artist, sneaking quietly past Jonas Brothers in that category.

_The duets that (mostly) didn't work

Plenty of A-list pairings, again demonstrating that these ideas often are better on paper than in reality. Miley Cyrus joined Taylor Swift for her "Fifteen" _ sadly these two young stars together don't have enough charisma to light a 30-watt bulb. Stevie Wonder teamed with Jonas Brothers for a medley that added Super Bowl excess to Jonas' hit "Burning Up" and Wonder's "Superstition."

And what was that psychedelic-flashback-gone-bad production with Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl"? Could anyone see the fan-submitted videos for that "Grammy Moment" gimmick?

Better: The Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," which still soared even with unnecessary help from Justin Timberlake, Boyz II Men and Keith Urban.

For spirit, at least, Paul McCartney's "I Saw Her Standing There" was bolstered by Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's manic drum pounding. Sir Paul looked better than the aging Plant.

_Other performances

U2's "Get On Your Boots" opened the show with the lead single from the band's upcoming album. The mondo video offered Bono a chance to do the dramatic silhouette thing, and disguised the fact that he's really showing his age. And that Carrie Underwood song was noisy, wasn't it? Is that country music now?

_The no-shows

Chris Brown and Rihanna, two nominees scheduled to perform on the show, were absent instead. Before the show, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that Brown was the subject of a felony domestic-violence investigation. During the show, it was reported, Brown was being questioned by detectives about the incident. He and Rihanna have been romantically linked, although she apparently was not involved in the incident.

The no-shows were a headache for producers, who were left to put Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock) in the awkward position of doing jokes to fill time early in the show.
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