Spring Break
Jones wins big at Grammy Awards
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Rather than beginning with a comedic standup, the show started with Dustin Hoffman introducing Simon and Garfunkel, who had one of the best performances of the night, singing "Sounds of Silence." Simon and Garfunkel were one of the 2003 Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, along with Latin music pioneer Tito Puente and Glenn Miller. The Bee Gees, who also received the lifetime achievement award, were honored with a standing ovation a capella tribute by N'Sync.
Another top performance was No Doubt, who played an acoustic version of "Underneath It All" and a tantalizing rendition of "Hella Good." The band won a Grammy for Best Pop Group or Duo for "Hey Baby." In other pop categories, Grammys were awarded to John Mayer for Best Male Pop Vocal for "Your Body Is a Wonderland," which he also performed and Santana and Michelle Branch's "The Game of Love" won for Best Pop Collaboration.
Best Pop Vocal Album was presented to Norah Jones, who was the big winner of the evening, receiving five individual Grammys, including top honors in the Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal, Record of the Year and Album of the Year categories. The newcomer also pleased the crowd with a candlelit performance of her song "Don't Know Why," which won for Song of the Year. Her debut album, Come Away With Me, also received two additional Grammys totaling the project at eight awards. Despite her numerous wins, Jones seemed nervous and very uneasy with her new success, expressing her surprise of her music being considered "popular" and then later accidentally slipping the s-word when she forgot the names of those she wished to thank.
Following Norah Jones for most wins there was a tie. Second place went to the Dixie Chicks, who performed "Landslide" and won three Grammys all in country music categories. Bruce Springsteen also received three wins in the categories of Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album. He and his E Street Band received a standing ovation for their performance of "The Rising."
The Grammys were also full of collaborative performances in different musical genres. The night featured Nelly rapping "Hot in Herre" and then bringing out Destiny Child's Kelly Rowland for "Dilemma." In a tribute to Joe Strummer of The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, who won Best Hard Rock Performance, combined their efforts to sing "London Calling." Rockers Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock sang "You're an Original" and James Taylor and cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed "Sweet Baby James." The most interesting collaboration was British band Coldplay, who won two Grammys, performing with the New York Philharmonic.
Eminem made another Grammy collaborative performance, but this year with The Roots, rapping a more instrumental version of the Academy-award nominated song "Lose Yourself" from the 8 Mile soundtrack. Eminem also won two Grammys in the categories of Best Rap Album for The Eminem Show and Best Short-Form Video for "Without Me." Rather than expressing appreciation to producers and others who contributed to the album, Eminem chose to thank those hip-hop artists who influenced him, such as Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Jay Z, Nas, Biggie and Tupac.
Some other highlights of the evening included actor Robin Williams' acceptance speech for Best Spoken Comedy Album when he gave props to his homies and pointed out that through the Grammy horn "you can hear careers ending." Limp Bisket's Fred Durst offered the first political insights, stating, "I really hope that we are all in agreement: This war should go away as soon as possible."
Although the night featured big winners, it also snubbed some artists such as Avril Lavigne who was nominated in five categories and won none. Pink, Britney Spears and N'Sync were all nominated in two categories and did not win either.