Monty Brinton/CBSSunday night’s 59th Annual Grammy Awards was a great night for David Bowie, even though he sadly wasn’t around to appreciate it.
The late rock icon won five Grammys overall, sweeping every category in which he was nominated, including Best Alternative Album and Best Rock Song for Blackstar and its title track. They were the first Grammys that Bowie had ever won for his music: his only previous award, other than a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, was for Best Short Form Video, for 1985’s Jazzin’ for Blue Jean.
Rock duo Twenty One Pilots ended up winning in the category of Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for their song “Stressed Out.” They raised eyebrows when both members took off their pants and went onstage in their underwear. Singer Tyler Joseph said before they were famous, when he invited his band mate Josh Dun over to watch the Grammys with some other people, and they all watched it sitting around in their underwear. According to Joseph, Dun then said that if they ever won a Grammy, they should accept their trophy that way.
The only rock performance of the night was Metallica‘s duet with Lady Gaga on “Moth Into Flame,” but it was somewhat ruined by technical problems: Hetfield’s mic didn’t work at all for the first part of the song, and he eventually had to go sing into Gaga’s microphone. The performance was featured dancers, plenty of fire and Gaga performing in a cut-off Metallica t-shirt and studded leather shorts. She also had a huge moth “tattooed” on her back — we’re not clear if it was permanent or not.
After 12 nominations, Megadeth finally won their first-ever Grammy: Best Metal Performance for “Dystopia.” Best Historical Album went to the Bob Dylan box set The Cutting Edge 1965 to 1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12 (Collectors Edition). Cage the Elephant won Best Rock Album for Tell Me I’m Pretty. Also, the documentary The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years won the Best Music Film honor.
Sunday night’s big winner was pop superstar Adele, whose monster-selling album 25 won five trophies, including Album of the Year, and Record and Song of the Year for the single “Hello.” Although she went into the ceremony with a leading nine nominations, all of them for her critically-acclaimed Lemonade album, Beyonce had to content herself with just two wins.
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