The R&B sensation, along with Irish rock veterans U2 and the unlikely roots-music revival of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, shared in the Grammy gold Wednesday night. Keys and the soundtrack from the hit Coen brothers film tied for five awards apiece, U2 took home four including Record of the Year--and neo-soul newcomer India.Arie was shut out despite seven nominations.
Keys, the 21-year-old darling of Clive Davis' J Records label, scored wins for Song of the Year for her inescapable piano-driven hit "Fallin'," Best New Artist and Best R&B Album for her smash debut Songs in A Minor. The trophy haul ties Lauryn Hill's record five Grammys by a female artist, which Hill pulled off in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
"You don't know how much this humbles me," said Keys, who also nabbed awards for Best Female R&B Performance and R&B Song for "Fallin'."
"Always believe in yourself," she said. "This makes me believe that. Thank you for loving this song as much as I love it."
Meanwhile, it was the Soggy Bottom Boys who scored the night's biggest surprise. O Brother, Where Art Thou? was named Album of the Year and T Bone Burnett was named Producer of the Year for his work on the multiplatinum album--a tribute to roots music featuring artists such as Gillian Welch, Dan Tyminski, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
The project spawned an avalanche of Grammy wins. Burnett won four trophies, both for the O Brother soundtrack and for Down from the Mountain, the live concert album for O Brother; Krauss actually tied Keys, scoring five trophies for her work on O Brother and Down from the Mountain and work with her band, Union Station; Stanley nabbed three awards (his first ever Grammys) and the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys--led by the gravelly voice of Tyminski--picked up three awards off of their O Brother hit "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." (Tyminksi also received two awards as a member of Union Station.)
Amid all the competition, the night's front-runner, U2, still found itself stuck in another Grammy-filled moment.
From its stirring opening performance of "Walk On" to its Record of the Year win for the same uplifting anthem, U2 nabbed four awards, including Best Rock Album for All That You Can't Leave Behind, Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get out Of" and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Elevation."
"It is a gift, much more than it is a craft, in our case," said U2 frontman Bono. "We depend on God walking through the room more than most. And God has walked through the room for us."
Wins by U2, Keys and O Brother meant that India.Arie had to settle for the honor of just being nominated. Arie came away empty-handed despite seven nominations for her album Acoustic Soul.
Psychedelic glam-rappers OutKast scored two Grammy wins Wednesday, including Best Rap Album for Stankonia. On the other end of the spectrum, the London Symphony Orchestra picked up two as well: Best Classical Album and Best Opera Album for Berlioz: Los Troyens.
Other multiple winners included Mel Brooks for his hit Broadway stage musical The Producers and jazz-bluegrass banjoist Bela Fleck. Another notable win came from Eve and No Doubt frontgal Gwen Stefani, who picked up the inaugural Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Let Me Blow Ya Mind."
Unlike past years, the 2002 Grammys were refreshingly devoid of questionable winners or major controversies--unless you counted the depressing state of the Industry and the artist-label infighting that surrounded Wednesday's show.
Host Jon Stewart once again put his snarky imprint on the Staples Center proceedings. And this year, the performances outnumbered the awards themselves. In fact, just 12 of the Recording Academy's 101 Grammy awards were given out during the whopping three-and-a-half-hour show.
The time was instead filled with 17 performances, including memorable showings from Keys, Bob Dylan, OutKast and Mary J. Blige, as well as the artists of O Brother. Welch, Krauss and Harris performed a flawless rendition of "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby," while Stanley wowed the crowd with his stark, raw version of "O Death."
Stanley's Grammy wins--the first in his illustrious career--came just two days after his 75th birthday.
"I think this is the best birthday I've ever had," he said.