2005 YEAR IN REVIEW: 47TH GRAMMY AWARDS

Year in review for 2005, 47th Annual Grammy Awards.

The 47th Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2995 and the big winner of the night was Ray Charles, who picked up eight trophies. Getting three apiece were Kanye West, U2 and Usher.

The awards were especially meaningful to U2 and their hearts were heavy because of the physical illness of The Edge’s daughter, and they dedicated their award for Best Rock Duo Or Group with vocal for “Vertigo.”

(Edge) This is for my little daughter, Cyanne. (Bono) “This is…I’m genuinely surprised. I thought it was Green Day’s year, they’re incredible, Killers – incredible, Franz Ferdinand is going to the kill this country. I think this is the best Grammys we’ve ever seen, I’ve ever seen.”

Most experts agree that the show was the best in years, and making it so were the performances including an all-star rendition of Across The Universe featuring Alicia Keys, Bono, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, and several others. The backing band for the song was Velvet Revolver, who also picked up an award at the ceremony. Backstage vocalist Scott Weiland talked about the all-star collaboration for Tsunami Relief.

“I myself got chills and that’s when you’re reminded of why you first started doing this in the first place. [Velvet Revolver guitarist] Dave [Kushner] was just mentioning that when we were rehearsing this backstage that you look around and there’s Stevie Wonder working out his harmonica part and Steven Tyler working out his harmonica part off of Stevie. And on state all of us, us having the honor to do this for the cause that we’re doing it for, and hopefully that they will be inspired to open their pocketbooks and buy the song and hopefully help some people out who have been devastated and whose lives have been affected.”

The Grammy Awards were hosted by Queen Latifah, and also featured a Southern Rock All-star jam between Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dickie Betts formerly of the Allman Brothers, and of course the memorable medley to kick the show off featuring Franz Ferdinand, Maroon 5, Gwen Stefani, Los Lonely Boys, and Black Eyed Peas.