Tonight's telecast of the 54th annual Grammy Awards will feature nearly two dozen performances by more than 30 artists, and it'll be a miracle if it fits into its scheduled three-and-a-half timeslot. That chunk of time will feature only about 10 award presentations, which means most of the awards were given out earlier Sunday.
Among the early winners ...
Kanye West, who leads this year's nominations with seven, has picked up three trophies -- nearly sweeping the rap categories by winning rap album (for "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"), rap song and rap song collaboration (both for "All of the Lights").
Further proof that dance music has finally conquered America comes in the three wins for Skrillex. The DJ (aka Sonny Moore) capped off his "insane year" by winning for dance/electronica album and dance recording (both for "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"), and remixed recording, non-classical ("Cinema"). During the show tonight, make for him when they announce best new artist.
As expected, the Foo Fighters' "Wasting Light" won for rock album and hard rock/metal performance for the song "White Limo."
Wisconsin's Bon Iver, led by Justin Vernon, won for alternative album for the project's self-titled 2011 outing.
Adele is expected to be the big winner during tonight's show, and she's already picked up trophies for pop vocal album ("21," which is likely for album of the year) and short form music video ("Rolling in the Deep"). She's performing during the show -- her first performance since having vocal cord surgery.
Taylor Swift picked up two trophies, country song and country solo performance, for "Mean"
The duet between Tony Bennett and the late Amy Winehouse, "Body and Soul," won for pop duo/group performance.
Paul McCartney, performing tonight, won for a reissue of "Band on the Run" in historical album.
Last year's album of the year winner, Arcade Fire, won for their own reissue of that upset album ("The Suburbs"), this one called "Scenes From the Suburbs."
Chicago nominees
Chicago's contenders included Wilco, OK Go, R. Kelly, comedian Kathy Griffin and the usual crop of classical performers -- but thus far most have struck out.
Local label Cedille Records, however, can boast a Grammys in classical small ensemble performance ("Mackey: Lonely Motel - Music From Slide" by Rinde Eckert & Steven Mackey; eighth blackbird).
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