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The 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards featured a Queen as host, but in the end it was a late great Genius who dominated the proceedings as <a href="/artists/ray-charles/10927">Ray Charles</a>’ posthumous duets album, Genius Loves Company, won a grand total of eight awards.

The night at Staples Center in Los Angeles began with its very own live GRAMMY mash-up — a massive group effort that started, logically enough, with the <a href="/artists/black-eyed-peas/8292">Black Eyed Peas</a>’ “Let’s Get It Started,” and went on to feature Gwen Stefani with Eve performing “Rich Girl,” Los Lonely Boys singing “Heaven,” Franz Ferdinand playing “Take Me Out” and <a href="/artists/maroon-5/13090">Maroon 5</a> (who later won Best New Artist) performing “This Love.” This represented, as host Queen Latifah announced in the introduction, “Four stages, five bands and 13 nominations, and that’s just the opening number.”

This was a big start to perhaps Music’s Biggest Night ever — a wide-ranging night that included an all-star version of “Across The Universe” to raise funds for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami with Stevie Wonder, Bono, Billie Joe Armstrong, <a href="/artists/alicia-keys/12104">Alicia Keys</a>, Steven Tyler, <a href="/artists/norah-jones/13227">Norah Jones</a>, <a href="/artists/tim-mcgraw/12018">Tim McGraw</a>, <a href="/artists/brian-wilson/6922">Brian Wilson</a> and Alison Krauss backed by Velvet Revolver; the emotional return of a bald and beautiful Melissa Etheridge, fresh from chemotherapy for breast cancer, joining Joss Stone to offer up the performance of a lifetime by singing “Piece Of My Heart” in tribute to <a href="/awards/lifetime-achievement-awards">Lifetime Achievement Award</a> winner Janis Joplin; and a soul-sanctifying gospel sequence that saw Mavis Staples (whose family, the Staple Singers, also were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award), John Legend, <a href="/artists/kanye-west/6900">Kanye West</a> and the Blind Boys Of Alabama take a watching world to church by way of “I’ll Take You There,” “Jesus Walks” and “I’ll Fly Away.”

Yet following his death on June 10, 2004, Ray Charles in many ways became the focus of this GRAMMY show. After performing her own “If I Ain’t Got You,” Alicia Keys welcomed to the stage <a href="/artists/quincy-jones/11020">Quincy Jones</a> and Jamie Foxx, the actor and singer who gave an Oscar-winning performance as Charles in the 2004 film Ray. “For an old friend,” Foxx explained simply before he and Keys launched into a gorgeous rendition of “Georgia On My Mind” that went from mournful to joyous, with Ray Charles’ longtime friend Jones conducting the orchestra behind them.

All throughout this GRAMMY night, there was a sense of the past and present meeting up and paying each other proper respects. After Queen Latifah helped honor rock forefather Jerry Lee Lewis as a new GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, she announced, “If rock and roll has its fathers, then here are the sons, the one, the only, <a href="/artists/u2/7858">U2</a>.” The Irish band had intended to perform the roof-rattling “Vertigo,” but due to back problems, Bono, and the band, switched to the less familiar but more emotional “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.” Turning a setback into a different moment of triumph, Bono introduced the song by saying, “This is for my father, Bob. He was a postal clerk. He would sing opera in the night in a beautiful tenor voice. I like to think when he passed away that he gave that to me. I wish I’d got to know him better.”

The evening’s multigenerational theme continued immediately after when <a href="/artists/green-day/7433">Green Day</a> were presented with the Best Rock Album award. “We know rock and roll can be dangerous and fun at the same time, so thanks a lot,” Billie Joe Armstrong said in accepting the award. Later Green Day would prove this point powerfully onstage, performing an edgy and entertaining version of “American Idiot.”

Other high points included a suitably Southern fried Southern rock salute, introduced by Matthew McConaughey, with <a href="/artists/gretchen-wilson/16248">Gretchen Wilson</a>, <a href="/artists/keith-urban/7015">Keith Urban</a> and Tim McGraw teaming up with some Southern rock greats including the current-day Lynyrd Skynyrd; as well as a much-discussed duet (“Escapémonos”) in Spanish from Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. Emerging superstar Kanye West brought the house down not just with his spirited performance, which ended with him in angel wings, but also with his acceptance speech for Best Rap Album (The College Dropout). “I plan to celebrate and scream and pop champagne every chance I get, because I’m at the GRAMMYs, baby!” A clearly elated West went on to slyly say, “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know.”

The night also featured the final GRAMMY appearance of James Brown, when the Godfather of Soul seemed to pass at least part of his long-burning torch by appearing — still in fine form — with <a href="/artists/usher/16167">Usher</a> for a medley of “Caught Up” and part of Brown’s “Sex Machine.”

By evening’s end, Genius Loves Company would take home the Album Of The Year award, and <a href="/artists/bonnie-raitt/15857">Bonnie Raitt</a> and <a href="/artists/billy-preston/5752">Billy Preston</a> would salute Charles one last time with “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind.” As Recording Academy President Neil Portnow rightly pointed out in his speech, “On Music’s Biggest Night, we’ve shown you music’s true heart and soul.”

Yeah!

Heaven

American Idiot

Here We Go Again

Let's Get It Started

Record Of The Year

The College Dropout

Confessions

The Diary Of Alicia Keys

Genius Loves Company

Album Of The Year

The Reason

Live Like You Were Dying

Jesus Walks

If I Ain't Got You

Daughters

Song Of The Year

Best New Artist

You Had Me

What You Waiting For?

Sunrise

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Oceania

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Love's Divine

Cinnamon Girl

You Raise Me Up

Let's Misbehave

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance

It's My Life

She Will Be Loved

My Immortal

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Moon River

Something

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Redemption Song

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals

Rat Pack Boogie

Song F

11th Commandment

Take You Out

Chasing Shadows

Best Pop Instrumental Performance

EP 2003: Music For The Epicurean Harkener

Henry Mancini: Pink Guitar

Forever, For Always, For Luther

Saxophonic

Pure

Best Pop Instrumental Album

Brian Wilson Presents Smile

Mind, Body & Soul

Afterglow

Feels Like Home

Best Pop Vocal Album

Toxic

Comfortably Numb

Slow

Get Yourself High

Good Luck

Best Dance Recording

Reflections

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

Creamfields

Legion Of Boom

Kish Kash

Best Electronic/Dance Album

Stardust...The Great American Songbook Volume III

Just For A Thrill

Ultimate Mancini

Count Your Blessings

Only You

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

Metropolitan Glide

Code Of Silence

Breathe

The Revolution Starts Now

Wonderwall

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Vertigo

Somebody Told Me

Take Me Out

Monkey To Man

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Slither

Duality

Feelin' Way Too Damn Good

Some Kind Of Monster

Megalomaniac

Best Hard Rock Performance

Vermilion

Whiplash

The End Of Heartache

Live For This

Nymphetamine

Best Metal Performance

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow

Whispering A Prayer

O Baterista

Onda

Instrumental Illness

Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Float On

Fall To Pieces

Best Rock Song

Contraband

Hot Fuss

The Delivery Man

Best Rock Album

A Ghost Is Born

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Uh Huh Her

Franz Ferdinand

Medulla

Best Alternative Music Album

U-Haul

Whatever

I'm Still In Love

I Want You

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance

Burn

Call My Name

What We Do Here

Happy People

Charlene

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance

My Boo

Diary

Say Yes

Show Me The Way

Lose My Breath

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Musicology

New Day

I Can't Stop

Sinner's Prayer

You're My Everything

Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance

Cross My Mind

Star

She Wants To Move

Are You Experienced?

Sex, Love & Money

Best Urban/Alternative Performance

You Don't Know My Name

Best R&B Song

Beautifully Human:  Words & Sounds Vol. 2

My Everything

Best R&B Album

Hurt No More

It's About Time

Damita Jo

Afrodisiac

Best Contemporary R&B Album

Through The Wire

Overnight Celebrity

99 Problems

Just Lose It

On Fire

Best Rap Solo Performance

Lean Back

Drop It Like It's Hot

Don't Say Nuthin'

Ch-Check It Out

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group

All Falls Down

Slow Jamz

Dip It Low

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Hey Mama

Best Rap Song

Suit

The Definition

The Black Album

To The 5 Boroughs

Best Rap Album

Redneck Woman

She's Not Just A Pretty Face

In My Daughter's Eyes

Miss Being Mrs.

You Will Be My Ain True Love

Best Female Country Vocal Performance

You'll Think Of Me

You Are My Flower

In My Own Mind

Engine One-Forty-Three

Best Male Country Vocal Performance

It's Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long

Top Of The World

You Can't Take The Honky Tonk Out Of The Girl

47th Annual GRAMMY Awards