Songwriter Mark Ronson and singer Bruno Mars receive the Record of the Year award for ‘Uptown Funk’‘Uptown Funk’ triumphsRecord of the Year went to “Uptown Funk,” a dance track with echoes of early Prince by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars.Ronson, a longtime producer from Britain who has notably worked with superstar Adele, found unprecedented success in his own right with “Uptown Funk,” which spent a near record 14 weeks at the top of the US Billboard singles chart.The 40-year-old Ronson, who also put on a well-received performance at last week’s Super Bowl, said he was still getting used to his success.“I would be just as happy and proud if I produced it,” he said of the song, which also won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.“I’m a record producer, not a pop star,” he said.English singer and guitarist Ed Sheeran won for Song of the Year, which recognizes songwriting whereas Record of the Year looks at overall singles, for “Thinking Out Loud”—a bare love ballad that has become a favorite at weddings.Meghan Trainor, 22, won another key award, Best New Artist, after the breakthrough success of “All About That Bass,” her tongue-in-cheek doo wop take on weight struggles and self-acceptance.Trainor broke down in tears as she accepted the award, thanking Epic Records executive L.A. Reid who signed her after hearing her perform “All About That Bass” on ukulele.Alabama Shakes, the bluesy indie rock band defined by Brittany Howard’s thunderous voice, won three Grammys—Best Alternative Music Album, Rock Song and Rock Performance.Alabama Shakes hail from the small town of Athens, Alabama where Howard was a postal delivery woman before the band made it big on a trip to New York.Lady Gaga transforms into BowieThe Grammys also paid tribute to a number of artists who recently died—chief among them the rock icon David Bowie.Lady Gaga appeared to transform on stage into Bowie, her face merging into his thunderbolt logo, against a three-dimensional backdrop of space imagery befitting the Starman.She sang a medley of hits including “Space Oddity,” “Changes” and “Let’s Dance” to guitar by Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, a longtime friend and collaborator of Bowie.Other performers included British singer Adele, whose album 25 has smashed early sales records but came out too early for Grammys contention.Adele sang her powerful new ballad “All I Ask,” although her performance was marred by a technical glitch when a microphone fell and she drifted out of tune.“The piano mics fell on to the piano strings, that’s what the guitar sound was. It made it sound out of tune. Shit happens,” she tweeted.One non-performer was the R&B superstar Rihanna, who canceled at the last minute, citing voice problems due to illness.AFP
