Foo Fighters have won three prizes at the 2022 Grammy Awards, just a week after the unexpected death of their drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

The band received best rock album for Medicine at Midnight, rock performance for its opening track, Making A Fire and rock song for Waiting On A War.

Presenter Jimmy Jam accepted the prizes in the band's absence, "with prayers to their loved ones".

Hawkins died in Colombia shortly before the band were due to play a festival.

Local officials said an ambulance was sent to the hotel after a man reported having chest pains. He did not respond to resuscitation efforts and was declared dead, the city's health department said.

Opioids, marijuana and other drugs were found in the 50-year-old's system after he died, investigators said, but it is not known whether they contributed to his death.

Foo Fighters had been due to play the Grammys this weekend. Instead, organisers played a video tribute to Hawkins, set to the Foo Fighters' song My Hero.

"Our thoughts go out to Taylor's family, his friends, the Foo Fighters family and all of their fans around the globe," said host Trevor Noah.

Pop star Billie Eilish paid her own tribute, wearing a black T-shirt with an image of Hawkins emblazoned across the front during her performance of Happier Than Ever.

The Grammys also honoured Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, who died last November at the age of 91, with a medley of his songs.

Joni Mitchell award

Foo Fighters' awards were presented during a smaller "Grammy premiere ceremony" which took place ahead of the main event on Sunday night.

It also saw folk-rock legend Joni Mitchell win best historical recording for her Archives, Vol 1 box set.

The star, who had a brain aneurysm in 2015, collected the award in person, helped onto the stage by her physical therapist, who she called her "angel".

"I didn't expect this," she added, before thanking her record label and her assistant, "who keeps me on schedule".

Mitchell was previously honoured at a Grammy event on Friday night, with Herbie Hancock, Cyndi Lauper, Angelique Kidjo and Stephen Stills among those paying tribute to her music.

Graham Nash played an emotional version of her folk-rock classic A Case Of You; while John Legend played River. Both tracks were taken from her 1971 album Blue, frequently cited as one of the best records of all time.

The trailblazing, Canadian-born star told journalists on the red carpet that she was feeling "pretty good," adding she'd been "making improvements" seven years into her recovery.

She will appear again at the main Grammy ceremony on Sunday night.

More than 70 awards are distributed on the night, with many of the smaller, genre-based prizes handed out at a "premiere ceremony" before the big event.

George Harrison's classic 1970 album All Things Must Pass won the award for best limited edition package, following a 50th-anniversary edition that included extra outtakes, jam sessions and extensive liner notes.

His widow Olivia collected the award on his behalf, noting that eight years after the record was inducted to the Grammy Hall Of Fame, it was definitively "here to stay".

"The music is here for you," she said. "It's full of hope and compassion and healing and rock and roll."

Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny, who is Spotify's most-streamed artist in the world, took home a new prize: Best música urbana album, for his third studio release El Último Tour Del Mundo.

There was an upset in the musical theatre category, where The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical - a project that originated on TikTok - beat Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella soundtrack and a new concert recording of Les Miserables.

"A year ago, when I asked the internet, 'what if Bridgerton' was a musical?' I could not have imagined I would be holding a Grammy in my hands," said the project's co-creator Abigail Barlow.

Best music film went to Summer Of Soul - a documentary about 1969's Harlem Cultural Festival, which had been all-but erased from history, which also won best documentary at last weekend's Oscars.

Accepting the prize, director Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson said: "It just hit me that we really haven't given much spotlight to what really matters in this film which is the beautiful artists that performed."

He went on to name-check artists including Stevie Wonder, Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight, Nina Simone, BB King and Sly & The Family Stone, whose performances were all restored in the Disney+ movie.

Comedian Bo Burnham won best song written for visual media for All Eyes On Me, an anxiety-ridden track from his Netflix lockdown show, Inside.

Trevor Noah will host the main ceremony later, with performances from Billie Eilish, BTS, Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and Justin Bieber.

Jazz musician Jon Batiste had the most nominations ahead of the ceremony, with 11 in total.

He won four during the non-televised premiere ceremony, including best music video for his vibrant, celebratory song Freedom.

That award saw him beat Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo - the presumed front-runners for album of the year, which he also eventually won, in one of the night's biggest upsets.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Mark Savage

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