Live 47th Grammy Awards Blogging

GRAMMY time! Anthony here, blogging it live! It’s the 47th Annual Grammy Awards!

8:00 What an opening! It’s every band playing in a giant medley! The Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani and Eve, Los Lonley Boys, Maroon 5, Franz Ferdinand — who’s next? Five acts on three stages! Wow, Gwen Stefani is the hottest pirate I’ve ever seen!

8:11 Now they are all singing together! It’s really a medley now! What an awesome opening!

8:12 It’s the 47th Annual Grammy Awards! 24 live musical performances! Whoooooo!

8:15 Queen Latifah is hosting. She admits she wants to sneak into Usher’s dressing rooms. J-Lo and Marc Anthony will be singing tonight and maybe even Queen Latifah herself will sing jazz! Too bad she sounds really insincere recalling a list of Grammy moments.

8:17 John Travolta, Ashanti, and Steven Tyler present. Pinetop Perkins? The greatest blues musician ever, of course. Los Lonely Boys won the first award. Anyone know where they came from? That’s a cool song they play. Oh, apparently they’re brothers.

8:25 And we’re back. Alicia Keys is performing with a mini-orchestra! She seems a little winded half way through.

8:30 Jamie Foxx and Qunicy Jones came out to perform the Ray Charles classic “Georgia” with Alicia Keys. Piano duets are always so sexy.

8:32 Nelly and Adam Sandler present Best R&B Performance. Nelly attempts to be funny and fails. Sandler might have thought to shave or at least wear a nice shirt.

8:40 Queen Latifah announces Jerry Lee Lewis gets the Lifetime Achievement Award, too.

8:41 U2 performs. Bono starts the song talking about his late father and how he wished he got to know him better.

8:46 Mark McGarth, Penelope Cruz, and Pharell present. Led Zepplin wins Lifetime Achievement Award. Are they giving these things out for free tonight? Green Day wins for “American Idiot.” Billy Joe: “Rock and roll can be fun and dangerous at the same time.”

8:55 Queen Blah, err… Latifah is back. Marc Anthony and J-Lo Jennifer Lopez perform their first duet ever. Oh yeah, J-Lo can sing in Spanish, that’s right. I forgot about that. Cool Spanish soap opera-esque choreography!

9:01 Matthew McConaughey introduces the legends of Southern Rock who perform. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gretchen Wilson, Keith Urban, Elvin Bishop, Tim McGraw, and others.

9:16 Ellen DeGeneres in an Iggy Pop shirt to introduce Queen Latifah, performing some jazz.

9:21 Beyonce and Hoobastank presents. Composer Martin Gould gets the Lifetime Award thing, too. Maroon 5 wins Best New Artist Grammy. One of them has a peace sign arm band.

9:29 Quentin Tarantino is one crazy f***! He introduces Green Day. They sound great. Now I really don’t want to be an American idiot! Whoa! Cool pyrotechnics!

9:33 Ricky Martin, Mario, and Anthony Hamilton (who?) present. Best R&B Album goes to Alicia Keys. Wow, she has a hot dress on tonight.

9:42 Queen Latifah again… this time on a small platform in the middle of the crowd. (???) Stables get a Lifetime Achievement Award now. And then performs. And there’s Kanye West, singing in front of a mock congregation. And the parishoner-dancers are really good. Now they’re singing”I’m Flying Away” and there’s Kanye West as an angel. Brilliant!

9:50 Ludacris and Kevin Bacon present. Bacon needs an extreme makeover, yikes! Kanye West wins for Best Rap Album. Kanye West: “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know.”

9:59 Chris Christopherson presents a tribute to Janis Joplin, another Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Joss Stone and Melissa Etheridge perform a Janis Joplin tribute. Stone looks great in a dress I can only describe as being fall foilage-colored. Oh, that’s right — Etheridge, who sounds great, is bald due to chemotherapy treatments. She looks pretty pretty bald, actually. Cool tribute.

10:11 Billy Bob Thorton presents. Country music star Eddie Arnold gets one of those Lifetime Achievement awards. Tim McGraw sings “Live Like You’re Dying.” Now that’s a pretty emotional song. First time I’ve heard it.

10:18 Allison Krauss, Amy Lee (of Evanescence) T-Bone Burnett present Best Country Album, right after another Lifetime Achievement Award to June Carter and the Carter family. Loretta Lynn wins.

10:26 Rob Thomas presents Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun with the Industry Icon Award. John Mayer performs. His performances get better and better, don’t they?

10:30 Whoa! It’s a Maury Povitch and Connie Chung sighting! John Mayer and Lisa Marie Presley present Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group to U2. Bono says this is the best Grammys he’s ever seen… and I agree.

10:38 Anthony LaPaglia talks about the Tsunami disaster and introduces The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” backed up by Velvet Revolver. Bono, Stevie Wonder, Norah Jones, Brian Wilson, Alicia Keys, Mr. Red Hair (???), Billie Joe, Tim McGraw, and Steven Tyler sing a wonderful tribute to tsunami victims.

10:45 Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys present Song of the Year. Stevie reads the winner! Cool, the card is in braille! John Mayer wins!

10:53 Queen Latifah is back. “Jelly Roll” Morton gets a Lifetime Achievement Award. Usher performs “Caught Up” in a big cloud of smoke. And there’s a trampoline and then a backflip. “Sex Machine” James Brown shows up! Cool dueling dance moves! Brown calls Usher the new “Godson.”

10:59 Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong present Song of the Year. Crow looks like a skinny banana in her dress, doesn’t she? Ray Charles and Norah Jones win Song of the Year.

11:09 The Recording Academy President comes onstage and discusses the Tsunami disaster. Hey, he’s not bragging about the recording industry or nagging us about illegal file downloading for once! Oh, I spoke too soon. There’s the WhatsTheDownload.com reference. Booooo! Okay, enough already, jerk. Bring Queen Latifah back onstage!

11:12 A tribute to those who passed away. Wow, so many great musicians passed away this past year. Bonnie Raitt performs a tribute.

11:23 Gary Sinise and Bonnie Raitt present Album of the Year. Ray Charles wins for “Genius Loves Company.” Charles’ manager gracefully accepts the award.

That’s it for this year. I have to say, I was very impressed with this year’s show. Especially after last year’s disappointing show. I even discovered a few new performers I’ll be checking out.

Thanks for reading along!

RELATED: Grammy Awards Winners List.