The Grammy Awards celebrated their 50th anniversary last night in style. While very few awards were given out, the show was a powerhouse of live performances.

Alicia Keys opened the show with a duet with Frank Sinatra. He was shown on a black and white video behind her. It was a great performance. Alicia Keys also performed “No one” a little bit later in the show. She is an amazing talent and captivates me every time I see her. She did a really good job at the SuperBowl pregame show as well.

Kanye West performed his hit “Stronger” with the help of Daft Punk. When the song was over he started to sing. He actually sang. I recognized the song from his second album. It was a tribute to his mom. He wrote the song before she passed away. As he performed it last night, I could see that he put his all into it. It seemed like it was a hard thing to do. It was a great tribute to his mom. It really was moving.

Kanye West won rap album of the year and thanked his mom again. He even had “Mama” shaved into the back of his head. The music tried to cut him off but he wouldn’t let them do that. He told Common not to release an album in the same year as him because this award was his. It was nice to see that he was acknowledging the other nominees.

This was the first Grammy Awards that I can remember where all of the rap nominees deserved to be there. I wouldn’t have been mad who won the award with the strong list of nominees they had last night. I was pulling for Common. His album is great. But then so again is Nas, and Jay-Z.

Rihanna and Jay-Z won for best collaboration for the massive hit “Umbrella.” Will-I-Am rapped and sang a history of the Grammy Awards. The first ever rap award was acknowledged in the broadcast as well by one of the presenters.

The Grammys did a great job and represented hip-hop to the fullest. They even paid tribute to Pimp C during the segment they do ever year about talents that were lost in the year.

Thumbs up to the Grammys! It was a great show and I was fixed to my television for the entire broadcast; that doesn’t happen every year.