Amy Winehouse dominates Grammy awards

SINGER Amy Winehouse won five Grammy awards, including record and song of the year for her autobiographical hit Rehab.

Winehouse missed out on album of the year at the 50th annual US awards, which recognise the cream of the music industry, to Herbie Hancock, who won for River: The Joni Letters.

Winehouse, whose personal life is in turmoil, had been prevented by visa problems from attending the ceremony in person, but she performed You Know I’m No Good and Rehab in front of a small audience in a London studio and took part via satellite.

Both Winehouse and Hancock, whose album is a tribute to Joni Mitchell, were dumbstruck by the honours, fumbling for words and thank-you lists, respectively.

“I can’t believe I’ve won five awards,” said Winehouse. She coyly sang Rehab and You Know I’m No Good via satellite link from London, then dedicated her record of the year trophy to her hometown, parents and jailed husband, “my Blake, my Blake incarcerated”.

Hancock, whose River: The Joni Letters won album of the year, said that it was “immeasurable how surprised I am”.

Other winners of the night included Kanye West, who took four Grammys for best rap album of the year for Graduation, best rap solo performance for Stronger, best rap song for Good Life and best rap performance by a duo or group for his collaboration with Common on Southside.

West paid tribute to his mother Donda West, who died last year after complications from plastic surgery.

With the word “MAMA” cut into his hair, Kanye West launched into Hey Mama, a once-exuberant song from his 2005 album Late Registration that he has transformed into a sombre tribute since his mother’s sudden death.

“Last night I saw you in my dreams. Now I can’t wait to go to sleep,” he sang in the night’s most emotional performance.

Accepting the award for rap album, West spoke to his mother: “I appreciate everything and I know you are really proud of me right now and I know you would not want me to stop and you would want me to be the No 1 artist in the world.”

Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen took home three Grammys, including best rock song for Radio Nowhere. Chaka Khan picked up two trophies, including one for best R&B album for Funk This.

The Beatles were honoured by performers from two new interpretations of their music, the Cirque du Soleil show Love, and Julie Taymor’s film Across the Universe.

Politics were a subtle backdrop to the evening. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won an award for spoken word album, for the audio version of his book, The Audacity of Hope.

Presenter George Lopez took note of the historic nature of the Hillary Clinton and Obama candidacies, and will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas urged the crowd to vote after a strange free-wheeling freestyle billed as a “mash-up”.

Twenty-four-year-old Winehouse’s performance was a rarity given the star’s recent health problems. She ended up cancelling her British tour after several shambolic performances, citing husband Blake Fielder-Civil — who is being held in custody — as the reason she could not go on.

Her appearance via satellite, rather than in person at the ceremony, followed a wrangle over her application for a US visa, which was denied but then granted.

On Friday, Winehouse checked out of the Capio Nightingale clinic in north London, where she had been since January 24, to rehearse for her performance.

The Grammy nominations came after what has been a fantastic year professionally for Winehouse, but amid considerable uncertainty about her wellbeing.

Her bizarre behaviour has been a concern to fans for some time but her husband’s recent arrest and the couple’s enforced separation appears to have pushed her to a new low.

She has since struck up a friendship with ex-drug addict Pete Doherty and has been seen in floods of tears after visiting Fielder-Civil in jail.

He was arrested after allegedly trying to bribe a pub barman he is accused of attacking and is in Pentonville Prison.