Soul singer Adele triumphed over Rihanna, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga to win the Album of the Year award for her chart-topping ‘21’ and five other trophies at the 54th Grammy awards.

“Mom, gold is good!” Adele shouted as she took the album of he year trophy.

Adele, known for her powerful voice, underwent a vocal surgery in November last year but the singer made a grand return to the music scene with her multiple win.

The singer’s six wins also included record and song of the year for ‘Rolling in the Deep’. The only other singer to win six trophies in one night is Beyonce, who set the record two years ago.

The 23-year-old artist won trophies in all the six categories she was nominated for, making a clean sweep at the mega music awards here, which mourned the death of Whitney Houston, who was found dead in her hotel room on Sunday night.

In the most poignant moment of the award night, singer Jennifer Hudson paid a music tribute to her idol by singing Houston’s signature songs, “I Will Always Love You”, ending it with “Whitney, we will always love you.”

The night’s other big winners were Grohl’s Foo Fighters, who won five Grammys including the best rock performance for “Walk” and best rock album for “Wasting Light”.

Singer Tony Bennett received the Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group for his duet with late Amy Winehouse on “Body and Soul. He was joined on stage by the singer’s parents.

Country darling Taylor Swift won Grammys for best country song and best country solo performance for “Mean”, a song about the people who were mean to her.

The award for rap album went to Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. His duet with Jay-Z on “Otis” also won West the rap perforamnce of the year. He was also in the list for the best rap song “All of the Lights” with Jeff Bhasker, Stacy Ferguson, Malik Jones and Warren Trotter.

Two years after his infamous attack on ex-girlfriend Rihanna, Chris Brown made a comeback by winning best R&B album for “F.A.M.E”. Brown and Rihanna also performed at the event though separately.

Rap/Sung Collaboration went to “All of the Lights”, by Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie.

Band Bon Iver, founded by Justin Vernon, was named best new artist at the awards beating out favourite Nicki Minaj. It also won best alternative music album.

Best Country album went to “Own the Night” by the trio of Lady Antebellum.

The performance heavy award’s night saw some of the favourite singers taking to the stage to lend glamour to the Grammy stage.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the ceremony with their new single “We Take Care Of Our Own”.

Paul McCartney performed “My Valentine” from his new album “Kisses on the Bottom”.

Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt took to stage to pay tribute to the late Etta James with a cover of “A Sunday Kind of Love” while Foo Fighters performed their Grammy winning song “Walk”.

Rihanna performed “We Found Love” before coming together with Coldplay for the first-ever live performance of their Mylo Xyloto “Princess of China” collaboration. Coldplay then closed with “Paradise”.

The Beach Boys appeared together on stage for the first time in two decades, performing “Good Vibrations”.

Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and David Guetta came together for a performance of “I Can Only Imagine” while Nicki Minaj debuted her new single “Roman Holiday” from her album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. – Agencies