Matt Sayles / AP Photo
A heavy pall was cast over the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, and host LL Cool J started the ceremony with a prayer for Whitney Houston. “There is no way around this. There's been a death in the family.” It was difficult to look to the future with such a loss of the past, but it wasn’t hard to predict what that future would look like, as Adele took home one big honor after another, winning Album of the Year for 21, Record of the Year for “Rolling in the Deep,” and Song of the Year for “Rolling in the Deep.” Bon Iver won Best New Artist, and Chris Brown, who still has some fans, won best R & B Album. At the prebroadcast ceremony on Sunday, DJ Skrillex won three awards. Kanye West and Jay-Z won the award for Best Rap Performance, but neither was there to accept the award. The late Amy Winehouse won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her duet with Tony Bennett, and in another of the show’s somber moments, her parents took the stage to accept the award on her behalf.