Sam Smith, Pharrell Williams score big at Grammy; Indian artists win too

Los Angeles: Singers Sam Smith, Beck, Beyonce Knowles and Pharrell Williams Sunday night dominated the 57th Grammy Awards ceremony, which saw Indian artists Ricky Kej and Neela Vaswani winning too.

The "Stay with me" fame singer Smith had a huge night as he scooped four Grammy awards -- Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist.

Williams's single "Happy" gave him a reason to smile as he got Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video for the song. Best Urban Contemporary Album award also went to Williams for his album "G I R L".

The award ceremony had another surprise package with musician Beck nixing popular names like Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith to take away the Album Of The Year trophy for his album "Morning Phase". Beck took home another trophy in the Best Rock Album category for his album. The album was also awarded with the Best Engineered Album in the non-classical category as well.

Kej's collaborated album with South African musician Wouter Kellerman "Winds Of Samsara" won the Best New Age Album trophy, and Vaswani walked away with an award in the Best Children's Album category for being the narrator of the audio version of book "I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up For Education And Changed The World (Malala Yousafzai)".

Hosted by rapper LL Cool J, the ceremony was attended by stars like Taylor Swift, Enrique Iglesias, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman and Barry Gibb.

Meanwhile, Knowles dominated the R&B categories by winning Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song for "Drunk in love". Her self-titled album also won the Best Surround Sound Album.

Among other awards, rapper Eminem's "The monster" featuring Rihanna won a trophy in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and his "The Marshall Mathers LP2" was awarded the Best Rap Album trophy, making it his sixth win in the category. In the past, he won for albums like "Recovery" and "Relapse".

If Eminem and Rihanna's collaboaration helped them scoop an award, the Best Pop duo/group performance trophy went to "Say something" by A Great Big World with Christina Aguilera.

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album was given to "Cheek to Cheek" by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, who also performed on stage.

"Frozen" also bagged two awards. The film's "Let it go" won Best Song Written for Visual Media. Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media also went to "Frozen".

The night not only focussed around music, but also highlighted the power of music and its ability to fight social menace like domestic violence.

US President Barack Obama made a video appearance at the ceremony to share a powerful message, urging Americans to end violence against women and girls.

Obama also asked artists to tell their fans to join "It's On Us", which is White House's ongoing campaign to help put an end to sexual assault on college campuses.

Following the powerful video message, a domestic abuse survivor Brooke Axtell shared her painful experience after which singer Katy Perry took to stage in a white gown to sing "By the grace of god", which inspired hope.

Other performers of the night included AC/DC, Rihanna, Paul McCartney, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran and Kanye West, who crooned at Grammys for the first time in six years.

The Recording Academy label not only honoured the music personalities, who stood out with their music and entertained music-lovers across globe, but also launched an initiative to safeguard the interact of music-makers for the generations to come.

Through the initiative named The GRAMMY Creators Alliance, music artists will be channel the voice of future generations of artists and advance policies that put music-makers first.

Launched by Recording Academy president Neil Portnow along with singer-actress Jennifer Hudson and OneRepublic singer and producer Ryan Tedder, the alliance has been created to push for increased remuneration for artists in the digital age.