by Steve Humphreys

Created on: February 16, 2009

First established in 1958, The Grammy Awards recognise outstanding contributions in the music industry. Presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and first broadcast live in 1971, the most recent ceremony, on 8th February 2009, was watched by over 19 million Americans.

The first Grammy ceremony was a dinner held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, with 500 attendees. The Recording Academy had organised a competition earlier that year to find a name for the award, and Grammy (derived from "gramophone") was invented by Jay Danna, of New Orleans, who won 25 albums as a prize. Awards were given in 28 categories, with Domenico Modugno's 'Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)' winning Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Henry Mancini won Album of the Year with The Music From Peter Gunn, while Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como took the Best Vocal Performance Awards.

On November 29th, 1959, NBC broadcast a recording of the Grammy Awards as part of their regular anthology programme, Sunday Showcase. During the 1960s ceremonies were held in both New York and Los Angeles, with winners accepting the trophy at one or the other. Recordings of the ceremony were broadcast throughout the 1960s by NBC, entitled The Best On Record. When the ceremony moved to Nashville for one year in 1973, CBS bought the rights to the telecast, and have broadcast it each year since. Apart from the year in Nashville, the ceremony has been held in locations in New York and Los Angeles, but has been held in The Staples Center, Los Angeles, continuously since 2000.

The last show to have a live host was the 47th Grammy awards, hosted by Queen Latifah. Since then the shows have followed the pattern of other contemporary awards ceremonies and have had the celebrities who present the awards being introduced by an off-stage announcer. The record for hosting the most telecasts is held by Andy Williams, who presented the show every year from 1971 to 1976. During the 1976 show a live link with Stevie Wonder, who was in Nigeria, was planned but there were technical problems. Fumbling for something to say in front of a live nationwide audience, Williams asked, "Stevie, can you see us now?" He was never asked to host again.

Other controversial on-air moments included Helen Reddy, accepting the 1972 Record of the Year Award for "I Am Woman", thanking God, "because she makes everything possible", and Ol' Dirty Bastard coming on stage during Shawn Colvin's 1998 acceptance speech to complain that he had bought expensive new clothes in anticipation of winning the Best Rap Album Award, and stating that "Wu Tang is for the children". Much controversy around the Grammys, however, has been caused not by on-stage antics of presenters or artists, but by perceptions of the Awards as elitist or out of touch. Mockingly referred to as "The Grannys", and criticised for trying to include too wide a range of musical styles into one ceremony, The Grammys have evolved over the years to include rap and hard rock artists - though in perhaps typical Grammys fashion, the first ever award for a rap artist was presented off the air.

It seems likely that whether the Grammys' audience are hoping for a controversial celebrity faux pas or genuinely wanting to appreciate the wide range of popular music available today, they will continue to tune in in their millions for years to come.

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