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Sometimes a first performance can lead to a Second Coming.

Opening the 46th Annual GRAMMY Awards with the help of <a href="/artists/beyonce-knowles/12474">Beyoncé</a>, the artist now currently known as Prince again proved himself to be a once and future musical royalty. Dressed in — what else? — purple, Prince teamed up with the recently solo Beyoncé for an inspired run through of three songs from Purple Rain, which 20 years after their release retained their power to thrill with soul and style. The medley of “Purple Rain,” “Baby, I’m A Star” and “Let’s Go Crazy” — weaving in a taste of Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” — featured actual pyrotechnics at the end, but there were musical fireworks right from the start. Things worked out pretty nicely for Destiny’s most famous child as well since Beyoncé became a big winner, later giving a stunningly artistic performance of “Dangerously In Love” and ultimately taking home five GRAMMYs for the night.

Ellen DeGeneres — one of many notable presenters during this host-less show — set the stage for a performance inspired by a significant musical anniversary. “On this night 40 years ago, the Beatles walked on the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater and started a cultural revolution,” said DeGeneres of the Fab Four’s famed “Ed Sullivan Show” appearance. To honor the Beatle’s singular legacy, <a href="/artists/sting/10244">Sting</a>, Dave Matthews, <a href="/artists/pharrell-williams/7310">Pharrell Williams</a> and <a href="/artists/vince-gill/16740">Vince Gill</a> came together to perform “I Saw Her Standing There.” Later, DeGeneres returned to honor the group with The Academy’s President’s Merit Award and introduce <a href="/artists/george-harrison/2775">George Harrison</a>’s widow Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, as well as taped comments from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

It wasn’t, however, all peace, love and sweet nostalgia at the 46th Annual GRAMMY Awards. The show took place just a week after Janet Jackson’s controversial Super Bowl half-time appearance, and that “wardrobe malfunction” controversy ran over into the GRAMMYs. In the end, Jackson — booked to introduce the show’s Luther Vandross salute by Alicia Keys and Celine Dion — chose not to appear. Her Super Bowl partner <a href="/artists/justin-timberlake/15478">Justin Timberlake</a> did appear — performing a rousing version of his “Señorita” with jazz great Arturo Sandoval, joining the Black Eyed Peas for “Where Is The Love” and winning two awards: Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. There was some further controversy when new rap icon 50 Cent seemed to protest his loss to Evanescence in the Best New Artist category by walking onto the stage anyway as they accepted their award.

President Neil Portnow — who had forcefully led The Academy through some tense moments with the network following the Super Bowl controversy — addressed the need for increased arts funding and spoke of the state of the music industry in his comments. Introducing The Academy’s new What’s The Download legal downloading public service initiative, Portnow proclaimed, “Our industry will emerge from what has been a perfect storm and we will reinvent and renew that which requires change.”

Among the most perfect performances of the night were Best Rock Album winners the <a href="/artists/foo-fighters/14694">Foo Fighters</a> and jazz keyboardist <a href="/artists/chick-corea/9341">Chick Corea</a> performing the band’s “Times Like These” with some gorgeous jazzy textures, the White Stripes’ whipping up “Seven Nation Army” from the Best Alternative Music Album Elephant, and a performance that featured Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam and Billy Bob Thornton in a touching farewell that capped the in memoriam segment to the late great Warren Zevon, who had passed away in September shortly after the release of his final album, The Wind, which took home two GRAMMYs. Then there was the taped message from an ailing Luther Vandross who found the strength to send out a little “Power Of Love” as only he could on a night that brought him four GRAMMYs including Song Of The Year for “Dance With My Father,” which he wrote with Richard Marx.

But on this night, no single performance could compare to one of the GRAMMY’s most ambitious and, yes, funky musical endeavors ever: an extraordinary salute to funk officiated by “Minister Samuel L.” Jackson and featuring Earth, Wind &amp; Fire, OutKast (three-time winners of the night), Robert Randolph And The Family Band and George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. Along with OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below becoming the first rap album to ever win Album Of The Year at the end of the night, this rousing funk medley offered proof that we can still be one nation — even perhaps one world — under a groove.

Hey Ya!

Lose Yourself

Clocks

Where Is The Love

Crazy In Love

Record Of The Year

Elephant

Justified

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

Fallen

Under Construction

Album Of The Year

Keep Me In Your Heart

I'm With You

Dance With My Father

Beautiful

Song Of The Year

Best New Artist

White Flag

Miss Independent

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Cry Me A River

Send Your Love

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Any Road

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance

Underneath It All

Unwell

Stacy's Mom

Hole In The World

Misunderstood

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Whenever I Say Your Name

Feel Good Time

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking

La Vie En Rose

Can't Hold Us Down

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals

The Nutcracker Suite

Seabiscuit

Honey-Dipped

Marwa Blues

Patricia

Best Pop Instrumental Performance

Night Divides The Day -The Music Of The Doors

N.E.W.S.

Wishes

Mambo Sinuendo

Peace

Best Pop Instrumental Album

Motown

Bare

Brainwashed

Stripped

Best Pop Vocal Album

Breathe

Come Into My World

Die Another Day

Easy

Love One Another

Best Dance Recording

The Movie Album

As Time Goes By...The Great American Songbook: Volume II

Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook

The Last Concert

A Wonderful World

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

Righteously

Time Of Our Lives

Trouble

Losing Grip

Are You Happy Now?

Best Female Rock Vocal Performance

Return Of Jackie & Judy

Gravedigger

If I Could Fall In Love

Down In The Flood

New Killer Star

Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

Disorder In The House

Seven Nation Army

Calling All Angels

There There

Times Like These

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Go With The Flow

Just Because

Straight Out Of Line

Bring Me To Life

Like A Stone

Best Hard Rock Performance

mOBSCENE

Inhale

Smothered

St. Anger

Did My Time

Best Metal Performance

Essence

Squeeze

Session

Plan B

Instrumental Illness

Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Someday

Best Rock Song

The Long Road

More Than You Think You Are

One By One

Audioslave

Best Rock Album

Fever To Tell

Untitled

Hail To The Thief

Fight Test

Best Alternative Music Album

I Wish I Wasn't

Ooh!

Dangerously In Love 2

Back In The Day

Rain On Me

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance

How You Gonna Act Like That

Superstar

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Step In The Name Of Love

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance

Hands Up

Busted

I'll Stay

Say Yes

The Closer I Get To You

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

He Proposed

Way Up There

Comin' From Where I'm From

Wonderful

Hold Me

Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance

Forthenight

J'veux D'la Musique

Milkshake

Danger

Best Urban/Alternative Performance

Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)

Best R&B Song

Body Kiss

So Damn Happy

Bittersweet

Worldwide Underground

Best R&B Album

Chocolate Factory

Love & Life

Dangerously In Love

Chapter II

Best Contemporary R&B Album

Go Head

Ride Wit Me

Came Back For You

Work It

Got It Poppin'

Best Female Rap Solo Performance

Get Busy

Stand Up

In Da Club

Pump It Up

Best Male Rap Solo Performance

Can't Stop Won't Stop

Dipset (Santana's Town)

Shake Ya Tailfeather

Magic Stick

Gossip Folks

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group

Frontin'

Luv U Better

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Excuse Me Miss

Best Rap Song

Phrenology

The Blueprint² - The Gift & The Curse

Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

Best Rap Album

Forever And For Always

I'm Gone

This One's For The Girls

On Your Way Home

Keep On The Sunny Side

Best Female Country Vocal Performance

Three Wooden Crosses

Brokenheartsville

She's My Kind Of Rain

46th Annual GRAMMY Awards