  Robert Plant, left, and Alison Krauss hold their album of the year and best pop collaboration with vocals awards backstage at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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LOS ANGELES -- Raising Sand, the critically acclaimed CD from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, raised a whole lotta Grammy gold last night at the Staples Center.
The 60-year-old Led Zeppelin belter and 37-year-old bluegrass star led the way with five Grammy Award wins, including album and record of the year, thanks to their collaborative CD.
Rapper Lil Wayne won four Grammys. Coldplay won three.
Plant and Krauss won in all five categories they were nominated in. They grabbed two Grammys for Raising Sand -- album of the year and contemporary folk/Americana album -- and three more for songs from that album: Killing The Blues won for country collaboration with vocals, Rich Woman for pop collaboration with vocals, and Please Read The Letter for record of the year.
"I'd like to say I'm bewildered," said Plant as he accepted the best-album prize. "In the old days we'd call this selling out, but this is a good way to spend a Sunday."
Added Krauss: "We are thrilled and very grateful to everybody who has been excited for us, especially Robert. There's never a dull moment."
Upon winning record of the year, Plant said on stage, "When we started this project together the whole game was a mystery. We gave ourselves three days. We said, 'If it doesn't work, we'll just take lunch and I'll go back to Wolverhampton.' (Please Read The Letter is) an old song that Jimmy Page and I wrote together, post-Led Zeppelin, and it's been given that Nashville touch and it feels pretty good."
Krauss has won more Grammys than any other female artist; she now has 26. Plant had won only two previously -- and none with Led Zeppelin, which never won a Grammy.
Coldplay won song of the year (the songwriting award) for Viva La Vida, which also won as best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. The band also won for best rock album for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.
"Thank you and sorry to Sir Paul McCartney for blatantly copying the Sgt. Pepper's outfits," said Coldplay drummer Will Champion of he and his bandmates being decked out in brightly coloured jackets.
Accepting the best rock album award, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin said: "We're more limestone, a little softer but just as charming. We feel so grateful to be here. I'm going to tear up, it's going to be crazy."
One of the telecast's early emotional high points was Jennifer Hudson's Grammy win for best R&B album for her self-titled disc.
"I would like to thank my family in heaven and those that are here today," said Hudson, who was appearing in public for only the second time since an alleged domestic dispute led to the murder of her mother, brother and nephew.
There was also controversy at the outset, as scheduled performers and longtime couple Rihanna and Chris Brown were last-minute no-shows. Brown turned himself in to authorities investigating an alleged domestic battery felony that took place early yesterday. Jail records showed Chris Brown being held on $50,000 US bail.
The police department said in a release that Brown, the 19-year-old R&B singer, and a "woman" were in a vehicle in L.A.'s Hancock Park neighbourhood when they began arguing. Police say they got out of the car and the fight escalated, and the woman identified Brown as her attacker. The report did not say whether the "woman" was the 20-year-old Rihanna, a pop/R&B singer.
In Rihanna's place, Justin Timberlake and Al Green performed a duet of Green's classic Let's Stay Together. They had less than three hours' notice to pull it together.
The only other breath-holding moment was when nine-months-pregnant British rapper M.I.A. performed Swagga Like Us with T.I., Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West and didn't actually give birth on stage.
Raspy-voiced, tattooed and prolific southern rapper Lil Wayne had led all other artists with eight nominations, followed closely by Coldplay with seven and rappers Jay-Z and West and R&B artist Ne-Yo with six apiece.
Lil Wayne picked up three of his Grammys during the pre-telecast portion of the ceremony, during which 100 of the 110 trophies were handed out -- for rap performance for A Milli, rap song for Lollipop, and rap performance for a duo or group for Swagga Like Us. He won his fourth, for best rap album, near night's end.
West got a second Grammy for American Boy with Estelle, which won best rap/sung collaboration.
Adele won as best new artist.
British art-rockers Radiohead, nominated in five categories, won for best alternative music album for In Rainbows, another album-of-the-year nominee, while their art directors won for best boxed or special limited edition package.
Other early double winners were Ne-Yo, Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, French electronica duo Daft Punk and Al Green.
Carrie Underwood won best female country vocal performance for Last Name, while Brad Paisley won the male equivalent for Letter To Me.
With the exception of the Juno soundtrack, Canadian nominees were shut out this year. Juno director Jason Reitman of Montreal was on hand to pick up the best compilation soundtrack album Grammy and said the win was an "enormous surprise" during the pre-telecast ceremony.
But the night belonged to Krauss and Plant.
"Wow, 40 years after landing in this town, it's all different," said Plant, who a generation ago hailed himself as a 'golden god' with Led Zeppelin. "It's fantastic."
