The Grammys were awarded Sunday in Los Angeles as The Recording Academy grappled with the task of paying tribute to one of its fallen greats, Whitney Houston who died the night before. While the passing of the star cast a somber shadow over the music industry's biggest night, the best music of the past year was still honored and awarded. As predicted, the big winner was Adele.

Singer Adele holds her six Grammy Awards at the 54th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 12, 2012.

Having captured the world's heart with an album about a broken romance, Adele emerged as the top winner at Sunday's Grammy Awards, winning six trophies including the prestigious trifecta of record and song. The singer made a triumphant comeback from vocal cord surgery on the Grammy stage, and sobbed as she won the night's final award, album of the year, for "21."

She said:" Mom, gold is good!"

"21" was last year's top-selling album with more than six million copies sold and remains lodged at the No. 1 spot on this year's charts.

The night's other big winners were Grohl's Foo Fighters, who won five Grammys.

Foo Fighters said:" To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what's most important."

2011 marked an amazing comeback for Chris Brown and he was rewarded with two planned performances during the show. Brown also won best R&B album.

Justin Vernon, whose band Bon Iver beat Nicki Minaj, The Band Perry, J. Cole and Skrillex for best new artist, accepted the award with admittedly mixed emotions.

He said:" It's really hard to accept this award. Well, there's so much talent out here, like on this stage. There's a lot of talent that's not here tonight."

But the evening's most moving moment came as Jennifer Hudson - who has called Houston an inspiration and one of her biggest idols - emerged to sing one of Houston's signature songs, "I Will Always Love You." Dressed in black, with only the accompaniment of a piano, Hudson appeared to fight back tears as she sang the song, ending with the line, "Whitney, we will always love you."