It’s the beginning of a new year, and along with the unavoidable flowering of spring comes the equally unavoidable and far less anticipated season of award shows. The very utterance of the phrase “award show” may be enough to get some viewers running from their television sets.

Okay, that might be a little extreme; however, the fact remains that award shows are among both the most loved and hated yearly television events. The Grammys, music’s biggest award, are no different than their award show brethren in the fact that they have the unique ability to shock, entertain and bore the viewer often at the same time.

The Grammy Awards, which celebrated its 50th birthday on Sunday night, proved at the very least that they can still provide entertaining television, though not always for the intended reasons. The event, which aired on CBS, clocked in at just under four hours and featured performances spanning all genres – from hip-hop to classical, from rock to soul.

However, before the awards could be handed out, it had to be noted to the audience that these are the 50th Grammy Awards and the show wasted little time tooting its own horn. Throughout the night, the Recording Arts Academy of America gave out numerous lifetime achievement awards, presumably to artists snubbed in their own time, and repeatedly name checked its laundry list of former winners.

The show started off on the right foot with a performance that blended the past and the present, with a duet between Alicia Keys and the late Frank Sinatra singing “Learnin’ the Blues.” The duet, which featured the always-likeable Keys trading lines with the former Rat Pack member via digital effects, proved that the Grammys, though 50 years old, are not without the capacity for original ideas.

Unfortunately, the rest of the show was unable to go off as smoothly as the first performance. The Grammys wasted no time attempting to satiate its audience’s wide variety of tastes. However, the night did come complete with some moments that seem ripe for water cooler gossip.

The first such moment came when Kanye West took the stage, backed by indie/techno icons Daft Punk, wearing glow-in-the-dark sunglasses and sporting the word “Mama” shaved into the back of his head. After they teamed up for West’s song “Stronger,” the always controversial rapper took the stage alone to perform his song “Mama.” The tune, which was dedicated to his late mother, provided a touching moment and prompted a standing ovation from the crowd.

The rapper would later go on to win “Best Rap Album” for his third disc, entitled “Graduation.” When accepting the award, the orchestra began to play in an attempt to shoo the outspoken West off the stage as quickly as possible. Instead of leaving, he continued to speak calmly, thanking his supporters and lastly, his mother. This prompted him to say angrily, “It would be in good taste to stop the music,” and on command the music quickly stopped.

Though West did his best to steal the show, the main focus was on the missing Amy Winehouse, who racked up a total of five awards. The troubled songstress was denied a visa and was unable to attend the ceremony, but did appear via satellite. Winehouse, backed by a large ensemble of musicians in a concert hall in England, played her hit song “Rehab,” which would later be crowned both “Record of the Year” and “Song of the Year.”

Winehouse looked authentically shocked at the news of her win and spent several minutes hugging her band before getting up to the microphone to deliver a virtually unintelligible speech in her native cockney accent.

The Foo Fighters played with a lucky fan, chosen by audience voting in one of the more bizarre attempts by the show to appease its youthful audience. Older R’B greats Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin showed that they could still perform with the best of them. Turner and Beyonc’eacute; Knowles teamed up for three songs, including “What’s love got to do with it” and “Proud Mary,” while Franklin took part in a gospel segment.

The Awards also crafted a unique two-song tribute to the Beatles, which featured music from Cirque de Soleil’s “Love,” as well as music from “Across the Universe.”

The Grand Prize for “Album of the Year” was the last to be awarded and featured the most surprising win of the evening. The award went to Herbie Hancock and his newest album “River: The Joni Letters.” A former jazz great, Hancock thanked the academy for selecting his album for album of the year, the first jazz album to win the prize in 43 years.

The biggest winners of the night were Winehouse and West, who received a total of nine Grammys.

The show, which normally wastes its time presenting awards that no audience member is interested in, and indulging in the sterilized celebrity banter that proceeds handing out any award, was able to stay entertaining by focusing mainly on performances. This change of pace kept the show fresh and entertaining. And while the show does violate the old maxim “If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one,” you have to at least admire the scope of their effort.

Peter Rizzo can be reached at [email protected].