Singer Adele was the big winner at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, winning six prizes including record, song and album of the year.
She also made her live comeback at the ceremony, performing for the first time since having throat surgery last year.
Rock band Foo Fighters won five prizes, while rapper Kanye West scooped four.
The event saw heartfelt tributes to pop star Whitney Houston, who died on Saturday, while Amy Winehouse received a posthumous award.
Winehouse's parents accepted her prize for best pop duo/group performance for Body and Soul, her duet with Tony Bennett, which was the last recording Winehouse made before she died in July.
Adele won every award she was nominated for, including record of the year, song of the year and best short form music video for Rolling in the Deep. Her second album, 21, was named album of the year.
"This record is inspired by something that is really normal and everyone's been through it, just a rubbish relationship," she said.
"It's gone on to do things I can't tell you how I feel about it, it's been the most life-changing year."
The London singer was forced to cancel all live dates last year but earned a standing ovation after her return to the stage with Rolling in the Deep.
Accepting the trophy for best pop solo performance for her song Someone Like You, she said: "Seeing as it's a vocal performance, I need to thank my doctors, I suppose, who brought my voice back."
Her producer Paul Epworth, who also worked with Foster the People, Florence and the Machine and Cee Lo Green, was named best non-classical producer.
'Special record'Foo Fighters' awards included best rock album, best rock song, best rock performance and best hard rock/metal performance.
"This is a great honour because this record was a special record for our band," frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd.
"Rather than go to the best studio, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine. It shows that the human element of making music is what's most important."
Kanye West's solo album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy earned three awards, including best rap song and best rap album.
The track Otis - from Watch the Throne, his collaboration with Jay-Z - was named best rap performance.
The prize takes West's total Grammy haul to 18. Neither he nor Jay-Z were present to pick up their awards.
Bon Iver, fronted by US singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, were named best new act, five years after their acclaimed debut album was released.
Their self-titled second LP also won best alternative album.
Other British victors included soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who scooped best R&B performance for Is This Love.
There was also success for Sir Paul McCartney, whose deluxe reissue of Wings' Band on the Run was named best historial album.
US dance DJ Skrillex won three prizes, while double winners included folk duo The Civil Wars, country star Taylor Swift and gospel singer Kirk Franklin.
Chris Brown - returning to the event for the first time since 2009 - won the trophy for best R&B album for F.A.M.E.
returning to the event for the first time since assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna before the 2009 ceremony.
Rihanna - the ex-girlfriend Brown assaulted before the ceremony three years ago - was also present, taking to the stage with British band Coldplay.
Also playing live were Bruce Springsteen, McCartney, the Beach Boys and Kelly Clarkson.
Jennifer Hudson gave a rendition of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You in a tribute to the late singer.
The ceremony also saw Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt sang a duet of A Sunday Kind of Love in tribute to Etta James, who died last month.
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American singer and actress Whitney Houston has died in Los Angeles at the age of 48.
Police said she died in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where she had been staying as a guest.
Houston was one of the most celebrated female singers of all time, with hits including I Will Always Love You and Saving All My Love For You.
But her later career was overshadowed by substance abuse and her turbulent marriage to singer Bobby Brown.
Ms Houston died on the eve of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. She had been due to attend a pre-awards party in the Beverly Hilton Hotel organised by her long-time mentor and record industry executive Clive Davis on Saturday evening.
He went ahead with the party, holding a minute's silence and telling the audience he was "personally devastated by the loss of someone who has meant so much to me for so many years".
The hotel was already teeming with reporters and celebrities when police received an emergency call from hotel security at 15.43 local time (23:43 GMT), Beverly Hills police spokesman Mark Rosen told the BBC.
Police were despatched, but paramedics who were already at the hotel because of the party attempted to resuscitate her, without success. She was pronounced dead at 15:55.
Mr Rosen said Ms Houston's entourage - comprising family members, friends and co-workers - had taken over much of the fourth floor of the hotel.
"There were a number of people on scene who were able to positively identify Ms Houston for us," he said, adding that her next of kin have been informed of her death.
Police investigators inspected the scene before Ms Houston's body was moved from the hotel to the coroner's office for an autopsy.
While the cause of death is unclear, Mr Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent".
The US celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Ms Houston had been partying heavily on both Thursday and Friday nights.
She briefly took the microphone and performed a song while out in Hollywood on Thursday, and was seen drinking and chatting loudly with friends in the hotel bar on Friday, according to TMZ.
'Finest voice'
Houston's background was steeped in soul and gospel music.
Her mother was gospel singer Cissy Houston, she was cousin to singer Dionne Warwick and goddaughter to Aretha Franklin.
"I just can't talk about it now," Ms Franklin said in a short statement. "It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen."
Having grown up in New Jersey, Houston began singing in church and then in the night clubs of New York, and was a model before being signed by Arista Records.
At the height of her career in the 1980s and 90s she won many awards and enjoyed several number one singles and albums.
Artists from Mariah Carey to Christina Aguilera have tried to emulate her bravura performances, but none of them were as good as the original, music critic Paul Gambaccini told the BBC.
Houston also enjoyed success acting in blockbuster films such as The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale.
In recent years drug use took its toll on the star and her voice - once acknowledged as one of the finest in pop music - was badly damaged.
"She did have it all, but the record is there of the decline into drug use and the damage done from drug use," said Gambaccini.
Her marriage to Brown, with whom she had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, ended in divorce in 2007. The marriage had been a tempestuous one, with allegations of domestic abuse as well as drug addiction.
"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy,'' Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a 2002 interview.
Ms Houston was strongly linked to the Grammys - having won six awards herself over the years. Organisers of Sunday's ceremony said she would be remembered in a special tribute by singer Jennifer Hudson.
Civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton said that on the morning of the Grammys, "the world should pause and pray for the memory of a gifted songbird".
Country singer Dolly Parton - who wrote one one of her most memorable hits, I Will Always Love You - said in a statement: "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston."
"I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed'."
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