HIGH FIVE FOR U2 IRISH ROCKERS SNAG ALBUM, SONG OF YEAR AWARDS.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

U2, Ireland's greatest nondrinkable export, was the surprise big winner at the 48th annual Grammy Awards on Wednesday at the Staples Center.

The adventurous, socially aware rock quartet pulled down a leading five trophies, including Album of the Year, overshadowing leading nominees Mariah Carey, John Legend and Kanye West, who came into the night with eight nods each.

``This is a big night for our band,'' U2 singer Bono said simply, holding aloft a golden gramophone at the performance-packed ceremony.

Carey's tattered career had been rejuvenated in the past year with a smash album, ``The Emancipation of Mimi,'' and though the pop diva did end a 16-year Grammy drought with three trophies in the pre-televised portion of the ceremony, she lost twice to U2, once to Green Day for Record of the Year and once to former `'American Idol'' Kelly Clarkson for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

A slate of unexpected duets marked this year's telecast, typified by a pairing of jazzman Herbie Hancock and pop thrush Christina Aguilera, and U2 with Mary J. Blige. The 3 1/2-hour show opened strong with Madonna lending vocals to the Gorillaz hit single ``Feel Good Inc.,'' while the 3-D animated Gorillaz offered its take on Madonna's ``Hung Up.'' The colorful mash-up had the blonde pop star in skin-tight gear, appearing winded while making aerobics moves with backup dancers in tow. The cartoon characters, though, were just warming up.

The Grammys is the night when the music industry puts on its happiest face, something that's getting increasingly harder at a chaotic time when CD sales have dwindled to a trickle, major labels have been ordered to pay huge fines in a pay-for-play scandal, and indie record stores are disappearing faster than gift bags backstage.

But the telecast pulled off some memorable moments. Sly Stone, one of rock's most notorious missing-in-action figures, actually turned up and spent a few minutes on stage, Paul McCartney performed on the show for the first time, and the audience was asked to ``make some noise'' for Delta blues legend Robert Johnson, dead now for 68 years.

Film director Martin Scorsese, famously snubbed year after year by the Academy Awards, came to pick up his first Grammy, as director of the Bob Dylan documentary, ``No Direction Home,'' in the long-form music video category.

In a conservative climate, politics, with one notable exception, were shut out of the glitzy celebration of pop consumption. After performing his mournful Grammy-winning song, ``Devils and Dust,'' Bruce Springsteen said, ``Bring 'em home,'' and walked off stage. Applause was moderate.

Tension was in short supply, however. The curtain-raising excitement of the Madonna mash-up evaporated when Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys struggled with an a cappella reading of Wonder's ``Higher Ground,'' veering so far out of key that the song was last heard heading up the Grapevine. The pair then handed Kelly Clarkson a trophy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for ``Since U Been Gone,'' triggering the evening's only visible teardrops.

Up next, the members of Coldplay did their best to drum up some steam, closing the show's first segment with singer Chris Martin striking out for the audience, grabbing outstretched hands as if to say, ``C'mon, stay. It's going to get better.''

It got better. Singer-pianist Legend, who won three trophies, sang his romantic ballad ``Ordinary People'' at the keyboard, backed by strings, although some kind of silvery electronic apparatus plugged into his ears diverted attention from the performance during long close-ups.

It took a half-hour of Grammy time - which is equivalent to dog years for viewers - before the first ``hat act'' made itself known in the form of a standard mall rocker from country band Sugarland. The group handed out the country album trophy to Alison Krauss and Union Station for ``Lonely Runs Both Ways.''

U2 next appeared for an exciting ``Vertigo'' on a smoke-filled stage, segueing into the spiritual ``One'' in a duet with an out-of-her-element Mary J. Blige.

Top nominee West made his first trip to the stage in the televised portion of the ceremony to pick up the Best Rap Album award for ``Late Registration.'' Wearing black leather gloves and a white dinner jacket, the rapper-producer plucked a large piece of paper from a pocket and reeled off a litany of names that included God, mom and ``my publicist - imagine how hard that's gotta be.''

A very pregnant Gwen Stefani and Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong awarded U2 its third Grammy of the night for Best Rock Album for ``How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.'' Bono's speech was a koan: ``Being in a rock band is like running away with the circus. You always think you're gonna be the ringmaster, but you end up the clown, the freak. But that's OK, because you're in show business.'' So that's what he and George W. talk about in the Oval Office.

Another telecast highlight was provided by McCartney, who made his first-ever Grammy appearance. ``I finally passed the audition,'' he joked before picking up his famous violin-shape Beatles bass for one of the show's hardest-hitting, most exciting moments, a thundering ``Helter Skelter.''

Awards show perennials the Black Eyed Peas lined up across the stage to hand out the Best Male R&B Performance trophy to Legend for ``Ordinary People,'' a song, he explained, that was a hard sell at first since ``it didn't sound like anything else on R&B radio,'' primarily because it doesn't use drums.

Nothing, though, could compare with the spectacle that came next. Carey, in the throes of gospel fever, backed by a full choir, sang an animated combination of songs from ``Mimi.''

Clarkson felt the spirit, too, thanking ``God and Jesus,'' but held back the tears as she won the Pop Vocal Album derby for ``Breakaway.''

A tribute to Stone, featuring an ultra-rare and painfully short appearance by the troubled rock-soul great himself, had a bevy of famous faces including Joss Stone, Fantasia, Legend and, improbably, members of Aerosmith covering a medley of Stone hits such as ``Family Affair,'' ``If You Want Me to Stay'' and ``Everyday People,'' in a reminder of one of pop's most potent back catalogs.

Meanwhile, veteran rocker Neil Young was snubbed again.

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) The night's top winners U2 - The Edge, left, and Bono - jam with Mary J. Blige at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards on Wednesday. The group made off with five awards.

(2 -- color) The country group SugarLand performs ``Something More'' at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, where rock music surpassed rap and R&B to claim the Best Song, Best Record and Best Album titles.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

(3 -- 4 -- color) Jamie Foxx, left, and Kanye West, above, perform West's award-winning single ``Gold Digger'' during the Grammy Awards show. Making his first public performance since 1993, at right, Sly Stone steals the show during a Sly and the Family Stone tribute Wednesday. He sang sporting a tall golden Mohawk.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images