Last night’s Grammy Awards was the second most watched Grammys ever, with over 39 million viewers tuning in to see the tribute to the late Whitney Houston. People Magazine says:

Whitney Houston’s death 24 hours before the event turned the CBS special into a night of mourning and celebration cresting on big, pure emotions.

LL Cool J, who handled the hosting duties without any perceptible wrinkling in his uncanny smoothness, opened with a simple prayer for Houston, “a woman who we loved … our fallen sister.” This set up a clip of the six-time Grammy winner belting her signature hit “I Will Always Love You.”

The song was reprised by Jennifer Hudson in one of the night’s high points. You wouldn’t have blamed Hudson if she fumbled it, but it was a strong, humble, honest interpretation – a sincere salute to Houston, and not an attempt to outshine her.

My heart is as black and as cold as they come, but seeing her in her prime in that tribute clip really gave me a case of the sads. Lipsynching “Greatest Love of All” into a hairbrush was practically a rite of passage for girls in the eighties. I can’t stand Barbra Streisand, but I really think she said it best: “How sad her gifts could not bring her the same happiness they brought us.” Rest in peace, Whitney.

A complete list of the night’s winners after the jump; Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to Whitney below:

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Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein was found dead of an apparent drug overdose in a New York City apartment on Friday night. He was 36 years old. According to Yahoo News

Friends reportedly went to check on the celebrity DJ after not hearing from him for several days, but contacted authorities when they could not get a response after knocking on his door on Friday. Around 5:24 PM local time, authorities responded to a call at 210 Lafayette Street, following a 911 call of a “possible unconscious male.” After arriving at the residence, authorities discovered a 36-year-old white male “unconscious and unresponsive.” Paramedics also arrived on the scene and declared the male dead on arrival. Foul play is not suspected at this time and a medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

TMZ adds:

Law enforcement sources [say] when they found the body of DJ AM, a bag of crack was found around his groin area… and a glass “crack pipe” was found in his bedroom. The pill bottles were found in the kitchen.

And People Magazine says

Within the past few weeks, Goldstein, 36, split with model Hayley Wood, and the situation had left him an emotional wreck.

“She ended it, and he didn’t want it to end. The breakup hurt him. He hadn’t been in a good place lately. For the past week, he wasn’t really around, he was keeping to himself, and he was blowing people off,” says [a] source.

On Thursday, he Tweeted a lyric from Grandmaster Flash: “New york, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york ain’t always what it seems.”

I think we could all do well to remember the words of my husband when I told him Adam had died: “Who the fuck is ‘DJ AM’? Was that the fat one from Salt ‘n’ Pepa?” And sign of the cross… amen.

Blink 182′s tribute to Adam Saturday night: