The Real Grammy Upset: Godless Acceptance Speeches

Perhaps this year's Grammy nominees took a cue from Bono's comment to Beliefnet about thanking God in acceptance speeches. When those people get up at the Grammys and say, 'I thank God,'" commented the outspoken U2 lead singer, "I always imagine God going, 'Oh, don't--please don't thank me for that one. Please, oh, that's an awful one! Don't thank me for that--that's a piece of [crap]!'" Only three out of the 12 televised acceptance speeches invoked the Almighty, compared with last year's seven out of 10 winners who gave praise at the podium. And we're not so sure Latina songstress Shakira's "Oh my God!" exclamation really counts. Why the precipitous drop? Who knows. Perhaps last year's host Rosie O'Donnell inspires more piety than a sardonic Jon Stewart? Or perhaps the performance of Moby's "Natural Blues" met the God-mention quota with its haunting refrain of "Oh Lordy, trouble so hard. Don't nobody know my troubles but God." Not to fret, the winners must have also read Beliefnet's piece on the health benefits of giving thanks, since so many of them ran over their allotted 30 seconds gushing with gratitude. Winners, and their words, in order of appearance:

(Winner for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Dianne Reeves, was not in attendance.)