Grammy Awards 2013 Live Blog: Follow All The Action

With a host of breakout and otherwise interesting musicians, songs, and albums vying for the small gold statues this year, music's biggest night is looking to be even more intriguing than usual.

And Album of the Year may be the most intriguing of all categories to watch, as the line-up of contenders features not your average bubblegum popsters, but a who's who of hip acts: Frank Ocean, Fun, Jack White, Mumford & Sons, and The Black Keys.

It's going to be a big night for Ocean, who is up for a number of awards and will be performing at some point. He will be sharing the spotlight with a wide range of acts, from indie darlings The Lumineers to pop-country sweetheart Taylor Swift.

Keep on top of this live blog all evening for ongoing, live coverage of the 2013 Grammys, with all listings EST.

11:16 p.m.: Mumford & Sons wins the Best Album award. Safe, boring choice by the Grammys, a safe, boring organization that took no risks in its major category selections this year.

11:13 p.m.: Frank Ocean being overlooked in nearly every category is one of this year's biggest disappointments, as evidenced by this chilling version of "Forrest Gump," easily the best, most interesting, and most genuine of all the performances this year. And the crowd loves him the best. Another misstep by the Grammys. But that's a great yellow jacket.

11:10 p.m.: The Elton John love goes on with this interesting take on "I Hope You Don't Mind."

10:57 p.m.: And now Elton John leads a moving performance of The Band's classic "The Weight" dedicated to the children who lost their lives during the massive shooting spree at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.

10:55 p.m.: We lost so many great musical artists over the past year. This is a nice little tribute to all of them. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys and Ravi Shankar got the biggest rounds of applause.

10:50 p.m.: Very nice tribute to Dave Brubeck. Classy performance.

10:43 p.m.: It's nice to win the Grammy for Record of the Year and all, but Gotye and Kimbra likely feel even better about the fact that Prince just said "I Love This Song" when he read that "Somebody That I Used To Know" was the winner.

10:40 p.m.: Prince is in the building!

10:35 p.m.: Pretty sure 99 percent of people have no idea who that was, but Carrie Underwood is up, and sounding good so far. Country music has its place at the Grammys, too!

10:25 p.m.: Jack White is giving one of the best performances of the night in his long-awaited return to the Grammys stage. We missed you, Jack.

10:14 p.m.: This is already awesome -- a Grammys tribute to the late, great Robert Nesta Marley. One of the coolest ideas in recent Grammy history, and they're doing a great job so far.

10:06 p.m.: Great set design and lighting for Bruno Mars, who is as high-energy (and MJ-ish) as ever.

10:00 p.m.: Side note: Guess those Herbal Essences commercials are back in circulation?

9:59 p.m.: Congrats to the Zac Brown Band for landing Best Country Album for "Uncaged." They seem like a nice group of musicians.

9:55 p.m.: Kelly Clarkson's pipes are on full display in this beautiful tribute performance. She has an amazing voice, and it's full-bore tonight as she belts out the Aretha Franklin classic "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman."

9:50 p.m.: Kat Dennings looks amazing as usual, though her lipstick is a little heavy. Some good music takin' place right now on the Grammys stage.

9:37 p.m.: Rihanna looks and sounds great with a piano line and little else accompanying her sultry voice. Guess she changed out of her red dress and into a sleek black number between the red carpet and this performance.

9:33 p.m.: Rihanna goes on next, according to the commercial break teaser ...

9:29 p.m.: Crowd goes wild for Kelly Clarkson as she steps up to accept the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for "Stronger." Odd moments as she tells kids not to drink, calls Miguel "sexy," then self-corrects by calling her fiancee "sexy" as well. She did say several times she didn't expect to win, so maybe it's just the jitters.

9:23 p.m.: The Black Keys give a short, sweet, and heartfelt shoutout to Ohio and Tennessee as they accept Best Rock Performance for "Lonely Boy." Now Maroon 5 lead into the always-amazing Alicia Keys.

9:14 p.m.: Frank Ocean, in one of what will be a number of appearances tonight, says he's imagining the audience as "kids in tuxedos" as he accepts the Best Urban Contemporary Album award.

9:12 p.m.: First Jay-Z, now Nas. It's a night of rap giants, let's just hope they left the ether at home.

9:04 p.m.: Beyonce and Ellen DeGeneres look great and do a great, funny job of introducing Justin Timberlake's long-awaited return to the stage of the Grammys with his new hit "Suit and Tie." Big surprise, he's in a suit and (bow)tie in a performance that looks like it was run through an old-timey Instagram filter. Jigga climbs up on stage, though, and the crowd goes crazy for Jay-Z and JT live in L.A.

8:54 p.m.: Johnny Depp makes an odd appearance looking like Cheech or Chong as he announces the next act: "It is a great honor for me to be here tonight to introduce to you the sublime Mumford & Sons."

8:51 p.m.: Huge win for Fun with "We Are Young." Congrats to the breakout hits. Good quote from whoever's doing the talking for them for their acceptance: "If this is on HD, everyone can see our faces and we are not very young. We've been doing this for 12 years."

8:50 p.m.: After another interminable commercial break, LL Cool J calls the Grammys "music's biggest and most-tweeted night." Kinda weird, he's "keeping it social," as a ploy to get the awards rolling on Twitter. Whatever works I guess.

8:40 p.m.: LL Cool J is always good for a good bout of roaring applause, but even he couldn't outshine the great Dick Clark, to whom he offered tribute as he announced the performance by Miguel and Wiz Khalifa now going down.

8:32 p.m.: Bonnie Raitt and John Mayer announcing. Two great artists with Grammys under their belt hailing from two different eras in American music. Nice to see them together, shortly after Raitt picked up a big win.

8:21 p.m.: Fun is about to go live on stage, and the crowd sounds pretty hyped about it. The only band nominated in all four of the top categories, it is one of the biggest success stories of 2012, and this is group's time to shine on music's biggest night. Interesting band, we'll be hearing more from them in the years to come.

8:02 p.m.: The red carpet is shutting down, and the main event is about to begin live from Los Angeles. Continue to follow this blog for updates, commentary, and diversions as the show gets under way.

7:59 p.m.: Kimbra and Gotye stand for a backstage interview shortly after winning two Grammys -- one for the superhit "Somebody That I Used To Know" -- and handling it beautifully as two of the newer big personalities to get major nods this year. Kimbra is wearing an angelic white number accented in gold, while Gotye went with a fairly standard dark suit with a thin tie. Keep an eye on them as the evening progresses.

7:57 p.m.: Nicole Kidman looks great in a gold brocaded dress as she accompanies husband Keith Urban.

7:52 p.m.: Sequins, strapless numbers, high slits, and lace are dominating the dresses and gowns so far tonight, and studded shoes and the color blue appear to be the hip styles for the men this year. These fashion choices will be analyzed ad nauseum over the next week or so, so be prepared.

7:49 p.m.: Katy Perry waltzes past all the interviewers in a sea-foam green dress with a deep-plunging-neckline. No surprise there. The commentators mention that she's heading back into the studio soon, which is sure to get some buzz going again for the starlet, who still hasn't released a follow-up to her smash album "Teenage Dream."

7:40 p.m.: Rihanna just arrived, and the commentators weren't granted an interview, but still they fawned over her dress, which as one of the talking heads pointed out, is "indeed red, it's like a fire-engine red." As usual, RiRi is one of the best-dressed and most beautiful of the artists to grace the red carpet so far. And no Chris Brown on her arm, so no drama there.

7:30 p.m.: The Lumineers are another group that had a huge year, going from little-known indie darlings to global fame. They looked great beaming on the red carpet, as they spoke genuinely and humbly with the commentators about their exciting rise to fame and recognition, which will rise even higher as they perform live at the Grammys tonight.

7:10 p.m.: Frank Ocean looking dapper in dark blue, apparently with Nike compression shorts underneath. He got six nominations this year, and will be performing tonight so his is one of the biggest storylines of the night. But he appears pretty unfazed, as he smoothly spoke with the commentators in response to their questions about his thoughts on the evening and his big year. Watch for him at every point of the night's festivities.

6:40 p.m.: Nice of the Recording Academy to give a lifetime achievement Grammy to Ravi Shankar two months after his death shocked the world, which fell in love with Shankar back when he hung out with The Beatles, and kept following his music until the last recording of his career, "The Living Room Sessions, Part 1," which won as Best World Music Album tonight. And his daughter, Anoushka -- also a nominee in the category -- looked classy and stunning as she accepted the hardware on his behalf, saying that losing doesn't sting so bad when it's to your father.

6:30 p.m.: Skrillex just picked up the Best Dance Recording award for "Bangarang," shocking no one, but offering a pretty nice speech about how musicians "are all one family," adding in some inspirational words for kids looking to be the next club kings.