With an allusion to the slap scandal surrounding actor Will Smith at the Oscar gala a week ago, moderator Trevor Noah started the US Grammys music awards ceremony.
"We're going to listen to music, we're going to dance, we're going to sing, we're going to put people's names out of our mouths and we're going to give out awards," said comedian Noah, who hosted the Grammys last year, on live television televised gala on Sunday evening in Las Vegas.
At the Academy Awards a week earlier, actor Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage after he made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett.
After that, Smith, who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in King Richard, yelled twice more from his seat, "Keep my wife's name out of your damn mouth!"
The Grammys will be awarded for the 64th time this year.
The gala was originally planned for January 31, but was then postponed due to the rapid spread of the highly infectious omicron variant of the corona virus.
Around 13,000 members of the Recording Academy decide on the winners of the Grammys, which are among the most coveted music awards in the world.