R&B singer Frank Ocean was among the favorites in the weeks leading up to this year's 55th Annual Grammy Awards broadcast, riding the wave of critical appreciation that has buoyed the 25-year-old since he released "channel ORANGE" in July.
Early in the show, Ocean won Grammys for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (for "No Church in the Wild," with Jay-Z and Kanye West). He was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best New Artist, tying with fun., Jay-Z, West, Mumford & Sons and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys for the most nods of the year.
Ocean performed "Forrest Gump" during Sunday night's broadcast, appearing in front of an impressive video installation that recalled Kraftwerk's run at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The singer's debut studio album was among the year's most-lauded projects, characterized by extremely personal musings on unrequited love ("Bad Religion") and vignettes of budding romance ("Thinkin' Bout You"), with a dash of sociological reflections on police brutality for good measure ("Crack Rock").
Ocean, a member of Los Angeles-based rap collective Odd Future, revealed that his first love was a man in a blog posted shortly before the release of his album. The admission sent waves throughout the R&B and hip-hop communities, which have long struggled with homophobia. In recent weeks, Ocean has both fought with and publicly forgiven singer Chris Brown. The two were in a scuffle outside a recording studio, during which Ocean says someone called him "faggot."
Prior to releasing "channel ORANGE," Ocean overcame an apathetic label (Def Jam) by recording and releasing "nostalgia, ULTRA," a stunning mixtape of covers and original productions. He's also an accomplished songwriter, having placed records with artists such as Beyonce, Justin Bieber and John Legend.
Ocean also performed during this year's Grammy broadcast, a gig he warmed up for by singing a few songs at a Friday event for Levi's denim.
The Grammys claim the 2012 award telecast brought in 39.9 million viewers -- the largest TV audience for the event since 1984. The Twitterverse was riled up to 160,341 tweets per minute during the broadcast.
Last year's Grammy winners included Kanye West and Adele, who took home a combined ten awards.
For more on the Grammys, click here. Find more Grammy award 2013 winners in the liveblog below.
