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The 51st Grammy Awards were shaping up to be a battle between Coldplay, Lil Wayne and the duo of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

Each of the acts had three awards apiece midway through the televised portion of the show on Sunday.

Lil Wayne — whose album “Tha Carter III” sold more copies than anything else in 2008 — took home awards for best rap performance for “A Milli,” best rap song for “Lollipop” and shared the award for best rap performance by a duo or group with T.I., Jay-Z and Kanye West for “Swagga Like Us,” which they were scheduled to perform later.

Plant and Krauss, meanwhile, won trophies for best pop collaboration with vocals, best contemporary folk/Americana album and best country collaboration with vocals for “Killing the Blues,” a track from “Raising Sand.”

And Coldplay took best rock album for “Viva La Vida,” best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals and song of the year for “Viva La Vida.”

That award is given to the songwriter, not performer, which is notable because Joe Satriani has filed a lawsuit against Coldplay claiming that they swiped the riff from his 2004 instrumental “If I Could Fly” for the hit single.

“Thank you so much, we've never had so many Grammys in our lives,” said front man Chris Martin, who earlier performed on piano with Jay-Z before joining his group onstage for “Viva La Vida.”

Meanwhile, it didn't take long for the show to get its first headline-grabbing controversy.

Barbadian singer Rihanna was scheduled to perform a medley of “Live Your Life” and “Disturbia” with longtime boyfriend Chris Brown. Her performance was cancelled just before showtime amid news that police were investigating Brown — a double Grammy nominee — for an alleged assault on an unidentified woman.

As that news spread through the Staples Center, Al Green took Rihanna's place onstage to sing a spirited version of “Let's Stay Together” with Justin Timberlake, Boyz 2 Men and Keith Urban.

Brown's scheduled performance of “Forever” was skipped entirely.

Another singer who has been in the news, however, provided an early highlight.

An emotional Jennifer Hudson accepted the award for best R&B album — her first Grammy. She has only recently returned to the spotlight after being in seclusion since the October slayings of her mother, brother and nephew.

“I would like to thank my family in heaven, and those who are here today,” said Hudson, who later broke down in tears after a powerful rendition of “You Pulled Me Through.”

British singer Adele won best new artist.

U2 opened the show with frontman Bono sporting a new look.

The Irish singer wore clear shades in place of his usual black ones, then ditched them to reveal heavy black eyeliner as his band performed their new single, “Get On Your Boots.”

A number of artists pulled down multiple Grammy awards in the afternoon ceremony, where the bulk of trophies are handed out, including Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, country act Sugarland, French dance duo Daft Punk and neo-soul crooner Ne-Yo and soul legend Green, who had surprisingly only ever won one Grammy prior to Sunday.

So how was the reverend going to celebrate?

“I'm going to repent because I wasn't at church this morning,” Green said backstage afterwards. “That's No. 1.”

Montreal-born film director Jason Reitman picked up a trophy for the soundtrack to his teenage pregnancy movie, Juno.

Reitman called the Grammy — the first to be handed out at the afternoon ceremony before the televised gala — an “enormous surprise,” adding that he came to the show to watch Paul McCartney and Timberlake.

Those were only two of the marquee names performing.

Soul legend Stevie Wonder teamed up with teen-pop act the Jonas Brothers, Carrie Underwood belted a rocked-out “Last Name” and Katy Perry pranced through a super-suggestive performance of her hit, “I Kissed a Girl.”