blog post Transcript: LL Cool J's opening monologue and prayer for Whitney Houston

The Grammy Awards opened with a tribute to the late Whitney Houston by LL Cool J.

Here is the transcript:  

"Tonight, we ask ourselves: How do we speak to this time, to this day? There is no way around this – we've had a death in our family. And so at least, for me... the only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer for a woman that we loved, for a fallen sister, Whitney Houston.  

Heavenly Father, we thank you for sharing our sister Whitney with us. Today our thoughts are with her mother, her daughter and all of her loved ones. And although she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit and to have her lasting legacy of music to cherish and share forever. Amen.

That said, welcome to the 54th Grammy Awards.

This is music's biggest night to celebrate and remember. That has never been more true than it is right now. There are moments in the history of this show that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Moments that the greatest artists in music history stood on the Grammy stage and gave everything they had in their hearts, in their souls, to inspire us. So before we go any further, I want to share one of those Grammy moments for millions of other music lovers all around the world tonight who are feeling a very painful loss in our Grammy family."

[Clip plays of Whitney Houston performing "I Will Always Love You" at the Grammy Awards in March, 1994 -- watch the full performance below.]

"Whitney, we will always love you. And later tonight, we will remember you the best way we know how, with a song. 

You know, our lives consist of many joys and sorrows, and the Grammy Awards were one of Whitney Houston's greatest joys. So just as Whitney's music brought out joy and laughter to all of our lives, let us all celebrate with joy these 54th Grammy Awards.

The power of music is what brings us all here. It's what makes these Grammy moments that have come to define this night, year after year, decade after decade.

We all have our Grammy moments that stay with us. Like Adele here. Adele says she'll never forget the Grammy moment when Aretha Franklin filled in for Pavarotti at the last minute. The queen of soul singing opera at the Grammys. Adele, welcome back. Are we excited to hear Adele's beautiful voice tonight?

Listen up, here's what we're going to do tonight. We're going to make some new Grammy moments. And we're going to do it with a little help from our friends. Like Sir O.G. Paul McCartney. My homie! Friends like Rihanna and Coldplay. Friends like my around-the-way girl, Taylor Swift. Like Katy Perry, like Blake Shelton, like Nicki Minaj, Tony Bennett with Carrie Underwood. We're going to go on, we're going to make music, we're going to have fun, we're going to dance, we're going to sing.

This night is about something bigger than any one of us. This night is about something truly universal and healing. This night is about music. And I'm here, proudly as your host, to ask everyone down here, everyone up there and everyone watching all around our big world tonight one question: Are we all ready for music's biggest night?

OK, then, let's get down to it."

Related:

Whitney Houston: A timeline

Grammy Awards: Full list of winners