By Luchina Fisher, abc.com - After an opening number by Bruce Springsteen, the 54th Grammy Awards addressed what was on every viewers mind: the death of Whitney Houston the day before.

"There is no way around this," host LL Cool J said at the top of his monologue. "We've had a death in our family. At least for me, the only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer...for our fallen sister, Whitney Houston."

With that LL removed a piece of a paper from his jacket pocket and read a prayer thanking the "heavenly Father for sharing our sister Whitney with us."

"Although she is gone too soon, we feel truly blessed by her beautiful spirit," he said as the camera panned an audience of superstars, including Lady Gaga, with heads bowed.

Grammy producers had to scramble to address Houston's death and assemble a tribute to the fallen star. Hours after her passing, executive producer Ken Ehrlich announced that Jennifer Hudson would perform a "respectful musical tribute," along with Chaka Khan and possibly others.

In the end, Hudson took the darkened stage solo a few minutes before 11 p.m for a stirring tribute to Houston. Her voice, alone, rang out across the stage and for a moment the audience could be fooled into thinking it was Houston performing one of her biggest hits, "I Will Always Love You."

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