Gorillaz had everyone fooled when the world's most successful virtual pop-rap band brought Madonna onstage during the spectacular opening segment of the 48th Annual Grammy Awards show broadcast on February 8th. When Madonna walked behind the animated band characters, the illusion was revealed; but the Madonna that then appeared at stage left to sing "Hung Up" with her band was no illusion, and neither was the Sennheiser microphone that she was using, the first of many Sennheiser microphone and personal monitor products to make an appearance on the telecast.

It was difficult to tell what microphone the holographic Madonna who first appeared onstage was using, but the real pop diva made use of her long-time favourite Sennheiser SKM 3072. She was also wearing Sennheiser's G2 personal monitor system.

And it was a Sennheiser 5200 wireless with the Neumann KK 104-S capsule that captured the stunning performance of one of the evening's top award winners, John Legend, as he performed his chart-topping song he wrote in collaboration with Kanye West, "Ordinary People."

A highlight of the show, which was once again held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was the much-anticipated appearance of influential psychedelic soul and funk icon Sly Stone, who famously retired from performing live in 1987. The all-star line-up for the Sly and the Family Stone tribute segment of the telecast featured Joss Stone, John Legend, Devon Lima, Robert Randolph and "American Idol" season three winner, Fantasia Barrino, all using Sennheiser's new SKM 5200 handheld transmitters outfitted with Neumann KK 104-S vocal microphone capsules.

Earlier in the show country music superstar Faith Hill and Keith Urban sang a duet using the new Sennheiser SKM 5200s with ME 5005E capsules. The two backing vocalists used the same combination mic and capsule.

The show's frequency coordinator, Dave Bellamy, of locally-based RF service company Soundtronics, oversaw a substantial number of Sennheiser SR300G2 personal monitor transmitters and Sennheiser EK300G2 personal monitoring system body-packs at the show. Twenty-four channels of Sennheiser monitors were available at both the stage left and stage right monitor positions. A majority of the artists performing on the show, including U2, the night's big winner with five Grammy Awards, used the popular Sennheiser G2 monitors.

Over fifty Sennheiser and Neumann mics were used on backline instruments, including the popular Evolution 906s, 602s, and 604s for virtually every performance of the night. An additional forty mics were used by seasoned broadcast mixer, Klaus Landsberg to enhance the show's 5.1 surround broadcast.