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At theThe 26th Annual Grammy Awards were held on 28 February 1984 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson won eight Grammys, an unprecedented single-night haul, from Angeles and aired on CBS; John Denver hosted, per Wikipedia, and American Songwriter quotes him opening with "The big words this past year were 'video,' 'Boy George,' and 'Michael", to which the audience shouted "Jackson" Michael Jackson, nominated 12 nominations His wins: times, won a then-record eight Grammys; Thriller40 lists Album of the Year (Thriller) andYear, Record of the Year ("Beat It"), both shared Producer of the Year with Quincy Jones, Producer best pop male ("Thriller"), best rock male ("Beat It"), best R&B male and best R&B song ("Billie Jean") and best recording for children (E.T. storybook) Record of the Year (Non-Classical), Best Pop Vocal Male, Best Rock Vocal Male, Best R&B Vocal Male ("Billie Jean"), Best R&B Songnominees: Lionel Richie's "All Night Long", the Police's "Every Breath You Take", Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What a Feeling" and Best Recording for Children (E.T. Storybook) The other big-four winners were Michael Sembello's "Maniac"; Album of the Year nominees: David Bowie's Let's Dance, Billy Joel's An Innocent Man, the Police's Synchronicity and the Flashdance soundtrack The Police's "Every Breath You Take" for (Sting) won Song of the Year (Sting) over "All Night Long", Jackson's "Beat It" and "Billie Jean", and "Maniac"; American Songwriter says Stevie Wonder announced it; Culture Club forwon Best New Artist over Men Without Hats, Musical Youth, Big Country and Eurythmics Moments: Jackson arrived in a crystal-covered military coat with Brooke Shields and Emmanuel Lewis, dedicated Album of the Year to Jackie Wilson, brought CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff on stage, and removed his sunglasses on stage for a promise to Katharine Hepburn Grammy.com Hepburn; American Songwriter quotes him calling the children's award the one he was "most proud of" Records: FOX 7 says he tied the telecast had most nominations in a year and that Santana tied the highest ratingseight-win record in 2000; American Songwriter says eight broke the seven held by Paul Simon (its own list and phrasing of the eighth award are not fully consistent) Viewership conflict: Wikipedia and FOX 7 give 51.67 million and call it the most-watched Grammys, American Songwriter says about 52 million, while Grammy.com says nearly 44 million, its history; highest ever; Wikipedia's own footnote for the figure does not clearly support it Chart effect: Thriller was already a 1983 hit and, per FOX 7 and American Songwriter, spent 37 weeks at No. 1; Thriller40 says the 13-minute title video helped it return to No. 1 for 17 more weeks; Grammy.com credits Bruce Swedien won with best engineered recording and Eddie Van Halen with the "Beat It" solo Wikipedia adds that Jackson was recovering from scalp burns from a Pepsi commercial accident, that the show had sixteen performances, and that all Best Engineered Recording Female Pop Vocalist nominees performed their songs for Thrillerthe first time Thread: previous ceremony Toto at the 25th Grammys (1983); next Tina Turner at the 27th Grammys (1985)