The 46th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from October 1, 2002, through September 30, 2003, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy, on February 8, 2004. In its 4th year at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, the ceremony was broadcast on tape delay by CBS.
Janet Jackson was originally scheduled to perform during the tribute to Luther Vandross during the ceremony. However, due to an incident involving Jackson during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show the previous week, where her breast was briefly revealed by Justin Timberlake, Jackson was blacklisted by CBS's parent company Viacom and her invitation to the ceremony was rescinded. Despite his involvement in the "wardrobe malfunction", Timberlake was still invited, and used one of his acceptance speeches to apologize for the incident. CBS also broadcast the ceremony on a five-minute tape delay.
Craig Brockman, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, Erroll "Poppi" McCalla, Nisan & Timbaland, producers; Jeff Allen, Carlos "El Loco" Bedoya, Josh Butler, Senator Jimmy D, Guru, Timbaland & Mike Wilson, engineers/mixers; Herb Powers, mastering engineer
Anibal Kerpel, Joseph Chiccarelli (engineers), Elfego Buendia, Emmanuel Del Real, Gustavo Santaolalla, Jose "Joselo" Rangel, Quique Rangel (producers) & Café Tacuba for Cuatro Caminos
Jon Fausty, Luca Germini, Jorge G. Gómez, Carlos Laurenz, Jose Lopez, Olga Santos, Jake Tanner, (engineers), Jorge G. Garcia (engineer/mixer), Oscar Gómez (engineer/mixer & producer), Sergio George (producer) & Celia Cruz for Regalo Del Alma
Beyoncé became the fourth female artist to win a record five awards in one night. Prior to Beyoncé, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill had won five in one night. Since 2004 Amy Winehouse and Alison Krauss became the fifth and sixth artists respectively to tie this record. Beyoncé was the only one of these six artists to not win a general field award out of her five wins. In the 2010 ceremony, Beyoncé broke both of these records, earning six awards and winning Song of the Year, a general field award, for her song ”Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”. This record was later tied by British singer Adele in 2012.
As Evanescence were presented with the award for Best New Artist, rapper 50 Cent went up to the stage. 50 Cent was nominated for Best New Artist, losing to Evanescence.
Luther Vandross won four awards however he was unable to attend due to a stroke he suffered several months earlier. Celine Dion sang his song "Dance With My Father" with Richard Marx playing piano in tribute to Vandross. The song was awarded the award for Song of the Year later that night. During the show they showed a videotaped clip that was pre-taped of him saying "Whenever I say goodbye it's never for long because I believe in the power of love". Vandross died the following year in 2005.
The show also featured a tribute to The Beatles in honor of the 40th anniversary of their arrival in America and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. During the show, both widows of deceased members – Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison – made an on-stage appearance.
