Her five trophies tied a record set by Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and Lauryn Hill for the most Grammys won by a female artist.
``This is unbelievable. Performing was enough for me,'' an excited Beyonce said.
OutKast, nominated for a leading six Grammys, won three: best album, best urban/alternative performance for Hey Ya! and best rap album for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. It was the first rap album to win most of the awards in top categories.
Other multiple winners included Jack White of The White Stripes and Eminem, with two each, and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, who had three.
Timberlake was all over the awards, performing on several songs and winning two trophies. CBS said in a statement that it had reservations about allowing him and Jackson to appear as planned, but ultimately ``respected the Recording Academy's wishes to produce the program they originally intended.''
CBS said it agreed to allow Timberlake and Jackson as long as they apologized on the air for their Super Bowl stunt.
But a statement from Jackson's camp said CBS and the Grammys first asked her not to attend, then reversed themselves and re-invited her, but she chose not to attend.
``She was never uninvited,'' insisted Jason Padgitt of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan, which represents the Recording Academy. ``She was always invited to be here and she chose not to be.''
The incident bubbled beneath the surface all night. ``I don't want to have the same thing happen that Janet had done,'' Aguilera said while accepting the award for best female pop vocal performance in a dress cut so low, CBS briefly imposed a graphic across her chest. ``But, uh, if I can keep it together ...''
Pharrell Williams, who along with Jay-Z and OutKast also had six nominations, won his first Grammy during the pre-telecast ceremony for his production work with Chad Hugo as white-hot hitmakers The Neptunes. They have produced songs for artists ranging from Justin Timberlake to Jay-Z in 2003 alone.
The Neptunes weren't even nominated last year, because the record companies they produced hits for forgot to put them on the ballot.
``I was a little upset last year,'' Pharrell acknowledged during his acceptance speech. He also used the opportunity to stand up for friends Jackson and Timberlake. ``What happened at the Super Bowl was a bit much, but I happen to know both of those people ... and they've done great things to support people around the world.''
Cash, and director Mark Romanek, won for best short form music video for the haunting song Hurt. Cash's wife, who died a few months before him in 2003, won best traditional folk album for the posthumous release Wildwood Flower and best female country vocal performance for Keep on the Sunny Side.
The most unusual winners were former president Bill Clinton, former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren, who won best spoken word album for children for their reading on Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks.
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