The Grammy awards got an extreme boost in ratings this year. The amount of viewers in the US peaked at a staggering 39.9 million viewers. Compare this to the 26.6 million who tuned in for the show last year, and it is a significant increase.

An audience for the Grammys hasn’t been this large since 1984 when Michael Jackson was rewarded for his classic Thriller album. What was it that got people to look away from partypoker and their Tumblr blogs to tune in?

Some people think the increase was due to the presence of US favorite Adele. The British singer won every category she was nominated for, taking away six gongs, including Best Song for Rolling in the Deep and Album of the Year for 21. The ceremony also marked her first live performance since she was forced to have throat surgery in 2011, cancelling most of her tour dates.

The most likely factor however, was the sudden death of Whitney Houston before the ceremony. The host of the awards, LL Cool J opened the event with a prayer for the late singer. Then Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson performed a tribute to the star, belting out one of her greatest hits, I Will Always Love You.

Either way the ceremony scored its second largest audience in history, despite criticisms of the show being high. The event featured performances from Sir Paul McCartney, a controversial performance from Nicki Minaj, Foo Fighters, Rihanna, Coldplay and Taylor Swift.

Still, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times branded the show as “one of the dullest Grammy ceremonies in recent memory”, while Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter criticised the show for ignoring “deserving artists”, in favour of mainstream acts that are popular rather than artists who produce high quality music.