LOS ANGELES - Adele made a triumphant return to the stage at the 54th Grammy Awards on Sunday and left the gala with arms as full as her robust voice, but it was another diva whose memory dominated the evening as a grieving industry came together to mourn the sudden death of Whitney Houston.
The show was more about the tribute than the trophies -- despite Adele's record-tying six-award night, which included a sweep of every major category -- as winners and presenters alike carved time from their speeches to remember Houston, who died Saturday at age 48.
Host L.L. Cool J opened the show by acknowledging Houston -- "We've had a death in our family," he said before reading a prayer and introducing a video tribute to the superstar -- and Grammy winner after Grammy winner went on to pay their respects.
"Whitney, we will always love you," the rapper-turned-actor said.
Indeed, the mood was uncommonly muted at the typically breezy Grammys, and Houston was never far from the fore.
Legendary artists including Stevie Wonder and Bonnie Raitt shed light on Houston's far-reaching influence on the broadcast and backstage while several stars screamed her name out during performances.
And Jennifer Hudson -- alone under a spotlight, struggling to remain composed -- contributed a devastating version of Houston's "I Will Always Love You."
The show's producers did their best to respectfully pay tribute to Houston while keeping the mood of the show as buoyant as possible -- a balance perhaps best personified by L.L. Cool J's intro, in which he followed the video tribute by shifting gears and trying to raise the audience's spirits by the sheer volume of his voice alone.
Bruno Mars made a similarly fleet-footed segue from shouting out Houston to chiding the crowd for not getting up and dancing during his frenetic performance of "Runaway Baby," while Rihanna took a breathless moment from her neon-streaked dance number "We Found Love" to shriek: "Make some noise for Whitney!"
Of course, the focus on Houston understandably drew attention away from what was supposed to be the final triumphant cap to the Year of Adele.
While the Foo Fighters also had a huge night with five trophies total and Kanye West won another four, Adele's haul was as mighty as expected for one of the most successful albums in recent memory.
Since releasing her mournful, scornful sophomore opus "21" back in January 2011, the 23-year-old's powerful pipes have lifted her ever higher and higher, with the stealth smash reaching sales levels thought to be inconceivable in the industry's lean era: diamond certification in Canada, 14 platinum plaques in the U.K. and six-time platinum sales in the U.S.
The momentum continued Sunday. She won every single category in which she was nominated, including best song, album and record of the year. She tied Beyonce's record for the most Grammy wins in a night by a female act.
"Thank you so much, thank you," she said as she claimed her final trophy, her composure finally cracking, tears streaming down her face.
"I just first of all say, mum: girl did good! Mum, I love you, I'm so sorry you're not here.... This record is inspired by something really normal and everyone's been through it, and that's a rubbish relationship."
"It's been the most life-changing year."
It wasn't hard to understand the Adele adoration after watching the Brit take the stage for the first time since undergoing vocal microsurgery in November.
Her performance of her gospel and disco-tinged neo-soul hit "Rolling in the Deep" opened free of musical accompaniment, with Adele providing ample evidence of the rejuvenation of her voice without any pesky instruments to muck up the mix.
With a reverent audience clapping along -- heck, they gave her a standing ovation before she'd even started -- Adele seemed to push the tune's soaring chorus even beyond its usual full-throated peaks, swaying gently and wearing an expression of cool calm as she effortlessly delivered one of the evening's most impressive vocal takes (rivalled only by Hudson's spine-tingling performance).
Afterward, she shrugged and curtsied as the crowd rose to its feet and roared its approval.
Clearly, she was a Grammy darling. And in fact, the show seemed to borrow from the same mix of factors that has propelled Adele to such heights -- making the sounds of yesterday sound thrillingly new -- to program its lineup of performances this year in general.
The focus was largely on celebrating the musical pillars of the past, with youthful acts offering faithful interpretations of undeniable classics while their masters looked on and eventually joined the fray.
There was the breezy tribute to the reunited Beach Boys, with Maroon 5's Adam Levine guiding his flawless falsetto over the waves of "Little Surfer Girl," breakout rockers Foster the People charging through "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and the whole gang joining together for the pocket masterpiece "Good Vibrations."
A similar setup was used for a stirring dedication to beloved country legend Glen Campbell. While he announced last year that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and was considering ending his career, his familiar voice sounded full and warm wrapped around his best-known classic "Rhinestone Cowboy," preceded by reverent covers of "Gentle on My Mind" and "Southern Nights" by the Band Perry and Blake Shelton, respectively.
And the show was bookended by fierce performances from industry legends, both of whom emphasized substance over spectacle.
Bruce Springsteen opened the gala with his fist-pumping new anthem of patriotic frustration, "We Take Care of Our Own," while the show's final number -- from Beatles legend Paul McCartney -- was no less inspired.
He led a medley of the "Abbey Road"-closing trifecta "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight" and "The End," assisted by the Eagles' Joe Walsh and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Ultimately, with those three and two more guitarists trading show-stopping solos, the Grammys ended in a hail of furiously plucked guitar notes.
Younger artists seemed to similarly subscribe to the less is more esthetic. Adele, the Civil Wars, Hudson, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson all contributed performances that put the focus squarely on their musical talent and not ambitious set designs or other incidentals, a theme coincidentally hammered home by Grohl as he accepted the fifth of the Foo Fighters' trophies.
"We made this (album) in my garage with some microphones and tape machine," he said of "Wasting Light."
"This means a lot because it shows the human element of making music is what's important ... it's not about what goes on in a computer."
For good measure -- and with producers trying to play him off the stage -- he added with a shouted flourish: "Long live rock 'n' roll!"
There were moments that nudged toward the future, too, chief among them a booty-shaking tribute to electronic music -- held in a massive white tent erected just outside the arena -- led by Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters, David Guetta and rodent-helmeted Canadian DJ Deadmau5, a three-time loser this year (Toronto's Drake was similarly shut out despite a trio of nods).
Also notable was the performance from controversial R&B singer Chris Brown, who earned a spot in Grammy infamy three years ago when he assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna the night of the awards bash.
There was no hint of lingering ill will in the audience's response to the 22-year-old's medley performance of "Beautiful People" and "Turn Up the Music" in which the multiple nominee danced about capably on a pyramid of coloured cubes. He received a standing ovation, at least from some in attendance, and went on to win best R&B album for "F.A.M.E."
"First and foremost, I just gotta thank God for this opportunity and thank the Grammys for letting me get on this stage and do my thing," he said after claiming the award.
"I don't know, man, I'm nervous, I don't know what to say."
Other multiple winners included Tony Bennett, Skrillex and Bon Iver -- the indie-folk outfit that surprised the room in winning best new artist.
"I'm a little bit uncomfortable up here," said the band's visibly stunned brainchild Justin Vernon, stating the obvious, before the camera panned to capture his girlfriend, Ottawa singer/songwriter Kathleen Edwards.
"With that discomfort I do have a sense of gratitude. I want to say thank you to all the nominees and all the non-nominees, who aren't here and never will be here."
And while some of the night's biggest performances provided no-frills thrills, the two-sided Grammys stage was hardly stark for the entire evening.
Exploring the nonsensical but entertaining theatrics that are typically Lady Gaga's exclusive domain, motor-mouthed rap eccentric Nicki Minaj kicked off her performance of "Roman's Revenge" and "Roman Holiday" sitting on a canopy-shrouded bed with a priest. Then -- after a bizarre short-form music video -- she appeared strapped into a slab of concrete amid a stage dressed to look like a majestic cathedral.
She ended up levitating at least a dozen feet above the stage while smoke machines went off.
Earlier, double winner Taylor Swift slipped into a simple peasant dress and strummed a banjo through her poison-penned screed "Mean" with the stage covered in scrap wood and decorated to evoke the look of an old-fashioned hoedown, while a blue-haired, metal-clad Katy Perry descended to the stage in a rectangular glass box she soon shattered, with fireballs bursting into the air behind her -- generating an impressive, if not entirely thematically coherent, spectacle.
But no matter how flamboyant the setpieces at the Grammys became on Sunday, the event never forgot that Houston's majestic voice had forever fallen silent.
When Toronto's Melanie Fiona won the first two Grammys of her young career, her obvious joy was tempered by Houston's death -- the cause of which was still unknown -- just one night prior.
"Whitney Houston, I would not be standing up here if it was not for you," she said. "God bless you."
