I can no longer force myself to watch all of the Grammy Awards.  I'm not a fan of Awards shows in general (outside of the Oscars) and this show always seems particularly crass to me.

However, my partner, Lee, did have the awards on and I did pop in for certain performances that I wanted to see.  Plus I flash through the DVR recording to see some of the other performances.

What I was struck by this year was that the two obvious stand-out performances were also the two where substance was squarely more important than style or spectacle.

The woman of the hour had to be Adele, and rightly so.  She also gave the night's top performance, which was all the more impressive given the flashy sugary breakfast cereal cavalcade of non-musical moments that surrounded her.  Adele looked gorgeous in her simple black dress, and her performance was all about her singing.  It was simple, elegant, powerful, and all about her voice.  She has enough command and talent to let that BE the show.  No half-dressed priests in tattered robes with abs of death were required to dance around her.

Similarly, Jennifer Hudson was thrilling in her very simple and heart-felt rendition of "I Will Always Love You" as a tribute to Whitney.  Yes, she looked gorgeous, but it was just her great pipes and a piano …and a spotlight.  She let her emotion and talent be the catalyst for the thrill.

Of course, this reminds me of our marching arts arena, where many times a band spends thousands of dollars on props and flags and sequiens and spectacle and forgets to learn to play.  I sometimes wonder what would happen if all that money had brought in master teachers to help the students be better musicians.  You can distract me by waving a shiny object around for only so long, and then I notice that the emperor really has no clothes.

Mull, people!  Find your values and priorities, and then dress them  up with style, but don't cover them up and leave nothing inside!