The only wrong Mary J. note: The repetition of Chevrolet ads featuring Blige. It was as jarring as Tony Bennett thanking Target in his Grammy speech. Ouch! A cringing bull's eye, Tony.
Alongside Blige, the Dixie Chicks helped turn the night into a celebration of women unbowed. The defiant trio won the kudos despite their George Bush-bashing. They kept returning to the podium to pick up their statues, eventually finding it hard to even know what to say. "I'm ready to make nice!!" Natalie Maines finally exclaimed as she accepted their final honor, referring to their song "Not Ready to Make Nice."
Early in the night, Maines looked formidable at the microphone performing that song, her brown hair adding new shades of sincerity to her ever-growing political awareness. (Christina "Naked-Sundays" Aguilera, who was carrying a lifetime supply of blonde Brillo on her shoulders, couldn't have pulled off such gravitas).
The Chicks' musical performance, introduced by pioneering political chick Joan Baez, could have made a dramatic opening to the telecast. But the Police did the job quite nicely indeed, with their first performance together since their 2003 Hall of Fame induction. Looking kitschily 1980s retro, Sting sang out "Roxanne" in his power whine, while Stewart Copeland went mad on the drum set. Oddly, the camera got all up in Sting's face, and it gave us ample footage of Copeland, but it all but ignored Andy Summers on guitar.
The camera did catch Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, sitting in on drums behind the Dixie Chicks (as he did on the album). It was one of the night's many unusual link-ups. Seal and a weak-looking, slow-speaking Burt Bacharach presented an award together; John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae, and John Mayer performed three songs together; and -- odd, odd, odd -- Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders from "How I Met Your Mother" took the stage to congratulate the Grateful Dead for winning a lifetime Grammy.
