Sam Smith, Beck humble in their many Grammy victories

For all the grandiose pop stars who dominated the 57th Grammy Awards on Sunday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the two artists who brought home the most awards appeared the most modest: newcomer Sam Smith and alt-rock veteran Beck.

Both Smith and Beck won multiple awards each in their respective categories — Beck for album of the year, best rock album and best engineered album, and Smith both record and song of the year, best pop vocal album and best new artist. Their speeches were brief and appreciative to their collaborators and families.

“Before I made this record I was doing everything to get my music heard. I tried to lose weight, I was making awful music. It was only when I started to be myself that … people started to listen,” Smith said.

Then there was the rest of the show, a cavalcade of production numbers, multi-generational collaborations, a nod to exiting talk show host David Letterman (the awards were broadcast on his network, CBS) and even a public service announcement, on domestic violence, from President Obama. Indeed, the Grammys tried to be many things for many tastes, which inevitably meant at least a third of the show represented filler.

Grammy night fashion and red carpet

List of Grammy winners in top categories

The show was broadcast live, not that it was obvious. Not a stage was rushed nor a teleprompter script flubbed. Country singer Miranda Lambert did include a lyric to her song “Little Red Wagon” that contained a four-letter word, but it never made the air. Speeches were kept relatively brief as canned music rolled within seconds after acceptance. Hidden underneath a white platinum wig and wearing a nude leotard, Sia performed “Chandelier” with a dancing Kristen Wiig, but strangely it was just a live re-creation of the song’s official video, complete with a mock apartment set.

Unlike their VMA incident a few years ago, Kanye West and Taylor Swift didn’t collide onstage (though when Beck won album of the year for “Morning Phase,” Kanye almost blocked him out). Instead, West was strictly subdued. Performing “Only One,” his current song featuring Paul McCartney on keyboards, alone, West relied on vocal-enhancing technology that made his singing robotically quiver. He later reappeared with McCartney and Rihanna to sing “FourFiveSeconds.” The image of McCartney strumming a guitar on a song in which his microphone appeared muted was a strange one, and their collaboration felt more like a celebrity hang than anything deeply musical.

Many of the performers were prepping new tours and albums, or were promoting recent releases. Hard rock veterans AC/DC opened the show with “Rock or Bust,” their current single. Also out promoting were Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, who huddled together on a small set with Bennett’s band to perform a standard from their album and forthcoming summer tour.

Madonna gave the evening its first elaborate production number. During “Living for Love,” she was joined by a gospel choir, a battalion of dancers and large video screens. She got the crowd at the Staples Center to its feet before rising higher, via a cable and harness, than all of them.

Smith, in his speeches, made no mention of Tom Petty, the veteran star who accused Smith of copying one of his own to write “Stay With Me.” (Smith ended up settling with Petty out of court.) The only star to share a stage with Smith on Sunday was Mary J. Blige. They performed “Stay With Me” with a large choir and string section, an arrangement that moved the song even further away from Petty’s original to one that soared to gospel heights.

The most memorable performances of the evening were also the ones that made the music the focus, and not the performers. Hozier performed his hit “Take Me to Church” and then was joined by Annie Lennox for the haunting Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ song “I Put a Spell on You.” Likewise, Beck and Coldplay’s Chris Martin sang “Heart is a Drum,” a quiet acoustic song featuring warm harmonizing.

Chicago winners were few. In the pre-show ceremony, a Grammy for best contemporary soul gospel album was awarded to Smokie Norful, who operates the Victory Cathedral Worship Center in Bolingbrook. Actress and singer Jessie Mueller, an Evanston native who started her career in Chicago, won a best musical theater Grammy for “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”

The Grammys also shed light on Grafton, Wisconsin, the small city north of Milwaukee that once was home to Paramount Records, a pioneering early blues, jazz, and ragtime label. Jack White, along with collaborators Susan Archie and Dean Blackwood, earned Grammys for best boxed or special limited edition package for their work on “The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume One,” a deluxe, limited edition collection that assembles all the Paramount sides recorded between 1917 and 1927.

The evening drew to a close with a nod to Chicagoan Thomas Dorsey, the founder of gospel music who wrote the lyrics to “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” which Mahalia Jackson recorded in 1956 and Beyonce reprised with an all-male choir. John Legend and Common appeared afterward for “Glory,” a song that referenced recent police shootings of unarmed black men and the 50th anniversary of the marches in Selma, Alabama.

No award followed, but it served as one on its own.

Mark Guarino is a Chicago freelance writer.