It’s not a surprise that Bruno Mars swept the Grammys with Album, Song and Record of the Year. The album, “24K Magic,” won the award for Best Engineered album during the afternoon session hosted by Paul Shaffer. From that moment on, Bruno was a cinch.

The biggest surprise was that “Despacito” didn’t win Best Record. It was the biggest selling single of the year, and ubiquitous on radio, etc. But once voters ticked off Bruno Mars for one category, they went for the others, too.

There was some irony that Sting presented Bruno with Best Song, since Mars’s older hit, “Locked out of Heaven,” eerily imitates the Police sound.

But Sting — and Shaggy– actually turned out to be big winners of the night anyway. When Sting hit the stage and sang “Englishman in New York” it was the first time during the 60th annual Grammys that I felt a sense of relief– an adult was in the room, an actual musician. It was 36K magic. When he and Shaggy segued into “Don’t Make Me Wait” the crowd at MSG literally roared.

Other excellent performances including Elton John and Miley Cyrus singing “Tiny Dancer,” Lady Gaga’s moment, and Pink. I was very impressed with SZA and with Donald Glover.

Ken Ehrlich turned lemons into lemonade, putting the spotlight on Broadway. Diva of divas Patti Lupone and newcomer Ben Platt were terrific. Kudos to whoever did the sound mix in MSG– it was warm and bright, very well balanced.

Some people grumbled that the show was too safe, that there was no big unforgettable moment. But that moment may have been the complete shutting out of Jay Z. The rap mogul was rendered moot after getting the Industry Icon award on Saturday night. That he and Beyonce were in the Garden but were not the center of attention was fairly interesting. It was like an anti-moment.

And then there was Lorde, who was totally ignored. There’s not much more to say on that subject, for now.

There was a lot of singing on the Grammys but not a lot of musicianship. U2’s segment was taped, and felt it. Gary Clark Jr. and Jon Bautiste got short shrift in their segment. There was no rock played, so we missed any virtuoso stuff on any instrument. That was kind of glaring.

James Corden almost got out of the show without making much of an impression. But then there was his comedy bit of celebs reading “Fate and Fury.” It was just what the show needed, mostly because it made Nikki Haley crazy. Fun stuff.

All afternoon Paul Shaffer’s been hosting a ceremony at the Theater in Madison Square GArden for about 70 Grammy Awards you won’t see on TV tonight.

So far Bruno Mars’s “24K Magic” has won Best Engineered Album which means it’s on its way to Album of the Year.

The late Carrie Fisher won Best Spoken Award album for reading her “Princess Diarist” book. Very lovely.

A full list is forthcoming…

So much interest in Lorde, the New Zealand pop star who became famous with the song “Royals” three years ago.

Despite an Album of the Year nomination for “Melodrama,” an album that shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place, Lorde is not performing at the Grammys.

Various reports say she wasn’t offered a solo spot on the show. I’m told she wasn’t offered any spot. This, after Republic Records pushed to get “Melodrama” nominated despite very low sales– only 160,000 copies since its release last June. “Melodrama” was a non starter.

But then Lorde made headlines recently, after her nomination, when she decided to drop Tel Aviv from her next tour. She’d been influenced by anti-Israel forces like Roger Waters, who are endorsing anti-Semitism by bullying artists into not performing in Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I wrote then that there would be repercussions for Lorde, who is 21 and is probably not much of a world scholar. So she’s flown 8,800 miles with her parents and she’s not on the Grammys. Big surprise. She can sing, you know. She appeared on stage for MusiCares on Friday singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Spring.” She sang at another event, too. She came last night to Clive Davis’s dinner as the date of producer Jack Antonoff, who just broke up with Lena Dunham.

So why isn’t Lorde on the Grammys– even though she’s one of the few female nominees? I think you got the answer.

Meantime, Lorde posted a Tweet last night as she was off to the Clive Davis dinner:

not ur trophy wife 💵 pic.twitter.com/enEbS1PGlG

— Lorde (@lorde) January 28, 2018

It was a quarter of a century ago when Bill Clinton took Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” as his campaign song. It was a brilliant move, although for a while the song suffered from the association and wasn’t played on the radio so much.

So tonight it was only fitting that Clinton showed up to present Fleetwood Mac with their Person of the Year award from MusiCares, one of the Grammy Award charities. After a night songs from other stars and from the Mac themselves, Clinton made a special appearance at Radio City Music Hall to hand Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham their awards.

Clinton revealed that in 1991 a 19 year old driver in Los Angeles flipped a cassette in the car radio and played Dont Stop for him. “This should be your campaign song.” That’s how it happened.

Clinton said he owed so much to Fleetwood Mac he had to be here.He brought a date too: Hillary.

The former President was preceded by performances featuring Miley Cyrus, Jared Leto, Little Big Town, Brandi Carlisle, Alison Kraus and Jerry Douglas, Imagine Dragons, and so on. After Clinton spoke and each member of Fleetwood Mac spoke, the group took the stage and played a half dozen or so hits including “The Chain,” with Harry Styles as guest star.

It was a different kind of night for MusiCares, which usually puts on its whole event– a big gala dinner and the concert– all in one spot at the LA Convention Center. But with no comparable venue in New York, they decided to have a proper concert at Radio City followed by a buffet at the New York Hilton in a ballroom. Even with the changes. they raised $7 million for indigent musicians and/or those needing help with housing and health issues.

PS at the live auction, someone paid $170,000 for a boxed signed set of lyrics from the “Rumours” album.

It was a pretty joyous night at the glittery Rainbow Room when the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Grammys honored Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz last night. Alicia, who’s from New York, said “I’ve never been to the Rainbow Room before!” How is that possible? It was Alicia’s birthday, so Swizz got the crowd– including famed producer Peter Asher (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt) and Boo Mitchell (son of famed Memphis Hi Records founder and Al Green/Ann Peebles producer Willie Mitchell)– to serenade her. Nice to run into brothers David and Norman Chesky also, of Chesky Records and Hdtracks.com.

Tomorrow night, Alicia is one of the (shhh– don’t tell anyone) main performers at Clive Davis’s annual pre-Grammy dinner. It’s her first time back in maybe a decade.

PS Hoping P&E Wing will honor not only Asher but Carly Simon producer Richard Perry next year in L.A.!

It used to be called the Four Seasons. It was New York’s most famous restaurant for power lunching and dining in the Seagram’s building, a landmark designed by Philip Glass and Mies van der Rohe. It was famous for its pool in the main dining room.

Last night, Warner Music covered the pool and invited in a few hundred people to watch Cardi B, a whirling dervish of a rap star (with a good sense of humor), take the place over. She has two dancers who channel Tina Turner’s Ikettes circa 1966. (Real name Belcalis Almanzar, age 25, former stripper, born in the Bronx, famous for “no filter”).

Cardi, like Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim before her, is a cherub who likes to shock people with bad language. But she’s just a girl with a dream, as Joan Rivers might have said. She’s also a clever businesswoman who’s currently featured on at least a half dozen different chart singles.

She whooped it up in front of Warner Music’s owner, Len Blavatnik, as well as executives, fans, and friends, plus celebs like Janelle Monae and Kelly Clarkson. The place was packed and the smell of pot was strong. This was not the Pool Room of Henry Kissinger or Pete Peterson. How times have changed!

The irony, of course, is that this was the Seagram’s building, owned by the Bronfman family,  until it was sold to Aby Rosen, who kicked out the Four Seasons. Now the whole place is called The Grill. And this was Warner Music, once owned by Edgar Bronfman, Jr., until he drove it into the ground and sold it to Blavatnik. In all the years Edgar Jr. owned the record company he never — as far I as anyone could recall– used the Four Seasons pool as a stage for one of his acts. But now it all came full circle, shall we say.

@recordingacademy week kick off with @iamcardib #love thank you @showbiz411 @warnermusic #newyork #grammys2018

A post shared by Norah Lawlor (@lawlormedia) on Jan 25, 2018 at 8:07pm PST