I’m not much for award shows (we’ll talk about why I feel like boycotting the Oscars this year later!), but I couldn’t resist tuning into the 2012 Grammys to see how the show would offer a tribute to Whitney Houston.

In a word, it was fitting.

Quick, heartfelt, and accompanied by both prayer and a clip of one of Houston’s previous appearances on the award show, the opening tribute set just the right tone.

There have been other references and remembrances of Houston threaded through the presentations and performances, and I’m sure more will follow, but the show has not been thrown off-kilter by the superstar’s untimely death and there have not been any missteps (as there could have been) by trying to capitalize on headlines past and present.

And, after all, the show must go on…