But they could have had someone competent play one song instead of snippets from some hits performed by a guy who recorded around 20 songs with Bowie and a Madonna impersonator masquerading as an Elvis impersonator. It was tacky and exceedingly superficial; flashy or the sake of being flashy. It was everything Bowie wasn't.
Why wasn't Earl Slick there, or Belew, or Fripp?
Why wasn't Carlos Alomar there? Or Visconti?
Why wasn't Gail Ann Dorsey playing bass, or George Murray, or Visconti himself?
Mike Garson?
Dennis Davis on drums, or Woody Woodmansey (the last Spider!), or Zachary Alford, or Sterling Campbell? People who played with him for a long time, or who were extremely important to his music.
Bowie had a small group of people that he worked with for the majority of his career. They should have been involved with the tribute.
As for singers...who knows? Damon Albarn? He's a fan, and he's clearly been influenced by Bowie. He's his generation's Bowie. Mick Jagger? Iggy Pop? Gary Numan
sexywink
? Any of the people Bowie sang with at his 50th birthday maybe?
People who said "Gaga is the new Bowie" have as superficial understanding of Bowie as you can possibly have, which I guess makes her the logical choice for the Grammy's to choose to honour themselves for acknowledging a man who's work they largely ignored. Anyway, she was terrible choice, but the performance was a lot worse than I thought it would be because she can sing, and Nile Rogers is obviously a talented man...but that was terrible.