In the end, the Recording Academy didn't want to make do with someone like her. They wanted her. And they got her.
While Adele hinted as much earlier this month, it was officially announced this morning that the six-time Grammy nominee would be singing live at the awards show, marking her first performance since undergoing vocal-cord surgery last fall.
"I'm immensely proud to have been asked to perform at this year's Grammy Awards," the best-selling artist of 2011 said in a statement. "It's an absolute honor to be included in such a night and for it to be my first performance in months is very exciting and of course nerve-racking, but what a way to get back into it all."
Adele, who already has two gilded gramophones to her name, is up for Record and Song of the Year for "Rolling in the Deep," Album of the Year for 21, and Best Pop Solo Performance for "Someone Like You," among other nods.
Earlier this month, she confirmed that she would be performing at the Brit Awards—the U.K.'s answer to the Grammys—which take place just nine days after the LL Cool J-hosted U.S. ceremony, thus setting tongues wagging that the more world-watched stage would make for a more prestigious comeback.
And the speculation proved true, as Adele, in a slightly less formal statement than the one she issued to the Academy, revealed on Twitter this morning.
"Ima be, Ima be singing at the Grammys," she wrote. "It's been so long I started to forget I was a singer! I can't wait, speak soon xx."
Adele's comeback performance—what exactly she will sing will likely remain a mystery up until the show—will take place when the Grammys air live Feb. 12.