I've been giving this more and more thought as the day approaches. Just so i don't have to type it a buncha times, all declarative statemens that follow are IMO.
They'll definitely play something well-known. That mention of the fav song poll at the grammy website is very interesting and could be quite telling. It doesn't contain one of my picks, tho.
I'll always remember the story of how Nirvana was given a choice of whether to play Teen Spirit or Lithium to open some awards show back in the day. They were in danger of serious overexposure on the former tune and so chose the latter. What the story suggests to me is the Police (boy it's really funny to be talking about them in the present/future tense) were probably given a few song suggestions of tunes from their own pantheon, but that the final choice of which one will be up to them.
I see them bypassing Roxanne and Every Breath for being just too obvious. Save 'em for the shows, you know they're coming.
How do the band see it? Would they pick something that lyrically or thematically captured the essence of a return? I sorta think so. Of the remaining choices, Message seems the clear-cut shoo-in. It's a barnburner, a really perfect song to kick off the reunion as well as launch "music's biggest night."
But if i could pick another (and it's my post, so i can), I would hope against hope for Can't Stand Losing You, which lyrically is even more perfect than Message. Some of my buds and i were discussing the other night that they might play a medley, (in fact, i think we had just seen the Prince superbowl show) but the nice thing about the live version of Can't Stand is it already is a medley of sorts, with the section of Reggatta included. From their previous live shows, this is generally the zeitgeist, the most asskicking part of the show. Can you imagine the crowd and cameras going crazy when they take everybody over the top with Sting's final "Yyyyeeeaahhhhhh!!!!!!" coupled with the sonic boom of Stewart's cymbal crash and the volcanic dirge of Andy's guitar??!
Just dreaming. I think it'll be Message....