2012 Grammys: It should be Adele’s big night

James Keivom/New York Daily News

Adele, with six nominations, is expected to be the big winner at the Grammy Awards. She is also scheduled to sing on the broadcast — her first public performance since throat surgery last fall.

Drinking game alert!

Every time someone mentions the name Adele at Sunday night’s Grammys, all viewers of legal age should take a gulp of their favorite hootch.

Those who play along can expect to be found passed out and drooling no later than 9. (The show begins on CBS at 8.)

After all, how can this powerhouse singer escape constant comment? She has the biggest-selling — as well as the most critically respected — music of the year, a rare enough nexus to give her a lock.

Then again, experienced tea-leaf readers in the wacky Grammy world know to beware the dreaded foregone conclusion.

Consider the gob-smacking results of last year’s competition. Any Vegas oddsmaker worth his math would have gone into that show with the smart money placed on Eminem to sweep.

After all, the rapper’s album, “Recovery,” not only was a commercial lollapalooza (if with half the sales of Adele’s “21”), it signaled his emotional rescue after years of self-destructive drug abuse.

Em’s triumphoveradversity story alone should have sewn it up for him.

So guess who ended up fumbling every one of the top categories and to the weakest competition, no less?

The featherweight Lady Antebellum seized both Song and Record of the Year for “Need You Now” — a song that sounded like nothing so much as a redo of the Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight,” minus the smutty subtext. At the same time, the big Album prize went to the year’s ultimate dark horse: Arcade Fire for “Suburbs.”

RELATED: WHAT SONGS DO YOU NEED TO HEAR BEFORE THE SHOW? LISTEN TO JIM FARBER’S GRAMMY SPOTIFY LIST

Not only did those arty Canadians topple Eminem for the trophy, they trounced Lady Gaga as well.

Meaning all bets should be off this time.

Even so, if ever there was a star who seemed very, very likely to win, it would be Adele. Her sales triumph (6.5 million and counting) isn’t only huge for this past year, it returns the industry to the kind of pre-meltdown figures it had long ago given up on. Moreover, people really, really like Adele. She seems like a true sweetie. For a trifecta, she also has her own triumph-over-adversity backstory one larded with a final plot twist primed to be delivered on the show itself.

Sunday night, Adele will sing for the first time in public since her career-threatening throat surgery last fall. The singer had to cancel two U.S. tours, due to vocal problems in the last year, no surprise considering the Joplin-esque force with which she sings.

In that sense, tonight’s program might not only load her down with gold, it might read as a virtual resurrection.

Given all that good will, gold and love, Adele has more going for her than any star since Carlos Santana in his comeback year (1999). On his big night, the guitarist took home no fewer than eight statues, the most any star has won in a single Grammy evening since Michael Jackson with “Thriller” in 1983. Adele’s favor also recalls the can’t-miss year of Eric Clapton (1993), back when he released a song about his late son Conor, “Tears in Heaven.” To the surprise of no one, it nabbed six sob-sister wins.

Will there be tears on earth if Adele fails to get most of the six awards she’s up for (including Song, Record and Album of the Year)? Certainly, there will be gasps.

jfarber@nydailynews.com