Nominations for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards were announced yesterday. Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and John Legend all top the list, receiving eight each. Also worth noting is six nominations each for 50 cent, Beyonce Knowles, Black Eyed Peas', Will.I.Am and Stevie Wonder. The Grammy Awards will be broadcast February 8th from the Los Angeles' Staples Center on CBS.
A list of nominees in the top categories follows:
Record Of The Year: "We Belong Together," Mariah Carey; "Feel Good Inc.," Gorillaz Featuring De La Soul; "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams," Green Day; "Hollaback Girl," Gwen Stefani; "Gold Digger," Kanye West
Album Of The Year: The Emancipation Of Mimi, Mariah Carey; Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, Paul McCartney; Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Gwen Stefani; How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, U2; Late Registration, Kanye West;
Song Of The Year: "Bless The Broken Road," Bobby Boyd, Jeff Hanna & Marcus Hummon, songwriters (Rascal Flatts); "Devils & Dust," Bruce Springsteen, songwriter (Bruce Springsteen); "Ordinary People," W. Adams & J. Stephens, songwriters (John Legend); "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," U2, songwriters (U2); "We Belong Together," J. Austin, M. Carey, J. Dupri & M. Seal, songwriters; (D. Bristol, K. Edmonds, S. Johnson, P. Moten, S. Sully & B. Womack, songwriters) (Mariah Carey)
Best New Artist: Ciara, Fall Out Boy, Keane, John Legend, SugarLand
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: "It's Like That," Mariah Carey; "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson; "Good Is Good," Sheryl Crow; "I Will Not Be Broken," Bonnie Raitt; "Hollaback Girl," Gwen Stefani
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," Jack Johnson; "Fine Line," Paul McCartney; "Walk On By," Seal; "Lonely No More," Rob Thomas; "From The Bottom Of My Heart," Stevie Wonder.
Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal: "Don't Lie," The Black Eyed Peas; "Mr. Brightside," The Killers; "More Than Love," Los Lonely Boys; "This Love," Maroon 5; "My Doorbell," The White Stripes
A complete list as well as news and trivia on the Grammys are all available at Grammy.com
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
fantastimo-doubleplusgood job Connie, thanks!!
2 - Connie Phillips
Thanks, Eric!
3 - Sterfish
For some reason, I'm not all that impressed by this year's nominations. The list of Album Of The Year nominees reads like a list of every "anticipated" album that came out. I think a lot of it hinges on being known as opposed to being good. A good example is in the Best Electronic/Dance album category. Both The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim put out efforts that weren't all that strong but they were nominated over labelmates Royksopp's superior album.
At the same time, I was happy to see them nominated Danger Mouse for Producer Of The Year even as they snubbed Demon Days for Album Of The Year.
4 - Connie Phillips
Agreed, Serfish.
In the past I always felt the AMA's were about popular choices, and the Grammys were about quality. Not true this year, especially the pop categories, or so it would seem.
5 - [MR]Chip
If Mariah wins over Gorillaz, the universe will implode.
6 - reggie von woic
Right on time Connie!! Good job pal!
Just a few things...
Why the hell was beyonce nominated FOR 6?!?!?! I don't remember her releasing another album or single for that matter, let alone one that deserves a grammy!!
Don't get me wrong, i love her-and i'm not complaining! I just thought we were done with her last time in the 46th annual grammys-she did scoop 5 didn't she?
Please tell me if there's something i'm missing here.
The contenders this time are almost all deserving the awards in their categories--i can't make myself pinpoint who i want to win this time around, it all seems win win for me whoever wins.
7 - Connie Phillips
I'm also confused about the Maraih thing, it blows my mind. To me it seemed like a lot of the names were "old" ones, not too much that is fresh or new.
8 - uao
The Grammys never fail to amaze me.
Can there be an institution so out of it, so unhip to the times, so without a finger on the pulse of the public?
Although they have managed to pick some foul-languaged songs in this year of FCC crackdowns; maybe they're so out of it they don't even listen to the records anymore?
Among the nominees for record of the year, West is the only one who's even remotely worthy; Green Day gets to take advantage of the "Graceland" loophole and get a piece of the same product nominated in consecutive years. Carey's comeback is certainly robust (and despite the oddsmakers) but is it art?
Most of it is the usual ho-hum suspects: U2, Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder...
McCartney is in there while conveniently touring perhaps as a lifetime achievement nod, since he never won a major Grammy, and was seldom nominated.
Sterfish's remark about them being the "most anticipated" releases is pretty much right on.
They're especially anticipated by middle-aged execs in tuxedos.
The electronica nomination is a good illustration; by now those guys have heard of Fatboy Slim; he's been around for more than a decade and had a bunch of hits. Royskopp is what a real electronica listener might prefer; these guys never heard of 'em.
It's a good thing Steely Dan doesn't have an album out, or they'd sweep everything.
I'd say they favor the artists with the most crossover appeal among the middle-aged. But that implies thought and exclusion. These guys just nominate what they know; which, by all evidence, is pretty superficial.
In 1964, a year the Beatles had 19 hits on the chart at the same time, a pretty good indication of their popularity, 32-year-old Petula Clark had the "Record of the Year"
And that was one of their better picks.
9 - Baronius
These nominations make me wonder about something. What do you do if your job is to hand out awards, and there's nothing worth awarding? Over the last three or four years it's become clear that there's a problem in the recording industry. Whether that problem is caused by piracy or the price of cd's, the lack of anything new developing or the failure of the industry to notice what's new, it doesn't matter. The music scene is weak these days.
So look at, for example, the Best Female Performance. There isn't really one interesting song. But doesn't that accurately reflect the past year? (Wow, that got depressing. But you know what I mean.)
10 - Baronius
UAO, it freaks me out how often I go to post something and find out that you just said the same thing. But this time, I'm one step ahead of you. (Even though I'm late.) Aren't boring choices from a boring institution appropriate for a boring music scene?
Or is there more happening out there than I realize? There's always some interesting stuff somewhere, but it does seem like even the cutting edge is boring these days. Or maybe I'm just boring. Sigh.
11 - uao
In retrospect, the first half of the 00's has been a pretty dire half-decade for recorded music in all genres.
I hate to say that, because it makes me sound like an old fogey, and I always hated it when old fogeys told me that in the past.
But for real, this time.
Maybe it's piracy and the price of CD's, and I'll toss in some more: record industry consolidation, leaving us with the Big 4 (Sony, Universal, Warners, EMI); it led to paring of rosters, sticking with tried and true, and not giving slow-selling artists time to mature before cutting them.
12 - uao
Cross-posted. Baronious, I'm right behind you, of single mind.
There's stuff I like (I won't give it away here, I'm saving it for an article), but it's slim pickin's lately.
13 - Connie Phillips
Baronius and uao, I think you two helped me figure something out. The reason I'm listening to mostly older music, or underground, under the radar kind of stuff is because mainstream is boring. . . it's not that I'm getting old! I feel so much better!
Thanks for your great insight and comments.
14 - Baronius
Connie, none of us are getting old. None of us are getting old.
15 - Connie Phillips
I'll keep repeating that to myself, Baronius, over and over. . .
16 - [MR]Chip
huh-huh... old people...
17 - Dave Nalle
I find it amusing that all the members of Nickleback dye their hair the same semi-unnatural color.
Dave
18 - Baronius
In all fairness to me (!), it seems that the music industry is getting older faster than I am. If I listened to The White Stripes and thought, "that's not music, that's just noise", I'd be worried. But when I hear them, I think, "that's not new, that's just Zeppelin". And I'm not the one saying that U2 and Springsteen are relevant. I haven't said that since 1983 and 1980, respectively.
19 - Josh
you go through the list and it sounds like the hour and a half round the hit radio stations have playing
20 - Barry Stoller
I'll be smiling if Mariah Carey beats U2.
21 - Bliffle
Hahahaha! You dopes! The Grammies on TV is nothing more than an ADVERTISING extension of the hollywood music business. Anybody who pays attention to this ADVERTISING exercise is nuts. Over the hill belters and Ethyl Merman imitators vieing with petty rebel rappers is a joke.
Anyway, who has won the most Grammies? Though dead for about 10 years might win an award this year and not even mentioned in the press releases. Why? NO MONEY in it!
22 - erin
Mariah Carey? How much did Benny Medina pay for these nominations, just like he paid for her to have number one hits by reducing them to nineteen cents when most singles went for $1.99. She is nothing but a fat, ugly, stuffed sausage. Can someone explain how dog whistling is singing?
23 - Chris Evans
I'm sorry, but Kelly Clarkson was robbed. And how exactly is Gwen Stefani's juvenile shouting in "Hollaback Girl" exactly a vocal performance? And....Random Paul McCartney? Wow. What a sad testament to this year's music industry. It's gotten worse than the movies.
24 - Stephen V Funk
"Popism: The official news release for the Grammy Awards nominations makes no mention of classical music or jazz."...
...this bit of bleakness courtesy of Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise blog.
I'm sure we won't be hearing about any of this unprofitable stuff during the TV broadcast either.
25 - reggie von woic
i doubt Grammy's are based of anything vocal...its all popularity nowadays. Just look at Mariah...8 FREAKIN NOMINATIONS!!!!!!
Why was Beyonce nominated?