Hip-hop overwhelmed the Grammy nominations this year, with Lil Wayne topping the list with eight nods. Add to that the 18 honors shown to Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West (six each) and you have 26 hip-hop nominations in major categories, including two of the five Album of the Year picks.
That's the highest honor the Grammys bestow, and when the Feb. 8 ceremony rolls around it'll be a real battle of decades and genres, with Coldplay (seven nominations), Lil Wayne, Ne-Yo, Radiohead and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss battling for the win.
Other categories were equally eclectic - or ridiculously mixed up, depending on your outlook.
Besides hip-hop, female British R&B singers got their due on Wednesday, with Adele, Duffy and Leona Lewis all getting nominations, the former two competing in the Best New Artist field. Lewis is up against Plant for Record of the Year.
In a coincidence that shows more blending of the generations, Lewis performed with Plant's former Led Zeppelin partner Jimmy Page at the Summer Olympics in China this year, taking Plant's vocal in Whole Lotta Love. You can't make this stuff up.
TV and the Internet played a big role in the success of many honorees. Best New Artist nominees The Jonas Brothers got a leg up on the Disney Channel and touring with Hannah Montana; Lewis originally came to prominence as the winner of a British reality show; Jennifer Hudson got her start on American Idol; and Katy Perry's erotic video for I Kissed a Girl racked up more than 12 million views on YouTube alone.
Former Colorado Springs band OneRepublic got a nod for Vocal Performance for Apologize, competing against the Eagles, Coldplay, Gnarls Barkley and Maroon 5.
Denver native India.Arie is nominated with Anthony David for Best R&B Performance by a Duo for the song Words.
Grammy organizers tried to stir more interest in the often-underwhelming Grammy ceremony by skipping the usual news conference. The nominees were instead presented in an even-more underwhelming TV show in an hour of prime time. The nominees were announced with sealed envelopes and great pomp as if artists would be taking home statues.
Give the Grammys credit for trying to shake things up for its 50th anniversary, but you've got to wonder who came up with some of these ideas, especially the '70s theme. Celine Dion inexplicably sang Janis Ian's At Seventeen and a nation trembled, knowing that she'd eventually unleash her klaxon-horn voice and set off car alarms.
But a kinder, gentler Dion kept it subtle and true to the original.
Dave Grohl, a ubiquitous feature on the awards-show circuit these days, led the Foo Fighters through a hair-flinging, larynx- shredding version of Carly Simon's You're So Vain.
John Mayer looked intimidated playing with the great B.B. King. As he should have.
source http://www.rockymountainnews.com
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