For the Grammy Awards on Sunday, it seems that former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are the most likely to swipe a Grammy for album of the year, due to their „Raising Sand,” collaboration, which earned them five nods.
For the above-mentioned album, the couple reworked old folk ballads and R&B songs, while „Raising Sand” was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who is responsible for works such as the „Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, which won the album of the year award back in 2002.
From its debut, „Raising Sand” came into much critical acclaim and was also a major commercial hit, which prompted Robert Plant to bow out of a highly rumored Led Zeppelin reunion and choose to tour Europe and America with Krauss instead.
Doug Brod, editor at Spin magazine, stated that Grammy voters would definitely take a liking to Plant’s makeover, from the frontman of one of the most successful rock bands in history to a white mountain blues singer.
Brod added that the audience would also see Robert Plant as a survivor, as a person eager to take chances and undergo major changes.
As for Alison Krauss, she’s been a Grammy sweetheart for some time now, since at age 37, she has already been awarded 21 prizes, which ranks her at no.7 on the list of all-time winners.
In case Krauss and Plant meet the expectations and win a Grammy on Sunday, she would come to tie for the third position on that list with French conductor Pierre Boulez, who currently ranks behind late classical conductor Sir Georg Solti with 31 Grammys and producer/composer Quincy Jones with 27.
The „Raising Sand” couple is competing with British rock bands Coldplay and Radiohead and hip-hop singers Lil Wayne and Ne-Yo for the album of the year category.
The main Grammy Awards ceremony begins at 5 p.m. PST, when during a three and a half hour show rife with performances approximately a dozen honors are to be presented, while the rest of the 110 categories are scheduled to be announced during a separate event that starts four hours earlier.
As for the nominees, Lil Wayne is top of the list with eight nominations in six categories, while his „Tha Carter III” album accounted for last year’s biggest selling release.
Lil Wayne is followed closely by Coldplay with seven nominations, the band running with the „Viva La Vida” album this year, whereas in 2004, they were honored with a record of the year Grammy award for „Clocks.”
Coldplay’s „Viva La Vida”- the song- was also nominated for a Grammy in the song of the year category, which is a songwriter’s prize.
In the hardest to predict category, best new artist, the contenders are female British singers Adele and Duffy, the Jonas Brothers, country group Lady Antebellum and R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan.
Many reckon that Duffy, 24, due to her '60s soul singer style that she best displayed in her big hit „Mercy,” is the most likely to take home the Grammy this year, after in 2008, Amy Winehouse was honored with the award.
