This year’s Grammy nominees are far from being the annual
award ceremony’s usual contenders, as the nomination list includes a lot of new
faces and fresh acts that have shaken the music industry throughout the past
months.
Rapper Lil Wayne, whose third album, “Tha Carter III,” saw the
highest sales of the year, led the mass of Grammy runners, followed by British
rock band Coldplay.
The 26-year-old musician, whose real name is Dwayne Michael
Carter, collected eight award nominations, while Coldplay was nominated in
seven categories, organizers announced during the national broadcast Grammy
nominations on Wednesday.
Kanye West, Jay-Z and Ne-Yo grabbed six nominations each.
Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends,” Lil
Wayne’s chart-smashing “Tha Carter III,” Ne-Yo’s “Year of the Gentleman,”
“Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”
will compete for the heavily hunted album of the year award.
Record of the year contenders includes Coldplay, Adele,
Leona Lewis, M.I.A., as well as former Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert Plant
and bluegrass-country singer/fiddle player Alison Krauss, who has swept 21
Grammy statuettes throughout her musical career. Adele and Coldplay are also
nominated for song of the year next to Estelle featuring Kanye West, Jason Mraz
and Sara Bareilles, although the award goes to the respective songwriters.
British group Radiohead, who has won a couple of Grammys
before, was nominated in five categories this year, while Adele received four
nominations, including a best new artist choice.
Lil Wayne’s popularity was boosted by the release of his new
album, which sold 1 million copies in the United States during its opening
week, thus marking the best debut total of the year.
Coldplay’s multiple nominations come as a result of the
chart-topping album of the British band, who has already won four Grammy
awards, including the record of the year prize in 2004 for “Clocks.”
The Jonas Brothers will compete with Duffy, Adele, Lady
Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan for the best new artist award.
This year’s Grammy nominations were aired on primetime
television Wednesday for the first time ever and featured performances by
Christina Aguilera, John Mayer and Mariah Carey, who opened the show with
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).”
The event, which was broadcast from the Nokia Theatre L.A.
Live, also honored the official opening of the Grammy Museum,
which can be visited starting December 6.
The hosts of the show were Taylor Swift, who received a best
new artist nomination last year, and LL Cool J.
The 51st Grammy Awards ceremony will be broadcast
by CBS live from Los Angeles’ Staples Center
on February 8, when the prizes are scheduled to be handed out.
