51 st Grammy Awards 2009
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will take place on February 8, 2009. It will be broadcast on CBS in the United States at 8PM EST. Nominations were announced on December 3, 2008. For the sixth year in a row, the ceremony will be held in the Staples Center. The nominations were announced on a special concert airing on CBS on December 3rd, 2008, and were posted on the official website afterwards.[1]
To be eligible for an award a recording must have been commercially released between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008. This is for all recordings released in the 2008 recording year. After the nominees are announced on December 4, 2008 final voting ballots will be sent to the academy members. This is when they will vote for one of the nominees to win the award. Each category has five nominees. More than five is the result of a tie in the nominating process. Members are allowed to vote in the General field and up to nine other fields on their final voting ballots. All ballots are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. There are about 7,000 people who vote in the nominating and final voting process. These people are artists, producers, engineers, mixers and mastering engineers. Academy members are to vote based upon quality alone. They are not to be influenced by mass sales or personal friendships. The acceptance of gifts is prohibited and can result in termination of membership.
After the nominations are announced the recipients of all special awards such as lifetime achievement awards will be announced. In addition performers and presenters will be announced. Neil Diamond will be the recipient of the MusiCares Person of the Year award. Lil Wayne topped the nominations with eight, Coldplay garnered seven , and Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West each earned six nods. Radiohead, Alison Krauss, John Mayer, Robert Plant, Jazmine Sullivan received five, and Jennifer Hudson, Adele, Danger Mouse, The Eagles, Lupe Fiasco, George Strait,Metallica and T.I. each received four nominations.
Confirmed Performers
- Adele
- Chris Brown
- Kenny Chesney
- Four Tops tribute featuring original member of the Four Tops Duke Fakir, Jamie Foxx, and Ne-Yo[2]
- Foo Fighters with Paul McCartney[3]
- Jennifer Hudson
- Jay-Z
- Jonas Brothers
- Kid Rock
- Lil Wayne
- Miley Cyrus & Taylor Swift[4]
- Katy Perry - On the January 30th episode of Chelsea Lately, Katy said she was going to descend from the ceiling during her performance.
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
- Radiohead
- Rihanna
- T.I.
- Justin Timberlake
- Carrie Underwood
- U2[5]
- Estelle & Kanye West[6]
Britney Spears Is Back
Britney Spears Is Back On Top As Circus Sells More Than 500,000 CopiesWith her fifth debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, Brit confirms her comeback.
By James Montgomery
Well, there's really no denying it now: Britney Spears really is back! Back to selling tons of records, at least.
Her Circus album will debut at #1 on next week's Billboard albums chart, selling just under 505,100 copies. It's Spears' fifth album to debut at #1 on the chart, and it sold nearly twice as many copies as last year's Blackout album, which was denied the top spot on the chart by the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden.
Circus' first-week sales total is certainly big, but it's only the sixth biggest opening of 2008, behind albums like Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, AC/DC's Black Ice, Coldplay's Viva la Vida, Taylor Swift's Fearless and T.I.'s Paper Trail. Still, it outpaced the first-week numbers of some of Brit's pop peers, including Beyoncé's I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Mariah Carey's E = MC2 and Miley Cyrus' Breakout.
Interestingly enough, the Brit-sanity was so high among album buyers that Blackout also managed to return to the charts, selling more than 4,600 copies to land at #198.
Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Associated Press that the success of Circus really does signify Brit's triumphant return. "At the end of the day, I think she is America's pop princess, and the world's pop princess, and this just reconfirms it to everyone who doubted it," he said. "Professionally, she's feeling great. ... It's great for her to hear that she's got a #1 album again."
Those sentiments were seconded by in a statement from Jive Records, Britney's label. "We're absolutely thrilled for Britney," the statement reads. "The response to Circus is a testament to how great the album is, and to how connected and supportive Britney's fans are to her and her music."
Swift's Fearless lands in the #2 spot on the albums chart for the second-straight week, selling 193,500 copies. Beyoncé's Sasha Fierce is at #3, with sales of more than 152,800 copies. Last week's chart champ, Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, drops to #4, with sales of close to 141,700 copies. Nickelback's Dark Horse rounds out the top five, selling 133,400 copies.
The rest of the top 10 features the "Twilight" soundtrack at #6; the week's other big-name debut, Akon's Freedom at #7; the soundtrack to "High School Musical 3" at #8; the ubiquitous hits collection Now That's What I Call Music! 29 at #9; and David Cook's self-titled effort at #10.
Aside from Circus and Freedom (which sold 110,600 copies), other notable debuts on next week's chart include Scarface's Emeritus (#24, with 42,000 copies sold), Neil Young's Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House 1968 (#40, with 26,400 copies sold) and the soundtrack to Beyoncé's new movie, "Cadillac Records" (#66, with 15,600 copies sold).
Lil Wayne Leades Grammy Nominations!
Album of the Year - Tha Carter III
Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group - "Mr. Carter" featuring Jay-Z
Best Rap Solo Performance - "A Milli"
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration - "Got Money" featuring T-Pain
Best Rap Song - "Lollipop"
Best Rap Album - Tha Carter III
The Superstar Rapper Also Received 2 Nominations As A Featured Artist
Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group - "Swagga Like Us"
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration - "Swagga Like Us"
New York, NY - Cash Money/Universal Motown superstar Lil Wayne is Grammy's man of the year, drawing a total of eight nominations - more than any other artist -- for his blockbuster multi-platinum album Tha Carter III, and for his featured performance on "Swagga Like Us" by T.I. featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. The nominations itself are unbelievable, I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing, but I'm going to do it better, say Lil Wayne.
Tha Carter III is nominated in the prestigious Album of the Year category as well as for Best Rap Album, and all of its first four smash singles drew individual recognition: "Lollipop" featuring Static Major is nominated for Best Rap Song; "Got Money" featuring T-Pain for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration; "A Milli" for Best Solo Rap Performance; and "Mr. Carter," featuring Jay-Z for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. These are the New Orleans native's first Grammy nominations for his own album. For his collaborations on other projects, "Swagga Like Us" is nominated in the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Rap Song. The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, and broadcast on CBS.
"We've worked with Lil Wayne since he was a teenager, signing him as part of the legendary hip-hop group the Hot Boys with Juvenile, B.G. and Turk. We have had the pleasure to see him grow and mature, both artistically and personally, into a multi-platinum superstar. The success of Tha Carter III was the result of Wayne's tireless work ethic and incredible creative ability, and on behalf of his New Orleans hometown, and my brother, Birdman, we are honored to salute him as the artist with the most nominations at this year's Grammy Awards," says Cash Money Co-CEO Ronald 'Slim' Williams on Lil Wayne's Grammy Nominations.
"What is so rewarding about Wayne's Grammy nominations is that they are not merely a reflection of commercial success, but of real artistry, achievement, and influence. He delivered a brilliant, original album that defines the state-of-the-art in hip-hop, and it was not only embraced by his fans but by his peers in the industry. Receiving an amazing eight nominations is a wonderful recognition and validation of his creative accomplishments. All of us at Universal Motown congratulate Lil Wayne and his team at Cash Money Records for this landmark career moment," states Universal Motown Records President Sylvia Rhone.
Tha Carter III sold over 1 million units in its debut week and is the best-selling album release of 2008, having sold well over 2.7 million copies domestically since its release in June. Lil Wayne was the first artist since 2005 to sell 1 million albums in the first week of release. The album held the No. 1 position on the Billboard's Top 200 for three weeks and "Lollipop" topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for five weeks. In August, Lil Wayne set a record for charting 13 tracks as a lead or featured artist on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart simultaneously, including the No. 1s "Lollipop" and "A Milli."
The music awards season has already acknowledged the amazing banner year of Lil Wayne. He won the artist-voted MTV Europe Music Awards Artist's Choice Award, and won seven BET Hip-Hop Awards out of twelve nominations in October. Lil Wayne was also received three American Music Award nominations and one People's Choice Award nomination, and has won MTV's Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video, as well as BET's Viewer's Choice Award.
In a victory lap that extends into the New Year, Lil Wayne headlines the all-star "I Am Music" tour, kicking off Dec. 14 in Miami, FL and wrapping Jan. 19 in Worcester, MA. He'll be sharing the stage with T-Pain, Keyshia Cole, Gym Class Heroes and Keri Hilson, making a January stop in his hometown of New Orleans.
Akon Latest News
Akon Says 'You're Welcome' For Singing-Rapper Trend And Hopes It Continues To Grow
'As an artist, you should never feel threatened by another artist,' 'Kon declares.
By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting Todd Brown
Akon is totally digging the current trend of rappers becoming singers. He told MTV News he thinks it's cool that artists like Lil Wayne and Kanye West are embracing melodies, and he isn't shy about taking some credit for the movement, having crossed back and forth over the singer/rapper divide for years and helped popularize the heavy use of Auto-Tune along with his "Bartender" collaborator T-Pain. "As an artist, depending on who you are, you should never be in a situation where you feel threatened by another artist," he said. "If anything, I embrace the fact that they're doing it. Music changes every year. I'm just happy [about] the fact that people are jumping on what we're already doing. I look at it like a tribute to what we're already doing, and I look at it like a compliment, really.
"I say 'you're welcome' every time I hear [rappers singing]," said Akon, who just released his new album,Freedom. "A melody has a way of describing [words], 'cause of the emotions that come with melody. Melody brings it out better than a bland vocal. It's easier to relate."
'Kon also doesn't see the singing-rapper trend dying in 2009. In fact, with so many artists jumping on the bandwagon, he thinks it will get bigger over time. "I definitely think it will continue and grow. Hip-hop grew out of its element; it's literally a lifestyle now."
Akon said he appreciates the recent efforts put out by rappers like West. "With Kanye, you never know what to expect. He's not afraid to experiment. He's always had that open mind. That's how you have to be as an artist."
In order to push his own musical boundaries, the Senegalese singer has recently been collaborating with Indian composer A.R. Rahman. "When you have two people of two different cultures, it's like making Kool-Aid," he said. "Think of it like the best of both worlds at the end of the day. You never even think certain things can be done like that. It's always juggling back and forth."
Meanwhile, he hasn't pinned down a free moment to hook up with another Indian composer, Aadesh Shrivastava, but he promises the two busy artists will make time for each other. "Actually, me and Aadesh have been talking. My schedule is so crazy hectic ... and he's moving heavily too. ... But you can definitely look forward to the collaboration in the future."
Akon has also been busy in the studio with American icons Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, and he noted that his collaboration with the latter will "shock a lot of people."
"I can't speak too much on Mike's project," he added of his work with Jackson. "Mike is a perfectionist. He's probably the most brilliant person I've sat across from. A humble, cool cat."
And working with a legend like Jackson has taught Akon a thing or two. "I'm on a whole 'nother level now," he said. "It's all about the presentation. It has to be big, it has to be right."