49th Annual Grammy Awards
Diversity among nominees provides stiff competition for coveted awards
By Jess Novak, staff writer
Posted on February 9, 2007

Music lovers, it’s that time of year again. While last Sunday marked the biggest holiday of the year for sports fans, this coming Sunday night is made for musicians.

The 49th annual Grammy Awards will be held at the Staples Center in L.A. this year and will feature performances by the Dixie Chicks, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley and Beyoncé, among others. Some of the major presenters include Pink, Rihanna, Terrence Howard and Samuel L. Jackson.

The winners of the awards are decided by members of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. which is comprised of prominent musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals active in the industry. Members vote on music released between October 2005 and September 2006 without considering artists’ chart position or sales, making the Grammy Awards unique and extremely unpredictable. However, among the 108 awards to be given that night, there are a few worth speculating.

Arguably, the most coveted awards include Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist, and each nominee is a worthy contestant.

The Record of the Year category is full of stiff competition this year. “Be Without You” by Mary J. Blige, who also managed to rack up the most nominations this year with a grand total of eight, is a potential favorite. Blige faces “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt, “Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks, “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley and “Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae. The diverse group of nominees reflects the shifting tastes in music with a political country tune, the new and innovative creation of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley and a new English songstress looking to follow in footsteps similar to Norah Jones. (However, Rae is only nominated for three awards while Jones walked away with an astounding eight in 2003, making her the first artist to sweep the big four categories mentioned above.)

Another difficult category to predict is Album of the Year, where the Dixie Chicks, Gnarls Barkley, John Mayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Justin Timberlake will face off. The interesting mix of musical genres includes two politically charged albums between the Dixie Chicks’ controversial Taking the Long Way and Mayer’s Continuum, which features “Waiting on the World to Change,” the song that won Mayer his nominations for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Yet, between the political undertones, the Chili Peppers’ mighty return, Gnarls Barkley’s unexpected impact on the music scene this past year and Justin Timberlake’s seemingly successful attempt to bring sexy back, the NARAS has a tough decision to make.

Hopefuls for the Song of the Year award consist of a familiar group names, including Blige, Carrie Underwood, the Dixie Chicks, Blunt and  Rae, while Best New Artist will be awarded to James Blunt, Chris Brown, Imogen Heap, Corinne Bailey Rae or  Underwood.

Artists with a considerable number of nominations include Underwood and  Timberlake, both with four nominations, Prince, Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks each with five nominations and the Red Hot Chili Peppers with six.

Besides all of the talented artists nominated, this year’s Grammy Awards is exciting for another reason. For the first time, The Hard Rock Café will be hosting telecast viewings of the show for local Academy members and ticket winners in 10 cities across the country. In addition, each of the awards not shown during the live telecast on Sunday night will be broadcast on XM satellite radio over the Grammy Radio Channel. So, those who are just dying to hear who won Best Hawaiian Music Album (yes, that’s a category) know where to go.

By utilizing a unique peer-review system of decision-making to determine the winners, the Grammy Awards are sure to deliver many surprises, and at the very least, some exciting performances. Let’s also not forget the plethora of red-carpet moments. Who knows, maybe someone will wear a dress that will cause as much controversy as J.Lo’s down-to-there green dress did back in 2000. We can only hope.