rrThis is always an interesting time of the year Get More: Music News This is always a very interesting tome of the year I wonder who is going to take the crown this year? Who do you think?
‘You really just want that one person to get what they deserve,’ hip-hop/soul singer tells us. By Kelley L. Carter Adele Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic Not that there’s a bandwagon, but Mary J. Blige says she can’t get enough of Grammy-nominated singer Adele . The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul says that something is wrong if the Brit singer doesn’t walk away with all six of her nominations at Sunday’s Grammy Awards . Adele is up for several big awards Sunday night, including Album, Record and Song of the Year for her work on the critically acclaimed chart-topper 21. “I’m sure an Adele fan and I love what she’s done this year,” Blige said on the red carpet before she took the stage. “Her album was amazing. She’s amazing and I’m just rooting for her. I’m rooting for everybody. But you really just want that one person to get what they deserve. Finally. And not give it to someone else [just] because. Just win all six of her awards, you know?” Grammy winner Blige performed at a private pre-Grammy event on Thursday night at Avalon in Hollywood, where she sang 10 songs including “No More Drama” and “Family Affair.” She sang live for a few hundred fans (though it also was streamlined on Facebook), including famous faces like Forrest Whitaker, Chelsea Handler, Sophia Bush, Malin Akerman, Kelis, Paris Hilton and Natasha Bedingfield. Before performing, Blige explained why it is important to give back as a celebrity. She partnered with Belvedere vodka and RED to help raise funds for the Global Fund, the world’s leading financier of programs to Fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Photos 2012 Grammy Performers
‘It had hit songs and just had quality tracks all the way through,’ Legend says of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. By Kelley L. Carter Kanye West Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images John Legend is bummed that his buddy and collaborator Kanye West isn’t up for one of the biggest awards at the Grammys . The rapper and producer is the most nominated musician going into Sunday, but his work is missing from the coveted Album of the Year category. “Well, I was rooting for Kanye and Jay-Z [ Watch the Throne ] to be nominated for album of the year or Kanye’s album [ My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ] to be nominated for album of the year. So I’m a little disappointed that it’s not,” Legend told MTV News. “I really thought [ MBDTF ] was the best work that was done in popular music this year, as far as a great album that you could listen to all the way through and really enjoy. It had some hit songs and just had … quality tracks all the way through.” That said, he’s tossing his support behind critical favorite Adele . The Brit has many celebrity fans, and many of her musical colleagues are rooting for her to take home the night’s top prize. “I’m really happy for Adele. I think she’s an amazing artist and she seems to be the odds-on favorite to win a lot of awards and she deserves it. And we’ll see what else happens,” Legend said. “It’s hard to call these awards. Sometimes you think you know who’s going to win, but they surprise you.” And what about West? Is he upset that his work didn’t get nominated for Album of the Year? “I don’t want to speak for him,” Legend said, adding, “I was upset that he didn’t. I really felt like I heard a lot of music this year and this was my favorite album. I just think he made two exceptional albums that were both eligible this year. … Maybe they canceled each other out. I wish he was up for Album of the Year.” Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys ; red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Nominees 2012 Grammy Rehearsals Related Artists Kanye West John Legend
Rapper’s critically acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy didn’t make the cut for Sunday’s top prize, and it’s in good company. By Gil Kaufman Kanye West Photo: Getty Images One of the favorite parlor games the morning after the Grammy Awards is the predictable bellyaching about which artists got robbed during the big show. And the category that typically draws the most Monday-morning quarterbacking is the biggest one of the night: Album of the Year. Long before the 54th annual ceremony Sunday night, the drumbeat had already begun about an album that failed to make the list despite its wide critical acclaim and deep musicality. Though he’s the leading nominee at this year’s ceremony with seven nods, Kanye West’s career-defining My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy failed to make the cut for the night’s top prize. Take a closer look at this year’s Grammy nominees through photos! Hip-hop heads grumbled that it was a continuation of the Recording Academy’s inability to think outside the mainstream box when awarding a hip-hop album with its highest honor. While Lauryn Hill and Outkast have won in the past, the denial of West’s richly textured, musically adventurous album puts him in pretty good company when it comes to landmark works that either never got a nomination for the award or failed to close the deal. Among the other (in)famous Grammy Album of the Year snubs: 1992 : If any album over the past 20-plus years could be said to completely define its era — not to mention igniting a complete reordering of the musical world — it was Nirvana’s Nevermind. Released in time to be considered at the 1992 Grammys, the landmark album wasn’t even nominated in a year when the winner was Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable … With Love tribute to her late father. Instead of honoring Nirvana, Grammy voters nominated Christian lightweight Amy Grant, Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M. and Paul Simon. Among the other important works that didn’t even make the list: Guns N’ Roses’ ambitious Use Your Illusion double album set, Ten by Pearl Jam and Achtung Baby by U2. 2001 : In one of the all-time Grammy head-scratchers, that year’s honors went to the first album in 20 years from studio-rat duo Steely Dan, Two Against Nature. The pick was especially galling for rock and rap fans, as it meant that another career-pinnacle work, Radiohead’s twisty Kid A and Eminem’s massive The Marshall Mathers LP, had to settle just for being nominated. 2008 : In a year when West garnered his third Album of the Year nod, the Grammys went old-school again, shocking the world by giving the award to veteran jazzman Herbie Hancock’s 47th studio album, the Joni Mitchell tribute River: The Joni Letters. What albums were passed over in the process? Oh, nothing major, just Amy Winehouse’s hugely influential smash breakthrough Back to Black and West’s Graduation. 2009 : The Academy had another chance to make it up to the hip-hop world the following year when Lil Wayne’s massive Tha Carter III was up for the big one. And even though Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends were solid contenders, the prize once again went to a lesser-heard disc by a veteran, Raising Sand, a folky collaboration between former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and bluegrass star Alison Krauss. Do you have an all-time favorite Album of the Year snub? Let us know in comments below. Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Nominees 2012 Grammy Performers Related Artists Kanye West
Legendary producer Clive Davis agrees, calling this ‘the year of Adele.’ By Kelley L. Carter Adele Photo: Jon Furniss/ WireImage No doubt about it, it’s been the year of Adele . And when one of music’s most respected figures says it, you can’t help but agree. Legendary record producer and music executive Clive Davis sat and talked with R&B singers Brandy and Monica on Thursday, and they were all on the same page when it came to who they wanted to see take home the big prizes at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. They’re fans of Rihanna, but they’d love British singer Adele to win the Grammy for Album of the Year . Both singers are up for the big prize, along with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and the Foo Fighters. “You know, it’s so hard because to me you can’t really choose one person when you know about both of their journeys. Rihanna is somebody I love because she’s OK with self. That’s something that’s always been resonated through her and her music,” Monica said. “I play ‘You Da One’ all day. When I think about my husband I play ‘You Da One.’ “But Adele’s voice is so amazingly beautiful,” Monica continued. “And the fact that she embodies the soul that you [talking to mentor Davis] used to tell me in the early ’90s not to be afraid of … He used to say, ‘Sing it big, sing it strong.’ Looking at her, she does that every time she hits the stage.” Davis added that Adele brings back that old soul, and he appreciates her big voice and style of music. “All the nominees — it’s a worthy thing to get nominated, but this has been the year of Adele,” Davis said. “No disrespect to any other nominee. In this era where there is perhaps too much electronica and dance music … I love it. It’s inventive, but it should not be the totality of what is exposed. She has just come back with pure music. Just throwing her head back and singing out with full voice, but songs that resonate as well.” Davis continued, saying, “It’s been an incredible impact on music and worthy of being singled out, as I’m sure it will be.” As for Brandy, she’s tossing her support behind the singer that her daughter Sy’rai adores. Naturally, it’s Adele. “My daughter is in love with Adele. She listens to her every day,” Brandy said. “To see someone with that much passion and soul move a 9-year-old is amazing and it’s magical.” Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards Pre-Parties Related Artists Adele Monica Brandy
Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland say the new mom looks ‘amazing’ and that Blue Ivy is ‘beautiful.’ By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Kelly Marino Beyonce at the 40 / 40 Club in New York City Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images Earlier this week, new mom Beyonc
Katy Perry, Bon Iver, Bruno Mars and Mumford & Sons are also competing for the prestigious award. By Gil Kaufman Adele, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry Photo: Getty Images Every year has one: a runaway Grammy nominee who sweeps through the top categories and appears to be the juggernaut to beat. This year is no different. While Kanye West is the top nominee with seven nods, Adele is close behind with six nods, including bids in all of the top categories. And while we won’t know whose name will be called until Sunday night’s show, a look at the Record of the Year race is a fine example of why the British songbird might need some help packing her hardware up for the trip back home. Unless you spent time on another planet this year, and even if you did, chances are you heard Adele’s breakthrough hit, “Rolling in the Deep” a dozen or (many) more times. The stirring soul pop gem was the perfect showcase for the singer’s powerful, richly textured voice, and its ebb-and-flow dynamic packed a relationship’s worth of drama into 3:48. In addition to selling nearly 6 million copies of her album, 21, she also moved nearly 6 million copies of the “Deep” single, earning credit for helping to (slightly) pull the long-moribund U.S. record business out of a decade-long slump. But she has some formidable opponents in the Record of the Year race, one of the most prestigious awards handed out, which frequently honors the year’s most successful or notable songs. That might explain how Best New Artist nominee Bon Iver got into the mix with the ethereal “Holocene.” Leader Justin Vernon broke through to the mainstream in 2011 thanks to his own folk-and-AutoTuned compositions, as well as work with West. If “Rolling in the Deep” was inescapable, then Mumford & Sons ‘ “The Cave” was just a few notches below ubiquitous, but still all over the place. The banjo-picking, foot-stomping ditty from the English folk revivalists helped cement their status as a force to be reckoned with, while serving as a nice follow-up to their salty breakthrough, “Little Lion Man.” It also helped keep their multi-platinum debut, Sigh No More, a fixture on the Billboard 200 and iTunes charts throughout the year. Somewhere in between were two huge hits for Katy Perry and Bruno Mars that put a stranglehold on pop radio for much of the spring and summer. Perry’s inspiring “Firework” helped the singer reach elite company on the Billboard charts on her way to landing six top-five hits from a single album , not to mention empowering her young fans to embrace their unique identities. Any way you slice it, it was also a huge year for Mars, who also garnered six Grammy noms for his Doo-Wops & Hooligans debut as well as his producing/songwriting work on songs by other artists. But it was the sweat and toil he put into the endless love tune “Grenade” that made all that hard work pay off. “[We] worked extremely hard on ‘Grenade.’ That was the hardest song on the whole album to finish because we knew we had something, and to get all that emotion out,” Mars told MTV News in December. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we’re really happy that that song is being recognized because that’s like our trophy song.” Chaos! Profanity! Wardrobe malfunctions! Don’t miss Sway and James Montgomery live from the Grammys red carpet this Sunday, February 12, for a full three hours of mayhem, starting at 5 p.m. ET on MTV.com. And the fun doesn’t end Sunday: MTV News has you covered until the Grammy hangover wears off! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Adele’s ‘Magical’ Road To Success Related Photos 2012 Grammy Performers MTV Act | 2012 Grammy Nominees Who Give Back
Lady Gaga and Adele also up for two major pop trophies at Sunday’s show. By Jocelyn Vena Katy Perry in her video for “Firework” Photo: EMI The pop stars nominated at this year’s Grammy Awards couldn’t be more different from one another, both visually and sonically. In the two biggest pop categories, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance, every spectrum of pop is represented: from soulful to candy-colored and everything in between. As the Grammy Awards approach, MTV News will break down the contenders in both categories. So, here we go. Best Pop Vocal Album Adele’s 21 has six nominations under its belt at this year’s show, including the biggie, Album of the Year. Since its release nearly a year ago, Adele’s heartbreak opus reigned on radio, the charts and the collective hearts of the lovelorn everywhere. It boasts production from Ryan Tedder, Paul Epworth and Rick Rubin, and tracks the singer’s heartbreak after a split from a former beau. Cee Lo Green gave the world a big “F— You” with his The Lady Killer , which dropped in November 2010, and the album has sustained its momentum thanks to that one track (and Cee Lo’s “The Voice” gig). The album got some songwriting and production help from fellow nominee, Bruno Mars, and in addition to this nod, its track “Fool for You” is also up for some gold. Lady Gaga’s love-yourself album, Born This Way, is a metal-disco composition about romance, New York City and couture. With production from RedOne, Fernando Garibay and DJ White Shadow, the album was released last May, and while the sound looked to the future, it also paid homage to her past when she enlisted the late Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Brian May of Queen. Bruno Mars crooned his way to the top of the charts with his debut album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Displaying his love for melodies and lyrics about love and loss, Mars’ experiment in mixing doo-wop and new millennium production value managed to make him a household name and a big-time nominee. Album of the Year-nominated Loud was Rihanna’s return to form. After a dark turn on Rated R, Ri was feeling sunnier, saucier and sassier on the 2010 album that featured production from Stargate and Tricky Stewart and tracks like the fist-pumping “Only Girl (In The World)” and the reggae-influenced “Man Down.” Best Pop Solo Performance On “Someone Like You,” Adele’s big voice and knack for heartache was on full display. The second 21 single got a songwriting and production assist from Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson (the guy who gave us “Closing Time” in the ’90s) and follows Adele as she comes to terms with the loss of her former flame. Like Adele, Bruno Mars put his heart and soul on the line on the Doo-Wops & Hooligans uber-ballad, “Grenade.” The song, produced by the Mars-fronted the Smeezingtons, tracks a distraught man as he realizes the woman he loves doesn’t feel the same way about him. Lady Gaga had been teasing “You and I” for some time, but before the finished version appeared on Born This Way, no one could have guessed what May, Gaga and super producer Mutt Lange could have cooked up. What they released was a funky, smashing ode to reclaiming lost love. Katy Perry hadn’t touched on deeper issues on earlier singles, but when it came to her Teenage Dream feel-good anthem, “Firework,” she went there and it took on a life of its own. With Ester Dean and Stargate working with Perry on the song, it topped the charts and became the fourth in a record-breaking string of #1 hits off that album. Like Perry, Pink gave a voice to the disenfranchised on “F—in’ Perfect” (off her greatest hits collection that dropped in 2010). Working with Max Martin and Shellback on the track, she hit the top of the charts and empowered her fans thanks lyrics like, “You’re f—ing perfect to me.” Who do you think will “pop” at the Grammys this year? Leave your predictions below! Related Videos A Guide To The Grammys 2012 Related Photos 2012 Grammy Awards Pre-Parties 2012 Grammy Performers Related Artists Katy Perry Rihanna
Avril Lavigne, deadmau5 and Nickelback were also nominated for Canadian music awards. By Jocelyn Vena Justin Bieber Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/ Getty Images Just days before the Grammy Awards are handed out here in the States, the nominees for the Canadian version of the music awards show, the Juno Awards, were announced on Tuesday (February 7) with Drake , Justin Bieber and Michael Bubl
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