The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards is taking place on Sunday January 31 at 8pm and I cannot wait!!! As reported on RCS, Beyonce is up ten nominations but some of the other nominees/categories of interest to me include, Best Male Pop Vocal. In this “Pop” category, R&B crooners Maxwell and John Legend are pitted against each other along with Jason Mraz, Stevie Wonder and Heidi Klum”s favorite singer, her husband Seal. Ok, here’s another very interesting horse race: Best Performance by a Duo or
Group (Vocals). In this category the nominees include Hall & Oates, Bon Jovi and the Black Eyed Peas – cannot wait to see who wins that one!! Old vs. young, trendy vs. classic, etc. But my favorite quirky nomination category has to be Best Pop Collaboration. Here we have the likes of Justin Timberlake/Ciara pitted against Norah Jones and Willie Nelson!! Love it and cannot wait to tune in!
Naturally, of most interest to me is the Reggae category. This year’s nominees for Reggae Album of the year are, Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton, Brand New Me Gregory Isaacs, Awake, Julian Marley, Mind Control – Acoustic (Stephen Marley) and Imperial Blaze (Sean Paul). Big ups to all the nominees but I want to see Buju win this category. He has long and hard in the reggae business and, in my opinion, the Grammy award is long overdue. That being said the gay rights community has lobbied against Buju’s nomination making a win very unlikely. That fact coupled with Buju currently incarcerated on drug charges does not bode well for my personal favorite reggae artist.
Visit the Grammy website for a full list of nominees.
