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'Mariah likely Grammy winner'
08/12/2005 16:43 - (SA)
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| Mariah Carey arrives at the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy Honours 2005 in New York. Honourees included Carey, Jay -Z, Yoko Ono and the late John Lennon and composer Howard Shore. (Stephen Chernin, AP) |
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New York - Mariah had a comeback year, 50 Cent dropped another multiplatinum album, Coldplay was hot and Kanye West beat the sophomore jinx. Gwen Stefani made us holla, and Kelly Clarkson revelled in being free and the Black Eyed Peas celebrated those lovely lady lumps.
But while a lot of artists combined for some memorable music this year, few dominated the music scene like in years' past. So it's unlikely that one name will dominate this year's Grammy nominations, which were to be announced in New York on Thursday. Instead, expect a few top acts to get the lion's share of the nominations.
"I think Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani and Kanye West are going to be going at it for who has the most awards," says Steve Stoute, a former music industry executive who has remained tapped into the scene through his company Translations, which links top music superstars with commercial products. "They have songs that have song-of-the-year potential on their albums."
Carey tipped to be a winner
Carey, he feels, is likely to be chief among the group. Her career had been languishing in recent years, and some industry insiders doubted whether the multi-octave singer could return to her multi-platinum ways after a series of debacles, including a breakdown and being bought out of her record contract with Virgin Records.
The Emancipation of Mimi proved the sceptics wrong, however. Not only did it sell more than four million copies, making it the No 2 best-selling album of the year, it also spawned one of the year's most popular songs, the torch ballad We Belong Together.
"I think Mariah Carey has a really big chance of making a really big statement," said Stoute. "I think Mariah Carey is the big winner."
Carey is expected to be nominated in the top categories, including album of the year and perhaps song and record of the year for We Belong Together.
Tough competition
The year's top-selling disc belongs to rapper 50 Cent for The Massacre. But while he's expected to get nods in the rap categories, it is unlikely the album will get any serious consideration in the more mainstream categories; his 2003 debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin' that year's best-seller, was completely shut out by Grammy voters the next year despite receiving nominations.
The rapper more likely to get an album of the year nod is Kanye West, who earned an album-of-the-year nomination at the last Grammys for his 2004 debut, The College Dropout. His follow-up, Late Registration, also garnered glowing reviews; in addition, he had one of the year's biggest singles with the Ray Charles-inspired Gold Digger, with Jamie Foxx. West could be honoured in both album and record of the year categories, as well as in the rap categories.
Other likely nominees for album of the year include Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. The No Doubt frontwoman's kitschy solo debut mined '80s pop and soul and was a fan favourite thanks to her nonsensical but irresistible hit, Hollaback Girl.
- AP
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