The lady-killer with a penchant for jazzy outfits and the cowboy content to hide under his hat lead Georgia’s nominees for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.
Atlanta’s Cee Lo Green, the funky-fresh soul man whose ubiquitous “(Expletive) You” – renamed “Forget You” for radio -- jolted him into public consciousness last fall, and Macon native Jason Aldean, the low-key country singer enjoying a career benchmark with “My Kinda Party,” each tallied three nominations.
"That [best country] album nomination is what artists dream of their whole career," Aldean said in a statement. "And then for both the duet with Kelly and ‘Dirt Road' to get some recognition, which were both different kinds of songs for us this year, it's just incredible."
Meanwhile, Atlanta transplant Chris Tomlin, a worship leader at Passion City Church in Atlanta, scored two nods in Christian music categories.
Georgia-based artists are up for a total of 19 Grammys with other representatives coming from hard rock/metal (Mastodon); gospel (Canton Jones); blues (Gregg Allman); New Age (Michael Brant De Maria); production (Chris "Tricky" Stewart for Rihanna's "Loud"); and engineering/mixing (Kuk Harrell, Phil Tan and Miles Walker for "Loud" and Tan and Walker for Katy Perry's "Firework").
Winners will be announced at the Feb. 12 ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, airing live on CBS.
While British songstress Adele was expected to sweep the nominations, which were announced Wednesday night, it was Atlanta-born, Chicago-reared Kanye West topping the list with seven.
But Adele, whose “21” album is the biggest-selling of 2011, still nabbed six nods, including marquee spots in record and song of the year for “Rolling in the Deep” and album of the year for “21.”
Other multiple nominees include Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars (six each); Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Skrillex and Rihanna (five); and Rihanna, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Drake and Mumford & Sons (four).
Brush-offs included Paul Simon, whose “So Beautiful or So What” album was widely considered his strongest work since 1990’s “The Rhythm of the Saints” yet ignored by Grammy, and usual awards darling Beyoncé, who gleaned a single acknowledgement in the best rap/sung collaboration category with Atlanta’s André 3000.
Other snubs came in the album of the year category, with Taylor Swift’s well-received “Speak Now” and West’s excessively lauded “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” dismissed in favor of the surprising inclusions of Rihanna’s “Loud” and Bruno Mars’ “Doo Wops & Hooligans.” No feigned shock at the other album contenders: the aforementioned “21,” Foo Fighters’ “Wasting Light” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
This year the number of categories has been trimmed from 109 to 78, a somewhat controversial decision by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences that terminated separate categories for male and female artists in various genres and discontinued several categories for instrumental soloists and roots artists, among other eliminations.
Nominations are based on recordings released between Sept. 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2011.
Album of the year – Adele, “21”; Foo Fighters, “Wasting Light”; Lady Gaga, “Born this Way”; Bruno Mars, “Doo Wops & Hooligans”; Rihanna, “Loud.”
Record of the year: Adele, “Rolling in the Deep”; Bon Iver, “Holocene”; Bruno Mars, “Grenade”; Mumford & Sons, “The Cave”; Katy Perry, “Firework.”
Song of the year – Kanye West, “All of the Lights”; Mumford & Sons, “The Cave”; Bruno Mars, “Grenade”; Bon Iver, “Holocene”; Adele, “Rolling in the Deep.”
Best new artist – The Band Perry; Bon Iver; J. Cole; Nicki Minaj; Skrillex
Georgia nominees:
Pop vocal album – Cee Lo Green, “The Lady Killer”
Best traditional R&B performance – Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona, “Fool For You”
Best R&B song -- Cee Lo Green and Melanie Fiona, “Fool For You”
Best hard rock/metal performance – Mastodon, “Curl of the Burl”
Best rap/sung collaboration -- Beyoncé with André 3000, “Party”
Best country solo performance – Jason Aldean, “Dirt Road Anthem”
Best country duo/group performance -- Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, “Don't You Wanna Stay”
Best country album -- Jason Aldean , “My Kinda Party”; Lady Antebellum, “Own the Night”
Best contemporary Christian music song – Chris Tomlin, “I Lift My Hands”
Best contemporary Christian music album – Chris Tomlin, “And If Our God is For Us…”
Best blues album – Gregg Allman, “Low Country Blues”
Best gospel song -- Canton Jones, "Window”
Best new age album -- Michael Brant DeMaria, "Gaia"
Best song written for visual media -- Zac Brown and Wyatt Durrette, “Where the River Goes” (from “Footloose”); Diane Warren for Justin Bieber’s “Born to Be Somebody” (from “Never Say Never”)
Album of the year: Rihanna, "Loud" (produced by Chris "Tricky" Stewart and engineered by Kuk Harrell, Phil Tan and Miles Walker); Bruno Mars, "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" (features B.o.B. and Cee Lo Green)
Record of the year: Katy Perry, "Firework" (engineered/mixed by Phil Tan and Miles Walker)
About the Author
