Blog Posts by Paul Grein

  • Grammy Predictions: The Rap Field

    Kanye West and Jay-Z, whose shelves are already jammed with Grammys, could win three more awards this year: Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. A clean sweep of these three awards would boost West’s Grammy count to 21; Jay-Z’s to 17.

    Watch The Throne, the pair’s chart-topping 2011 collaboration, was nominated for Best Rap Album last year, but lost to West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Even so, one of its tracks, “Otis,” won last year for Best Rap Performance. This year, its most successful track, “N****s In Paris,” is likely to win two awards. A third track from the album, “No Church In The Wild,” has a good chance to also win.

    Read More »from Grammy Predictions: The Rap Field
  • Week Ending Feb. 3, 2013. Albums: Bieber Sets Teen Record

    Justin Bieber this week becomes the first artist in chart history to land five #1 albums or EPs while still in his teens. The 18-year old achieves the feat as Believe Acoustic enters The Billboard 200 at #1. The album follows My World 2.0, the EP Never Say Never: The Remixes, Under The Mistletoe and Believe.

    Miley Cyrus landed four #1 albums while still in her teens (counting Hannah Montana albums). She scored with Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, Breakout and the Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack, all by age 16. In third place is Britney Spears, who landed three #1 albums while still in her teens. She scored with …Baby One More Time, Oops!...I Did It Again and Britney, all by age 19.

    Read More »from Week Ending Feb. 3, 2013. Albums: Bieber Sets Teen Record
  • Grammy Predictions: The R&B Field

    Beyonce is vying for her 17th Grammy, which would put her just one behind Aretha Franklin for the most by an African American woman in Grammy history. B is nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Love On Top,” the fourth single from her 2011 album 4. (It would be Beyonce’s first win since her six-Grammy sweep three years ago.)

    Miguel, a Song of the Year finalist for “Adorn,” is likely to win two Grammys in the R&B field.

    Best R&B Album

    The nominees: Robert Glasper Experiment’s Black Radio, Anthony Hamilton’s Back To Love, R. Kelly’s Write Me Back, Tamia’s Beautiful Surprise, Tyrese’s Open Invitation

    Read More »from Grammy Predictions: The R&B Field
  • Grammy Predictions: The Country Field

    Women are likely to dominate the awards in the country field. Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift all have a good chance of going home with Grammys this year.

    Best Country Album

    The nominees: Zac Brown Band’s Uncaged, Hunter Hayes’ Hunter Hayes, Jamey Johnson’s Living For A Song: A Tribute To Hank Cochran, Miranda Lambert’s Four The Record, The Time Jumpers’ The Time Jumpers

    Read More »from Grammy Predictions: The Country Field
  • Grammy Preview: The Grammys’ 15 Biggest Goofs

    Like all major award shows, the Grammys have made a few gaffes over the years. There was the time a 40-year old standard was voted Song of the Year. And the time a compilation of old hits won as Album of the Year.

    The Best New Artist category has proved trickiest to get right. There was the singer who won Best New Artist for her sixth album. And the one who had won two Grammys two years earlier for her work with a chart-topping trio. And the one who had landed a top 10 hit the year before the year he won as Best New Artist. And, infamously, the one where the act didn’t sing a note on its album.

    To its credit, the Recording Academy has amended its rules numerous times to prevent repeat occurrences. But some things you can’t prevent—like sympathy and emotion clouding judgment. Or voters just plain missing the boat.

    Here are 15 outcomes that were unsettling for one reason or another. I decided to stick to the “marquee” categories—Album, Record and Song of the Year and Best New Artist. And I tried to focus on cases where Grammy voters missed an opportunity, not just cases where I might happen to like one record or artist more than another. These are listed in reverse chronological order.

    Read More »from Grammy Preview: The Grammys’ 15 Biggest Goofs
  • Grammy Preview: Bruno, Sting, Rihanna

    Bruno Mars will team with Sting and Rihanna in a joint performance on the Grammy Awards telecast on Sunday. Mars’ “Locked Out Of Heaven” echoes the classic sound of Sting’s old band, The Police. (The #1 smash was released after the close of the eligibility year for this year’s awards, but Mars may perform it on the show nonetheless, presumably with an assist from Sting.)

    Rihanna, who had been previously announced as a performer on the show, is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance for her top five hit “Where Have You Been.”

    Read More »from Grammy Preview: Bruno, Sting, Rihanna
  • Grammy Preview: Best New Artists Losers Who Won

    Losing the Grammy for Best New Artist isn’t the end of the world. Look no further than Mumford & Sons, who lost the new artist race two years ago to Esperanza Spalding. This year, they’re the front-runners to win for Album of the Year for their chart-topping sophomore album, Babel.

    The British folk/rock band has plenty of company.

    Here’s a complete list of the 23 artists who were nominated for Best New Artist, didn’t win, but have taken home Grammys for Album, Record or Song of the Year and/or have won honorary, career-capping awards from the Recording Academy. They’re listed in reverse chronological order.

    Read More »from Grammy Preview: Best New Artists Losers Who Won
  • Grammy Preview: Carole King, Bergmans Join The Club

    Carole King and the husband-and-wife team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman are about to join a very exclusive club—songwriters who have won a Grammy for Song of the Year and have also received a career-capping, honorary award from the Recording Academy. King won Song of the Year for 1971’s tender “You’ve Got A Friend.” The Bergmans won for 1974’s movie classic “The Way We Were.” Both will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards on Feb. 10.

    Here’s a complete list of songwriters who have received both of these honors.

    Read More »from Grammy Preview: Carole King, Bergmans Join The Club
  • Grammy Preview: Call Me Maybe Not

    The Recording Academy has announced that Carly Rae Jepsen will present an award on this year’s Grammy telecast on Feb. 10. That almost certainly means that Jepsen wasn’t asked to perform on the show (if she had been, they would have announced her as a performer). This is the second time the academy has slighted Jepsen, whose fizzy “Call Me Maybe” was the second biggest hit of 2012. The first came in December when she was passed over for a nomination for Best New Artist (though she was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance).

    Katy Perry, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban will also present awards on the show, along with Neil Patrick Harris and Kaley Cuoco, who co-star in CBS sitcoms.

    Read More »from Grammy Preview: Call Me Maybe Not
  • Week Ending Jan. 27, 2013. Songs: Another F**kin’ Top 10 Hit

    There was a day when you wouldn’t see “the F word” in the title of a top 10 hit. Times change. “F**kin Problems” by A$AP Rocky featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar jumps from #15 to #10 in its 13th week on the Hot 100. It’s the third top 10 hit in two years with the once-taboo word in its title. P!nk’s “F**kin’ Perfect” peaked at #2 in February 2011. Cee-Lo Green’s “F**k You!” spent four weeks at #2 the following month.

    Two other song titles on this week’s Hot 100 will offend those with tender sensibilities. “Bad Ass” by Kid Ink featuring Meek Mill & Wale debuts at #90. Kendrick Lamar’s “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” re-enters the chart at #98.

    Read More »from Week Ending Jan. 27, 2013. Songs: Another F**kin’ Top 10 Hit

Pagination

(707 Stories)

News for You

  • NYers furious over photos taken through windows

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • Denmark favorite to win Eurovision Song Contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — An ethno-inspired flute and drum tune from Denmark is the bookmakers' favorite to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, which also features a bizarre opera pop number from Romania and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

  • Native American actress proud to walk Cannes red carpet

    By Belinda Goldsmith CANNES (Reuters) - Native American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation. Upham features in "Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst. Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. ...

  • Denmark's de Forest wins Eurovision song contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

  • NYC artist's secret photos raise privacy issues

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • Paul McCartney kicks off "Out There" tour in US

    ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Paul McCartney is kicking off the North American leg of his "Out There" tour in Orlando.

TOP VIDEOS

  1. Can't Hold Us
    1.Macklemore & Ryan … | Warner
  2. 2.P!nk, (f/ Nate Ruess …
  3. 3.Justin Timberlake
  4. 5.Rihanna, (f/ Mikky E …
  5. 6.Selena Gomez
  6. 7.Macklemore & Ryan …
  7. 8.Imagine Dragons
  8. 9.Icona Pop
  9. 10.Florida Georgia Line