NEW YORK (RCA
Music Group) - J Records artist
Alicia Keys collected eight nominations - including Album of the Year and Song Of the Year honors - to dominate the front-runners once again for the upcoming 47th annual Grammy awards, it was announced yesterday during the press reception telecast live from Los Angeles.
With nominations pouring in for RCA's
Velvet Revolver, J's
Maroon 5 and Rod Stewart, Arista's
Sarah McLachlan, J's Angie Stone, and RCA Victor's Etta James, Bluebird artists
Fourplay and
Harvey Mason, and RCA Victor's original Broadway Cast recording of Avenue Q - The Musical - the entire RCA
Music Group generated a total of 20 Grammy Award nominations.
Alicia Keys tied Usher with a stunning eight nominations each. The Diary Of Alicia Keys, a triple-platinum phenomenon that has sold over 6 million copies around the world, is nominated for Album Of the Year and Best R&B Album.
It spun off a string of hits that all received nominations, including "If I Ain't Got You" (Song Of the Year and Best Female R&B Vocal), "Diary" featuring Tony! Toni! Tone (Best R&B Performance Duo/Group), and "You Don't Know My Name" (Best R&B Song). Alicia's duet with Usher "My Boo" from his Confessions Special Edition album was also nominated for two awards (Best R&B Performance Duo/Group and Best R&B Song.)
"YEAH!!!!!" beamed Alicia today. "This is so exciting, what a year this has been! I've grown, experienced, learned, and lived in so many ways. This is such a great honor for me as an artist ... I'm humbled and grateful." Three years ago, Alicia's debut album Songs In A Minor, which is 6-times platinum in the U.S. and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, generated five Grammy Awards including Song Of the Year, Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal (all for "Fallin'"), Best R&B Album, and Best New Artist.
Velvet Revolver, the super-group comprised of former Stone Temple Pilot frontman Scott Weiland, three-fifths of the original Guns 'N' Roses lineup (guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt Sorum), and guitarist Dave Kushner - swept this year's Rock field as their debut album, Contraband, generated three nominations: Best Rock Album, Best Hard Rock Performance (for "Slither"), and Best Rock Song ("Fall To Pieces"). The band's third single, "Dirty Little Thing" is currently No 1 most added at rock radio.
The Academy recognized the breakthrough success of Los Angeles-based neo-soul-rock band Maroon 5 honoring them with a Best New Artist nomination. The band made a huge impression with their debut album, Songs About Jane, which has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. The album has spawned No 1 hits "This Love," "She Will Be Loved" and the band's current hit single "Sunday Morning" was recently the No 1 most added record at Top 40 radio. "She Will Be Loved" is nominated for Best Pop Performance Duo/Group.
Rod Stewart's nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Stardust The Great American Songbook Volume III is the 14th Grammy nomination of his career - and his third consecutive nomination in this category (following the multi-platinum releases As Time Goes By ... The Great American Songbook, Volume II last year, and the original It Had To Be You ... The Great American Songbook the year before).
"It is an honor to have been nominated for each of these Songbook albums," he said today. "Although I have never won a Grammy, this is my 14th nomination. And frankly, I couldn't think of anything more rewarding to coincide with my upcoming 39th birthday early next year." His One Night Only! Rod Stewart Live At Royal Albert Hall DVD arrived in stores yesterday.
Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow (featuring the hit single "Fallen") was her first studio album in six years when it was released in November 2003, and is nominated as Best Pop Vocal Album. Angie Stone's third album, Stone Love, features the track "U-Haul," nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal.
Congratulations are extended to J Records artists Jamie Foxx, who is nominated with Twista and Kanye West on "Slow Jamz" for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration; and Annie Lennox, who is nominated as one of the writers of "Into The West" (from Lord of the Rings -The Return of the King) in the category of Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.
Fourplay is a classic supergroup as well - in the jazz sense, made up of guitarist Larry Carlton, Bob James on keyboards, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Harvey Mason, all award-winning leaders and session players with literally thousands of credits between them. Their second album, Journey, is nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Mason's side project, With All My Heart, an album of jazz trio performances by 11 different lineups, includes a contribution by pianist Herbie Hancock, his classic Miles Davis theme "Speak Like a Child," nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.
Etta James' Blues To the Bone found her returning to her first love for an entire album of blues gems from Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, and other masters. With a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame to add to her two Grammy awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award, and several W.C. Handy awards, her latest set is truly worthy of its nomination in the Best Traditional Blues Album category.
Winner of Tony awards last year for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book, Avenue Q - The Musical has turned into one of Broadway's favorite shows. Produced by Jay David Saks, with music by composers/lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, and book by Jeff Whitty, Avenue Q is nominated Best Musical Show Album.
The 47th annual Grammy Awards will be held on "Grammy Sunday," February 13, 2005, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will again be broadcast in High Definition TV and 5.1 Surround Sound on the CBS television network (and around the world), 8:00-11:30 p.m. (EST/PST). Ballots for the final round of voting will be mailed on December 15th to the voting members of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Science; the ballots are due back to the accounting firm of Deloitte by January 12th.
