SANTA MONICA, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Recording Academy) - Current GRAMMY Award nominees Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, and
Katy Perry are the first performers announced for the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast. The music industry's premier event will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 8, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound on the CBS Television Network from 8 - 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The show also will be supported on radio via Westwood One worldwide, and covered online at GRAMMY.com and CBS.com, on Twitter at "theGRAMMYs," on Facebook at "The Recording Academy," on YouTube at "51stGRAMMYs," and on Last.fm at "the51stgrammys." Additional performers, presenters and special segments will be announced soon.
Lil Wayne leads with eight nominations: Album Of The Year and Best Rap Album for Tha Carter III; Best Rap Solo Performance ("A Milli"); two nods in Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group ("Swagga Like Us" and "Mr. Carter"); Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ("Got Money"); two nods in Best Rap Song ("Lollipop" and "Swagga Like Us").
Four-time GRAMMY winner Coldplay has seven nods: Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals for "Viva La Vida"; Album Of The Year and Best Rock Album for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends; and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals and Best Rock Song for "Violet Hill."
Kenny Chesney is nominated for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals ("Shiftwork").
Two of music's newest stars, Jonas Brothers and Katy Perry, each are nominated: Jonas Brothers for Best New Artist and Katy Perry for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance ("I Kissed A Girl"). As previously announced, Katy Perry will perform as part of this year's "My GRAMMY Moment" segment on the telecast. Produced in partnership with CBS.com, music fans can upload a 30- to 60-second video of themselves singing along to a portion of Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" to www.cbs.com/grammys through Feb. 6. Videos will be voted on by fans and the public-at-large, and the most popular videos will be shown as part of Perry's performance on Music's Biggest Night, allowing them to virtually share music's biggest stage with the current GRAMMY nominee.
The 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards are produced by John Cossette Productions in association with AEG Ehrlich Ventures for The Recording Academy. Ken Ehrlich and John Cossette are executive producers, Walter C. Miller is producer/director, and Tisha Fein is the coordinating producer. Musical directors for the telecast and pre-telecast are Rickey Minor and Larry Batiste, respectively.
