Well, it's Grammy time again.
Didn't it seem like it was only yesterday when Ricky Martin shook his "bon-bon" with his electrifying performance of "La Copa de la Vida" during last year's Grammy Award broadcast?
Where did the year go?
Anyway, earlier this week, the new Grammy nominees were announced. (The Deseret News ran the entire list Wednesday.)
THE BIG NEWS IS UTAH will be represented in two of the 98 categories — SHeDaisy's name was mentioned twice.
The first nod was given to the song "Little Goodbyes," in the Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal category. The Osborne girls are up against BR5—49's "Honky Tonk Song," Diamond Rio's "Unbelievable," Lonestar's "Amazed" and the Dixie Chicks' "Ready to Run."
The second tip of the hat was given to SHeDaisy's producer, Dann Huff. He was nominated for his work on SHeDaisy's album, "The Whole SheBang," and Bryan White's "How Lucky I Am." Huff will be competing against Walter Afanasieff (Ricky Martin and Barbra Streisand), Rob Cavallo (Eric Clapton and Phil Collins), Rick Rubin (Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Matt Serletic (Santana).
AS MENTIONED, this year's Grammys feature 98 categories — that's three more than last year.
Two of the three new categories were obviously inspired by the huge Latin music boom — Best Salsa Performance and Best Merengue Performance.
The Salsa nominees include Oscar D'Leon ("La Formula Original"), Dark Latin Groove ("Gotcha!"), India ("Sola"), Los Van Van ("Llego. . . : Van Van Is Here") and Jerry Rivera ("De Otra Manera").
As for Merengue, the nominees are Elvis Crespo ("Pintame"), Gisselle ("Atada"), Grupo Mania ("The Dynasty"), Jailene ("Encontre el Amor") and Manny Manuel ("Lleno de Vida").
The third new category is for Best Soundtrack Album: Those nominees are "American Beauty" (Various Artists), "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" (Various Artists), "The Matrix" (Various Artists), "The Prince of Egypt" (Various Artists) and "Tarzan" (Phil Collins).
OTHER THAN THOSE few changes, the Grammy categories are pretty much what was expected, except that Carlos Santana nabbed 10 nominations and Ricky Martin only got three.
Technically, Martin got only two — Record of the Year and Male Pop Vocal Performance. The other nomination was for Song of the Year. But if Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" wins, the award will go to the songwriters, Desmond Child and Robi Rosa, not Martin.
Additional nominees include the usual pop filler — Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, TLC, Christine Aguilera and Cher.
Well, to be really nitpicky, maybe the computer wizard who enhanced Cher's artificial sounding vocals for "Believe" should have been nominated.
WITH THE GRAMMYS, there is always speculation; anyone remember the Best New Artist curse?
Hootie & the Blowfish, LeAnn Rimes and Paula Cole were all recipients of this award, and they've all disappeared from radio playlists.
This year's Best New Artist nominees are Christina Aguilera, Macy Gray, Kid Rock, Britney Spears and Susan Tedeschi.
If the curse is still in effect, here's hoping for a three-way tie — Aguilera, Rock and Spears.