Grammy Awards 2010: Who Will Win Best New Artist?
Yesterday we offered our predictions for what will happen in all the major pop categories for the 2010 Grammy Awards, so today we turn our focus toward the list of hopefuls up for sometimes-cursed Best New Artist—i.e. the one field Beyonce and Taylor Swift aren’t front-runnners.
BEST NEW ARTIST NOMINEES Keri Hilson MGMT Silversun Pickups The Ting Tings Zac Brown Band
THOUGHTS ON THE NOMINEES: Given the fact that she snagged nods in the Record, Song and Album Of The Year categories, it’s hard to believe there was ever even a minor controversy over Lady Gaga being shut out for Best New Artist. That said, it seriously might be high time for the National Academy Of Recording Arts & Sciences to go into to the basement, knock the dust off Ye Ol’ Grammy Rule Book and take a stab at re-writing the procedures for picking artists in this notoriously vague category.
The Academy defines nominees for Best New Artist as “any performing artist who releases, during the eligibility year, the recording that first establishes the public identity of that artist as a performer.”
And so while we totally get that Keri Hilson’s In A Perfect World… dropped in March 2009, c’mon—she featured quite prominently on Timbaland’s major Top 10 hit “The Way I Are” waaaaay back in 2007. And while the Ting Tings and MGMT saw their debut albums released in early 2008 (which technically would have made them eligible for Best New Artist a year ago), Silversun Pickups’ first LP Carnavas was released in 2006! That “establishes the public identity” definition couldn’t be any squishier.
At least Zac Brown Band’s major label debut wasn’t offered up until November 2008. Anyway, we digress.
WILL WIN: Keri Hilson. Academy voters may well lean toward Hilson, who has paid her dues as both a songwriter for other artists (Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” Timbaland’s “The Way I Are”) and a singer. It doesn’t hurt that, out of all the nominees for Best New Artist, she landed the biggest smash last year with “Knock You Down.”
SHOULD WIN: The Ting Tings. While we totally dig Keri, the Tings’ Katie White and Jules De Martino have been hopping back and forth between the U.K. and our side of the pond for two years now promoting We Started Nothing and its little indie-hits-that-could, “That’s Not My Name” and “Shut Up And Let Me Go.” (Most recently, they hit up SNL two weekends ago.) It’d be great to see them earn a golden Grammy payoff for their efforts before they move on to sophomore album Kunst, which is due out this summer (with a little help from Jay-Z, if rumors are true).
What do you think? Tell us.
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