Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift favorites at Grammys

LOS ANGELES -- Socially conscious rapper Kendrick Lamar leads nominations going into the Grammy Awards on Monday but he faces tough competition led by pop superstar Taylor Swift.

A diverse array of artists is in contention at the music industry's premier awards ceremony, an action-packed evening that will feature performances by leading stars and tributes to deceased legends.

Nominees for Album of the Year, the most prestigious award, include Lamar's experimental rap opus "To Pimp a Butterfly" and Swift's pop blockbuster "1989."

Other albums in contention are "Sound and Color" by acclaimed bluesy indie rockers Alabama Shakes, rising Canadian R&B star The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind the Madness" and Chris Stapleton's "Traveller," the first solo album by a long behind-the-scenes country songwriter which he released at age 37.

Lamar is nominated in 11 Grammys, the most for any artist in a single night except Michael Jackson in the era of "Thriller," the top-selling album of all time.

"To Pimp a Butterfly" breaks free from commercial formulas by running for nearly 80 minutes with a jazz backdrop and lengthy interludes of spoken word.

Much of the album is a rumination on the state of US race relations, with "Alright" -- nominated for Song of the Year -- an unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality.

Lamar's hometown of Compton, the notoriously rough Los Angeles County city that gave birth to gangsta rap, on Saturday presented the 28-year-old rapper with an honorary key.

"Through all the pain and hardship -- losing family members, losing homeboys -- for some reason we always still love Compton because we have faith," he told students who danced to his songs.

Swift in top categories

The gala, which will be broadcast live from Los Angeles, will notably include a performance by British ballad singer Adele, whose record-shattering album "25" came out too late for this year's Grammys.

Lady Gaga will honor late rock icon David Bowie in a "multisensory" show designed with chip-maker Intel that Grammy producers have billed as one of the awards' most ambitious ever.

While Lamar leads in nominations, many pundits are betting on a successful night for Swift, whose "1989" was by far the top-selling album in the qualifying period.

"1989" marked the full metamorphosis of the teenage country prodigy into pop, with production by the Swedish hit machine Max Martin.

Swift, 26, also made waves in the rapidly evolving music industry by becoming the pre-eminent critic of leading streaming site Spotify, objecting to its free tier.

Singles on "1989" include "Blank Space," a dark pop song that plays on gossip about Swift's dating life and whose video, in which the star brawls in a castle, is the second most watched clip ever on YouTube.

"Blank Space" is nominated both for Record of the Year, which recognizes singles, and Song of the Year, which awards songwriters.

Also in the running in both categories is English singer Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," a love ballad backed by acoustic guitar that has quickly become a favorite at weddings.

But a leading contender for Record of the Year is "Uptown Funk," the breakthrough single by veteran British producer Mark Ronson with vocals by Bruno Mars.

The instantly danceable song, which is reminiscent of the funky Minneapolis Sound popularized by Prince in the 1980s, spent 14 weeks at the top of the US singles chart, tying for second place on the all-time list.

Rising fame for The Weeknd
Swift and The Weeknd each have seven nominations, tying for second place after Lamar.

The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye and was born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrants, has enjoyed a rapid career rise since his start uploading songs on the Internet in near anonymity in 2010.

The 25-year-old, whose falsetto voice and pop R&B sound have invited comparisons to Michael Jackson, is nominated for Record of the Year for chart-topping single "Can't Feel My Face."

Stephan Moccio, a producer who co-wrote several songs on the album, "Beauty Behind the Madness," said he was hopeful for The Weeknd's prospects but also praised Lamar and Alabama Shakes.

"Obviously I'm excited for The Weeknd. I'm also hugely excited for Kendrick Lamar and what his album means to us for the cultural value," he told AFP.

"You can't really say one is better than the other. They are all different and they all deserve to win," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Lady Gaga readies experimental Grammy tribute to Bowie

LOS ANGELES, United States – Lady Gaga is promising a technologically ambitious, "multisensory" David Bowie tribute at the Grammy Awards she hopes will befit the famously experimental rock legend.

The music industry's biggest night takes place Monday barely a month after the shocking death of Bowie, who over his half-century career became one of the most influential figures in pop culture.

Lady Gaga, known for her brash outfits and sexual openness, is among the contemporary artists who is most obviously inspired by Bowie, the pioneer of glam rock.

Grammy producers have raised expectations for Lady Gaga's tribute, saying it will be groundbreaking.

"I don't know that we've ever done anything quite as elaborate as this," said Eric Cook, the supervising producer of the Grammys.

"This is obviously an ambitious performance and we're all really excited about it," he said in a video preview.

Chip-maker Intel said it developed effects for the performance at the Grammys, which will be broadcast live from Los Angeles.

"We've used technology to almost be an extension of Gaga. As she moves, the environment around her is responding to her, and that's because of the real-time technologies that we've incorporated into it," said Paul Tapp, Intel's director of technology.

The Recording Academy, which stages the awards, said in a statement that Lady Gaga would offer "a multisensory testament to the icon's incredible artistry and limitless creativity."

She will team up with Nile Rodgers of Chic fame, a friend of Bowie who worked with the British singer on his disco-tinged 1983 "Let's Dance" album.

New image for Gaga

A headline-grabbing performance would mark a return to form for the singer born as Stefani Germanotta, who since her rise to stardom nearly a decade ago has delighted in provocative gestures and outfits, most notoriously a dress made of meat she wore to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010.

Much like the chameleonic Bowie, Gaga has reinvented herself. In the past two years she has refashioned herself as a classic crooner, teaming up with the 89-year-old Tony Bennett for an album and concert tour of pop standards.

The Grammys come one week after Lady Gaga, who turns 30 next month, won wide praise for an emotionally intense delivery of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, the most watched US television broadcast of the year.

Lady Gaga, who plans a new album this year but has released few details about it, has said that she "fell in love" with Bowie's music when she was a struggling artist on New York's bustling Lower East Side.

"I always felt that his glamour was something he was using to express a message to people that was very healing for their souls," she told The Hollywood Reporter days before Bowie died.

Bowie died on January 10 from a publicly undisclosed battle with cancer, two days after he released his final album, "Blackstar," on his 69th birthday.

Despite the all-out effort behind the tribute, Bowie in his life won only one Grammy besides a lifetime achievement award.

He lived in New York for the final two decades of his life but always enjoyed greater mainstream success in Britain and several other European countries, with "Blackstar" his first, albeit posthumous, US number one album.

Many tributes

Bowie's death has triggered a flurry of tributes with fresh cover albums already coming out.

Amanda Palmer, the outspoken neo-punk artist, recently released an EP of Bowie covers, "Strung Out in Heaven," that features acclaimed English singer Anna Calvi performing "Blackstar."

A British tabloid reported that prolific rapper Kanye West was planning his own Bowie tribute, leading fans to start a petition against the prospect.

Bowie is one of a number of prominent musicians to have died recently.

The Grammys also plans a performance by the surviving Eagles to honor late guitarist Glenn Frey and a tribute to late "King of the Blues" B.B. King.

Living members of funk legends Earth, Wind & Fire, whose founder Maurice White died last week, will present the Grammy for Record of the Year.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com