It's that time of year once again when the music industry does its best to highlight the brightest spots of the previous year in music. Although the Grammys are notorious for offering up a few surprises, especially in the big" categories," it's a good bet this time around will be pretty straight forward.
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards will be about one young artist - Taylor Swift. Expect her to sweep in the coveted Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year categories in addition to some country and a few pop categories.
Just like last year, I'm taking a stab at how Idol alums will fare tonight. My predictions are below:
Best Pop Vocal Album: The Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)
Kelly Clarkson definitely deserves the nomination for her fourth album All I Ever Wanted, and many will argue the album deserves the win. But this category will be reserved as a place to make up for The Black Eyed Peas not taking home a statue in some of the bigger categories. Therefore, it seems likely that their multi-platinum The E.N.D. will triumph this time around. Still, many media outlets are calling this for Kelly, so there could still be some good surprises tonight.
Best Female Country Vocal Performance: Carrie Underwood, "Just A Dream"
Swift will be bringing home a whole lotta gold tonight, but the "Best Female Country Vocal Performance" category will not have her name reserved on the winner's envelope. Her "White Horse" entry was not as well-known as some of her more popular singles, and Carrie Underwood's #1 "Just a Dream" hasn't really had the chance to win her some hardware. Add to this the fact that Carrie is a perennial favorite to win at the Grammys and things look bright for her going into tonight.
Best Country Collaboration With Vocals: Brad Paisley & Keith Urban, "Start a Band"
Since Carrie should be victorious in "Female Country Vocal Performance," the fact that she and Randy Travis will lose out here shouldn't be too hard to stomach. Brad Paisley and Keith Urban won for "Start a Band" at last year's Academy of Country Music Awards, and they are good bets to repeat tonight.
Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album: Jeremy Camp, Speaking Louder Than Before
Admittedly this category is hard for me to gauge, and even though Mandisa's Freedom is a great album, it seems unlikely that she will be recognized for this LP over the more commercially successful Speaking Louder Than Before. Therefore, it appears her record at the Grammys will be extended to 0-2.
Best Musical Show Album: David Caddick & David Lai, producers (Leonard Bernstein, composer; Stephen Sondheim, lyricist) (New Broadway Cast with Matt Cavenaugh, Josefina Scaglione & Others), West Side Story
The last category isn't so much a referendum on the Idol alums attached to their respective entry (Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis on the 30th anniversary cast recording of Ain't Misbehavin') as it is the popularity of the shows themselves. That said, West Side Story is a classic that has always received widespread accolades, and the recent revival has been a success, so it only seems fitting it takes this category.
Even though I don't have every Idol alum nominated taking home a Grammy, I hope I'm wrong on the ones I don't have confidence in. It's always good to seem alums recognized for their work in the industry. And it'll be worth tuning in just to see Carrie and Jennifer Hudson partake in the tribute to Michael Jackson.
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards air at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Sunday, January 31, 2010
IDOL LIVE predix: Alums at the Grammys
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood among 2010 Grammy Award nominees
Tonight's Grammy Award Nomination Concert on CBS lacked any mention of anything Idol (with the exception of second-long clips of Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry singing along in a montage of The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" and a clip of Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" music video), there were a few nominations for alums of the franchise, which can be seen below:
Best Pop Vocal Album - All I Ever Wanted, Kelly Clarkson
Best Female Country Vocal Performance - "Just A Dream," Carrie Underwood
Best Country Collaboration With Vocals - "I Told You So," Carrie Underwood & Randy Travis
Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album - Freedom, Mandisa
Best Musical Show Album - Ain't Misbehavin' Robert Sher, producer (Various, composer; Various, lyricist) (30th Anniversary Cast Recording With Ruben Studdard, Frenchie Davis & Others)
Although there seem to be less Idol nominees this year than last, it's always good to see at least some thrown in the mix. Still, the fact that none are represented in the major categories is a little disappointing.
The 2010 Grammy Awards will air on CBS on Sun., Jan. 31, at 8 p.m. ET. A full list of nominees for all categories can be found here.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
'Idol' BB 200: 'All I Ever Wanted' #14 (4/18/09)
The biggest Idol-related story on the latest Billboard Top 200 chart was without a doubt the rise of David Cook, but Kelly Clarkson was still able to hang on to the title of highest charting album by an alum for the chart week of April 18.
Kelly's All I Ever Wanted fell nine spots to #14 as a result of a 34% sales drop to 33.9k, but her total is reaching closer to the all-important gold status, currently resting at 431.1k copies. Then it was David Cook's turn, as his self-titled album spiked an admirable 239% to 24.8k copies following his performance of new single "Come Back to Me" on the Top 9 results show. On the chart side, it lunged forward 58 spots to #20 and it has now sold 1.068 million.
Following Cook was Carrie Underwood and her crazy Carnival Ride, which slipped #31-33 with a 3% sales dip to 16.2k copies for a grand total of 2.736 million. Way down the chart at #89 was Jennifer Hudson's self-titled album, down seven spots on the chart but up 8% sales-wise from the previous week. The album's weekly take of 7.6k was enough to put its total at 690.8k copies.
Next was Mandisa's Freedom, which was down #83-123 and 27% from its debut week to 5.1k copies. It now has a Billboard total of 7k. 30 spots down at #153 was David Archuleta and his self-titled album, which took in 4k for the week. It slipped five spots but saw a sales increase of 3% from the previous week and now stands at 676.9k copies overall.
Following Arch one spot behind was Daughtry, whose album moved another 4k copies thanks to a rise in sales by 12% and a one-spot advance on the chart from #155. It has sold 4.412 million to date. Someone that has not seen the Billboard 200 in a while is Clay Aiken, whose RCA quick-buck compilation Playlist: The Very Best of Clay Aiken debuted at #173 with 3.4k copies. Look for an exit on next week's chart.
And rounding out the Idol-representation on the chart was David Foster's Hit Man CD/DVD, which slipped 25% in sales and was down #128-176 on the chart, taking in another 3.3k copies. Its total is now at 179.8k.
Full sales figures and chart positions courtesy of Not Completely Useless on Pulse as follows:
014 005 Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted 33,897 -34% 51,608 431,129
020 078 David Cook - David Cook 24,769 239% 7,300 1,067,673
033 031 Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride 16,231 -3% 16,775 2,735,990
089 082 Jennifer Hudson - Jennifer Hudson 7,631 8% 7,085 690,757
123 083 Mandisa - Freedom 5,145 -27% 7,031 6,172
153 148 David Archuleta - David Archuleta 4,045 3% 3,939 676,885
154 155 Daughtry - Daughtry 4,034 12% 3,598 4,412,106
173 --- Clay Aiken - Playlist: The Very Best... 3,360 999% 54 3,414
176 128 David Foster - Hit Man... 3,293 -25% 4,366 179,785
Total sales are in bold.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Out today: Mandisa's 'Freedom'
Launching today from the Idol franchise is the latest LP by Season 5's ninth-place finalist, Mandisa. The gospel singer releases Freedom, her sophomore album, just a few weeks before the 2009 Dove Awards, for which Mandisa is a nominee in the Female Vocalist of the Year category.
The album features the Top 20 Contemporary Christian single "My Deliverer," which is currently sitting at #16 on the chart. Links to purchase the aforementioned can be found below:
Albums
Mandisa, Freedom
Amazon - ($12.99) - Buy
Amazon MP3 - ($8.99) - Buy
Barnes & Noble - ($16.19) - Buy
Best Buy - ($14.99) - Buy
Buy.com - ($12.98) - Buy
iTunes - ($9.99) - Buy
Sears - ($12.59) - Buy
Target - ($11.99) - Buy
Walmart - ($11.88) - Buy
In addition to being out promoting her new album, Mandisa has been hard at work trying to fulfill her goal of dropping 100 pounds before its release, and she has reportedly lost 80 pounds to date. Not bad at all.
Monday, March 23, 2009
IDOL LIVE predix: Mandisa's 'Freedom'
The only major Idol-related album release this week is Mandisa's Freedom, which bows tomorrow. The album will not be a major contender for the #1 spot on the Billboard 200, but it should have little trouble debuting at #1 on the Christian charts.
Last time around, Mandisa's True Beauty opened to a little more than 17k, also coming in at #1 on Billboard's Christian chart. This time around, she should expect something a little below that because her lead single is not as strong as it was when "Only the World" was tearing up the charts. Even though she has developed a strong following with her collaborations with other artists such as tobyMac and her inspirational story of weight loss, Freedom will debut with about 15k in its first week, but should see steady legs over the course of its lifespan.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Listen to Mandisa's new single "My Deliverer"
Mandisa shows off her rock side on her new single "My Deliverer." As previously reported, it was released at digital retailers today. Listen to the single below:
It sounds like Mandisa has a hit on her hands, as this will surely heat up the Contemporary and Adult Christian airwaves. Her sophomore album, Freedom, is set to drop on March 24.
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