52nd Grammy Awards

It's time for the Grammy Awards again! The 52nd edition will take place on Monday morning, Singapore time. This year, Beyonce leads with 10 nominations, followed closely by Taylor Swift with 8, and the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and Kanye West with 6 each.

The overall feeling is that 2009 was the year of the female, with a trio of ladies hogging the limelight and earning the accolades. I'm talking about Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga of course. Due to a quirk in the nomination process, Lady Gaga wasn't eligible for Best New Artist award, otherwise she would have gotten 6 nominations.

The trio are all nominated for the three top categories - Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. And that's where the stiffest competition is taking place. Let's look at the nominees in these three categories.

Album Of The Year

1. Beyonce - I Am...Sasha Fierce

2. The Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D.

3. Lady Gaga - The Fame

4. Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey And the GrooGrux King

5. Taylor Swift - Fearless

Record Of The Year

1. Beyonce - Halo

2. The Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

3. Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody

4. Lady Gaga - Poker Face

5. Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

Song Of The Year

1. Lady Gaga - Poker Face

2. Maxwell - Pretty Wings

3. Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

4. Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody

5. Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me

I gotta feeling the Grammy folks are going to split the awards and give them one each. And it's going to be Taylor Swift for Album, Gaga for Record and Beyonce for Song. Sorry BEP! As much as I love I Gotta Feeling, you have no chance against these (single) ladies.

I think if Single Ladies was nominated for Record Of The Year, Beyonce might have stood a good chance to clinch it from Gaga. And I thought it should be the other way round - Single Ladies for Record Of The Year and Halo for Song Of The Year, which after all, is a song writer's award, and Halo is a beautifully-written song, co-penned by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic.

Awards aside, I'm quite looking forward to the show, as there will be a Michael Jackson tribute (again)! Celine Dion, Usher, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson and Carrie Underwood will be singing, together with the voice of MJ, along to Earth Song. Not sure how it works yet, but they will be accompanied by the full Earth Song clip in the background.

This clip was specially shot for MJ's This Is It London concerts, that sadly the world never got to see. However, we already saw quite a big chunk of it during the This Is It movie already, so I'm not sure how much different or special it will be. But the interesting thing is, it will be broadcast in 3-D in the US, the first time a major awards show broadcasts in 3-D. Trust MJ to continue to set milestones even in death.

Since last Sunday, Target stores in the US have been giving out free Grammy 3-D glasses, so viewers can put them on during this special segment to watch the clip in 3-D form. Super cool. Too bad we don't get these free 3-D glasses here. However, our viewing experience will not be affected even if we don't have the glasses.

The other exciting thing is that MJ's two eldest children, Prince and Paris, will be accepting the posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for their father, but this will take place on Saturday, not on the main show. It will be aired on Sunday's telecast.

It will be interesting to see them on stage and accepting the honour for their dad. On one hand, I'm a little worried that they're being put in the spotlight again, at such a young age. And on the other hand, I think it's great that they can see first hand the appreciation the world has for their dad, to experience the legacy. They should be making a statement of some sort. Hope they do well.

Music's biggest night is just slightly more than a day away. Hope it's an exciting show this year!