- This official artwork is copied from the 52nd Grammy Awards’ page at en.wikipedia.org
Under the massive pile of awards shows for film and television lies the crowning gem of achievement for the music industry. Doled out by the NARAS (National Academy of Recording arts & Sciences), the Grammy Awards have a widely-respected history of making, breaking, or boosting the careers of those musicians it deems the best. This year, more so than years past, the nominees have more mainstream appeal, which hopefully means more viewership for the show. One thing the show has recently suffered from is lackluster ratings. In an attempt to boost viewership, the show hands out the majority of its astounding 109 awards off the air to allow more time for musicians to play out on stage. It’s not solely a one-night concert of musical superstars though. NARAS does reveal winners of its more popular awards — including the Big Four General-category awards — during the aired show.
NOTE: My predictions for most of these more popular Grammy categories appear below. A miniature photo of a Grammy appears next to the winners’ names.
General
Record of the Year
“Halo” – Beyoncé
“I Gotta Feeling” – Black Eyed Peas
“Use Somebody” – Kings of Leon
“Poker Face” – Lady Gaga
“You Belong With Me” – Taylor Swift
The Black-Eyed Peas are just unstoppable this year. First they tie Mariah Carey’s and Whitney Houston’s 14-week record with their single “Boom Boom Pow,” then they pass that and tie Mariah Carey’s and Boyz II Men’s 16-week record with their second single “I Gotta Feeling.” Though popularity didn’t help Carey win in this category before, it did help Houston, and I think that the Peas have enough mass appeal and artistic credibility to win it. *Look to the mysterious and ubiquitous “Poker Face” for a possible upset.
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As I stated in an earlier post, the Guild awards are enormously important to the awards season. Their most important contribution is a widespread and focused variation in terms of awards distribution. Each one of the four major guilds — Producers, Directors, Writers, and Screen Actors — represents each of the most important aspects in film and television, and each one of these four has their own awards ceremony that focuses specifically on that guild’s area of membership. As such, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards its trophy, the Actor, to male and female actors in television and film whose fellow actors have voted as the best in their respective categories. Below are my predictions for the actors that will take home their very own Actor.
The biggest party in the tennis world is finally here — and it’s the first Grand Slam! What was once the “black sheep” of the Grand Slams is now, first and foremost, the judge of the tennis and drama to come. Towards the end of the 2009 season, both the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) and ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) suffered from a lack of player quality. But now, all the big names are back and ready to party, and heat it up a few notches. Any seasoned partygoer knows to “get the dirt” on the people attending the party, and so below are the players to watch (or not) at this year’s Australian Open (party!).
Kim Clijsters (15): After coming back from a two-year retirement and a child birth, Clijsters did what legends do: win a major — only 3 tournaments in. Her 2009 U.S. Open solidified Clijsters’ status as one of the WTA’s most dominant players, especially on hard courts. Though the Aussie Open is played on a slower hard court, it’s still played on a hard court (the court with the truest bounce, and that rewards the most aggressive players). A close final defeat of comback compatriot Justine Henin in a warm-up tournament has proven that Clijsters is erasing those past wobbles. The only problem is her draw, which contains fellow favorite Justine Henin and fellow hard-court queens Elena Dementieva, Flavia Pennetta, and Svetlana Kuznetsova. 
Garrett
Mark
metapansy
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