Lil Wayne leads in first-ever Grammy nominations concert

Los Angeles, December 4: It has been a great year for New Orleans rapper, Lil Wayne. His album titled “Tha Carter III” went five times platinum after selling more than five million copies. Not only that, he is also the leading contender for this year’s Grammy Awards getting eight nominations with one for album of the year.

Competing with Lil Wayne for the album of the year award is Coldplay with their album titled “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.” The British rock group also followed Lil Wayne closely behind getting seven Grammy nominations.

Other artists who are leading in the list of the nominees are rappers Jay-Z, Ne-Yo and Kanye West who get six Grammy nominations each. Trailing the rappers are Radiohead, the duo Alison Krauss and Robert Klauss, John Mayer and Jazmie Sullivan with five Grammy nominations each.

Singer-songwriter Adele, superhit groups Danger Mouse and Eagles, country singer George Strait, and rappers Lupe Fiasco and T.I have also won a good number of nomitations.

The nominees were announced in a different style in this first ever Grammy nomination concert. Instead of revealing the nominees in the morning simply in the Audio-Visual format on several television networks, CBS broadcasted a special concert held at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and called it, "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live”. Two-time Grammy winner, LL Cool J and last year’s best new artist nominee, Taylor Swift, hosted the event.

The live concert special had an interesting flavor, which was the chance to interview the artists on the spot and live, soon after they found that they were nominated. LL Cool J quickly grabbed the chance to interview the Jonas Brothers immediately after Ne-Yo announced about their nomination in the Best New Artist category together with Adele, Duffy, Jazmine Sullivan, and Lady Antebellum.

This has been the first Grammy nomination of the Jonas Brother and Nick Jonas being overwhelmed said, "I can't stop smiling," while his elder brother Joe Jonas said, "We're honored to be in a category with such amazing artists."

The Grammy nominations concert saw performances by past Grammy winners Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift and B.B. King.

Neil Portnow, the president and CEO of the recording academy said, "The Grammy Awards process once again has yielded a comprehensive, diverse and eclectic group of excellent nominees across multiple genres.”

The 51st Grammy Awards will be aired on CBS live from the Los Angeles Staples Center on February 8, 2009.