Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga lead the way at 52nd Grammys 
IF YOU WATCH
The 52nd annual Grammy Awards will air from 8 to 11 p.m. Sunday on WFOR-CBS 4.
Beyonce poised to add to Grammy total
Besides being one of the most popular singers on the planet, Beyonce has gotten plenty of accolades over her career. Now a veteran, she's won a caseload of Grammys for her solo work and also with Destiny's Child.
What she hasn't won, however, is the prestigious album of the year trophy, despite being nominated once before. That may change on Sunday. The superstar is nominated for a leading 10 Grammys, including record of the year for "Halo," song of the year for her anthem "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" and album of the year for her multiplatinum third CD, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce."
Of course, she faces tough competition - especially from two newer divas.
Beyonc shapes up as front-runner
LOS ANGELES - Heading into tonight's Grammy Awards ceremony at Staples Center, which will air on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. EST, we handicap the winners in four of the most high-profile categories.
-Album of the year
The field at a glance: This is not the year of the underdog. Combined, the five contenders in this category - Taylor Swift's "Fearless," Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," Dave Matthews Band's "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King," the Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." and Lady Gaga's "The Fame" - sold more than 13 million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In fact, Swift's "Fearless," released in 2008, was the top-seller of 2009, moving 4.6 million copies.
Beyonce? Taylor? Lady Gaga? The AP's Grammy Picks
This year's Grammy Awards seem to be shaping up as the battle of the blond divas.
In one corner - Beyonce, the fierce veteran who's already won a dozen Grammys but has yet to grasp the most prestigious Grammy honors - album and record of the year. She's up for those trophies and more, with a leading 10 nominations.
In the other corner - Taylor Swift, the relative newbie whose outstanding sales have made her the reigning queen of pop, despite her proud country tilt. Though she was nominated for best new artist, she also has the chance to become the Grammys' top artist this year, with eight nominations for her best-selling CD, "Fearless."
Calle 13 leads nominees in Latin Grammy Awards
Calle 13 leads the list of Latin Grammy nominated artists with five nods.
The alternative Puerto Rican hip-hop duo will compete for album of the year against Colombian singer-songwriter Andres Cepeda, Nicaraguan salsa singer Luis Enrique, folksy Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa and Brazilian musician Ivan Lins & The Metropole Orchestra at the 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards on Nov. 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
``We are super happy,'' said Calle 13's Rene ``Residente'' Perez, who heard about the nominations at home in Puerto Rico. ``The Latin Grammy Awards are, for us, valid because they have to do a lot with the music, with the art.''
Rising star Barba has break-out night at music awards
On a night dominated by pop and reggaeton, a young Mexican singer continued his astonishing rise from obscurity to stardom, capturing four awards at Thursday's Billboard Latin Music Awards.
The champion of the starry night at the University of Miami's Bank
United Center in Coral Gables was Mariano Barba, who won in all but one of five categories in which he was nominated.
BY JORDAN LEVIN
jlevin@MiamiHerald.com
Divas and dance pop will rule the 52nd Grammy Awards Sunday. Whether their prominence says something about the need for escapism after a year in which reality TV shows were better than brutal reality or about the music industry's glomming onto pop success in an attempt to shore up its ever-shrinking bottom line, is anyone's guess.
At this year's popular-music celebration -- airing live from L.A.'s Staples Center at 8 p.m. on WFOR-CBS 4 -- Beyoncé, with 10 nods for I Am . . . Sasha Fierce, tops the nominations the way she has topped the charts and pop consciousness. Country-pop teen queen Taylor Swift follows with eight for Fearless, and Lady Gaga, who makes drag queens look demure, has five for The Fame. All three are up for the big categories of Album, Record and Song of the Year.
Ruling urban dance tribe Black Eyed Peas (with trademark femme Fergie) has six nods, including Album and Record of the Year, for The E.N.D. So does misbehaving rapper Kanye West, but his nominations are mostly for rap collaborations rather than for the major categories he has dominated in the past. No rap artists are nominated in the big, general categories, in contrast to recent years when Lil Wayne and West were widely lauded.
Most of the top nominees will perform Sunday night: Beyoncé, the Peas, Swift and Gaga. Dave Matthews Band, the lone rockers up for Album of the Year, will also play, as will Southern rock newbies Zac Brown Band, the token Best New Artist nominee.
A tribute to Michael Jackson features Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood and Usher and will include the premiere of a 3-D mini-movie for Earth Song that Jackson created for his This Is It tour. And the Recording Academy, in a bid for relevance and digital visibility, will let fans follow the awards on Facebook and Twitter.
Nominations are comparatively light for the traditional rockers who have been a Grammy mainstay -- Bruce Springsteen, with six nominations, is the only classic rocker with so many, and in the rock rather than the general categories. The biggest nomination for perennial Grammy darlings U2 is Best Rock Album for No Line on the Horizon. Southern-rock bad boys and chart newcomers Kings of Leon got four nominations, including for Record and Song of the Year, on the strength of Use Somebody, their passionate power hit.
But the rock categories look more establishment than ever. All the artists nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance -- Springsteen, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Prince and Neil Young -- are veterans. And the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, formed in 2000, are as recent as the Alternative Album category gets.
There's more recognition for musical substance and innovation in R&B. The biggest surprise is the six nominations for singer Maxwell, who came back from an eight-year absence with a compelling and grown-up album, Blacksummer's Night.
South Florida makes a splash in the Latin-music categories: Miami-based Issac Delgado, Luis Enrique and Tiempo Libre are all up for Best Latin Tropical Album. And Cuba is in the mix with singer Omara Portuondo's Gracias, nominated for Latin Tropical Album, and Bebo and Chucho Valdes' Juntos . . . Para Siempre, up for Best Latin Jazz Album.
So sit back and enjoy the glamour emanating from your flat screen. Reality returns at 11 p.m.
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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