2008 Grammy Awards: Wrapup

[image courtesy AP; H/T Idolator -- Ed.]

So, I haven't posted a post-Grammy writeup because I'm still in shock-and-awe about a particular Academy choice. Can you guess what that choice is???

Longtime readers -- all three of them -- know that I had called an Amy Winehouse sweep on Grammy nite. Many scoffed at me -- how could "Umbrella" lose for Record Of The Year??? -- but I called it because I felt it.

The evening sure seemed to be shaping up to support my prediction.

Which is why Herbie Hancock's win for Album Of The Year was so shocking to me.

Think about it like this...

There are about 180K members of the National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences (NARAS). AOTY is one of the categories in which all members can vote. To win AOTY -- or any category -- a nominee must have more than 20% of the total vote, and usually has [we suspect; we obviously don't know -- Ed.] between 25-30% of the vote.

Amy Winehouse won ROTY, SOTY and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for the song "Rehab", taking down "Umbrella" in the 2 "big" categories, "Best Pop Vocal Album" for Back To Black, and BNA. Amy also helped Mark Ronson win for "Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical", mostly for his work on Back To Black.

Herbie Hancock won, of course, the award for "Best Contemporary Jazz Album", although he lost in his only other non-AOTY nominated category, "Best Jazz Instrumental Solo", where Michael Brecker's "Anagram" took the award over Herbie's "Both Sides Now".

After giving Amy all those awards -- and "slighting" "Umbrella" in the process -- after going 1000 extra miles to ensure that Amy would be able to "be a part of" the ceremony even though visa problems kept her out of the US, and after putting Amy in a position to do something -- sweep "The Big Four" -- that had only been done once, and had not been done in 27 years -- more than "half" of "Grammy's life" ago -- the Academy spurned the best record of the decade in favor of awarding a "lifetime achievement award" to an artist three decades past his prime for his career-capping album of Starbucks background music???

Seriously???

Herbie's album had sold only 40,000 copies going in to the ceremony. Amy's record had sold nearly 40 times that number.

Do the math on this one. Somewhere between 25-30% of the Academy members voted for River even though, obviously, not all of them had heard it.

And that's assuming there were no shenanigans involved.

But, kudos to Herbie Hancock! You have joined such legendary music biz luminaries as Ray Charles (2005), Steely Dan (2001), Carlos Santana (2000), Bob Dylan (1998), and Tony Bennett (1995) in the category of "legends who recently have won AOTY when they shouldn't have because the Academy wanted to honor a lifetime of work".

And congratulations to Amy Winehouse, who became the sixth female artist to take home five Grammys in one night. Amy joins The Dixie Chicks (2007), Beyonce (2004), Norah Jones (2003), Alicia Keys (2002), and Lauryn Hill (1998) in this prestigious category.

* * * * *

I made some predictions, pre-Grammy. How did I do?

I'll score myself this way: 1 point for a correct prediction for "will win" or in the comments; 0.5 points for picking the winner as a "should win"; and 0.25 points for picking the winner as a "darkhorse".

[category -- winner -- score]

1) Record Of The Year -- Amy Winehouse, "Rehab" -- 1 point

2) Album Of The Year -- Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters -- 0 points [don't even get us started -- Ed.]

3) Song Of The Year -- Amy Winehouse, "Rehab" -- 1 point

4) Best New Artist -- Amy Winehouse -- 1 point

5) Best Female Pop Vocal Performance -- Amy Winehouse, "Rehab" -- 1 point

6) Best Male Pop Vocal Performance -- Justin Timberlake, "What Goes Around, Comes Around" -- 0 points

7) Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals -- Maroon 5, "Makes Me Wonder -- 0.25 points ("For a possible upset, I'd look at Maroon 5, who famously got the Best New Artist nod over Kanye West 3 years ago. Grammy might like the chance to say, 'Hey, see that wasn't THAT bad a call!'")

8) Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals -- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)" -- 1 point

9) Best Pop Vocal Album -- Amy Winehouse, Back To Black -- 1 point

10) Best Dance Recording -- Justin Timberlake, "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows" -- 0 points

11) Best Electronic/Dance Album -- The Chemical Brothers, We Are The Night -- 0 points

12) Best Rock Album -- Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace -- 1 point

13) Best Alternative Music Album -- The White Stripes, Icky Thump -- 0 points (although I did think The Stripes could take this)

14) Best R&B Song -- Alicia Keys, "No One" -- 0 points

15) Best Rap Solo Performance -- Kanye West, "Stronger" -- 1 point

16) Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group -- Common Featuring Kanye West, "Southside" -- 0 points

17) Best Rap/Sung Collaboration -- Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z, "Umbrella" -- 1 point

18) Best Rap Song -- Kanye West, "Good Life" -- 0 points

19) Best Rap Album -- Kanye West, Graduation -- 1 point

20) Best Female Country Vocal Performance -- Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats" -- 1 point

21) Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media -- The Beatles, Love -- 0 points

22) Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical -- Mark Ronson -- 1 point

I count 12.25 points, which is terrible. But in my defense, for timing reasons, I left some low-hanging-fruit on the table (e.g., Best Country Song -- "Before He Cheats"), and I also forgot to pick a winner in the "Best Short Form Music Video" category, and I woulda picked Johnny Cash for sure.