Nominees for the 54th annual Grammy Awards were announced last night. Kanye West leads the pack with seven nominations, but his album My Beautifully Dark Twisted Fantasy failed to score a slot in the Album of the Year category. The album did receive a nomination for Best Rap Album. His song “All of the Lights” won a nomination for Song of the Year.
Nominations in the four major categories—Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artists—were revealed Monday night during a live concert featuring performances by Lady Gaga, Usher, The Band Perry and more.
Along with Kanye’s “All of the Lights,” Song of the Year nominees included Mumford and Sons’ “The Cave,” Bruno Mars’ “Grenade,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” and Bon Iver’s “Holocene.” Indie folk outfit Bon Iver, aka Justin Vernon, shocked viewers with his nomination. He continued to surprise by nabbing nominations in the Song of the Year and Best New Artist categories.
Cult favorite Bon Iver gained attention in 2008 with the release of For Emma, Forever Ago. During the televised event, Vernon tweeted “whats the difference between song and record?! ahhH! super weird butterflies! thank’s y’all. the badgers are playing UNC. don’t forget!!”
For the record, Record of the Year honors the artists, the producer and the recording engineers and mixes while Song of the Year recognizes the songwriter of the song released. The Record of the Year nominees mostly mirrored Song of the Year nominees, swapping “All of the Lights” for Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Album of the Year nominations went to Adele’s 21, Foo Figthers’ Wasting Light, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, Bruno Mars’ Doo Wops and Hooligans and Rihanna’s Loud. Adele, Bruno Mars and Foo Fighters both received six nominations.
Competing for Best New Artist with Bon Iver will be The Band Perry, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj and another surprise—Skrillex. Reigning dubstep king and DJ Skrillex demonstrates the mainstreaming of electronic music and growing popularity of dubstep. Skrillex actually received five total nominations.
For the entire list of nominations visit the Grammy Awards website. The 54th annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held February 12.