Grammy Award

The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards), presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music Awards, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, make up the rest). However, the Grammys, usually held in February (last of what are considered the "big three" music awards shows, including the BMA and AMA shows), are considered the approximate equivalent to the Oscars in the music world.

Like the Oscars, the Grammys, which currently have 108 categories within 30 genres of music such as pop, gospel, and rap, are voted upon by peers (voting members of the Recording Academy) rather than being based upon popularity like the AMAs or sales and chart achievements like the BMAs.

The awards are named for the trophy which the winner receives—a small gilded statuette of a gramophone, handcrafted by Billings Artworks.The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and some of the more prominent Grammys are presented in a widely-viewed televised ceremony.

Some feel that Grammys tend to go to either well-established artists or those being hyped by the recording industry. Many popular artists such as Linkin Park (2), Elvis Presley (3), Garth Brooks (2), Ozzy Osbourne (2), Pink Floyd (1), Van Halen (1), Kenny Rogers (3), The Rolling Stones (2), Metallica (7), Madonna (5), Janet Jackson (5), Mariah Carey (5), and Whitney Houston (6) have been awarded very few Grammys. Significant, long-lived rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Queen, AC/DC, Diana Ross, and Mötley Crüe have received none. On the other hand, U2 has received 22 awards to date, and the Beatles has received 13 (and a special award) awards, with its individual members making that list much larger.

Of the "big three" music awards shows, the Grammys are the highest rated.

The eligibility period for the Grammys begins November 1. For example, John Lennon & Yoko Ono's album Double Fantasy was released in November 17, 1980, 16 days too late to qualify for the 1981 Grammys; it was entered for the 1982 awards and eventually won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

The Grammys are currently broadcast on CBS. Prior to the first live Grammys telecast in 1971 on ABC (CBS bought the rights in 1973 after moving the ceremony to Nashville, Tennessee; the American Music Awards were created for ABC as a result), a series of taped annual specials in the 1960s called The Best on Record were broadcast on NBC.

Grammy records

The record for most lifetime Grammys is held by Sir Georg Solti, who was the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for twenty-two years. He personally won 31 Grammys and is listed for 38 Grammys (6 went to the engineer and 1 to a soloist); he was nominated an additional 74 times before his death in 1997.

Pat Metheny and the Pat Metheny Group have won 17 Grammys in total, including seven consecutive awards for seven consecutive albums. Metheny held the record for Grammy wins in the most different categories as of the 2005 Grammy Awards:

# Best Jazz Fusion Performance (1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1990)

# Best Instrumental Composition (1991)

# Best Contemporary Jazz Performance/Album (1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2005)

# Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group (1998, 2000)

# Best Rock Instrumental Performance (1999)

# Best Jazz Instrumental Solo (2001)

Session drummer Hal Blaine played on six consecutive records which won Record of the Year:

# 1966 Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - "A Taste of Honey"

# 1967 Frank Sinatra - "Strangers in the Night"

# 1968 5th Dimension - "Up, Up and Away"

# 1969 Simon & Garfunkel - "Mrs. Robinson"

# 1970 5th Dimension - "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"

# 1971 Simon & Garfunkel - "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Alison Krauss (as a solo artist, collaborator, producer and with Union Station) has taken home 20 Grammy Awards, the most of any female artist or any country artist. She is now tied for 7th on the all-time winners list.

Motown artist Stevie Wonder has won 24 awards, including 12 in the 1970s. Three of those awards were for Album of the Year for three consecutive albums.

Legendary Opera Diva Leontyne Price has won 18 awards.

Soul and R&B legend Aretha Franklin has won 18 awards overall, 11 of them for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, including 8 consecutive (and the first 8 ever awarded) awards in the category:

# 1968 - "Respect"

# 1969 - "Chain of Fools"

# 1970 - "Share Your Love With Me"

# 1971 - "Don't Play That Song"

# 1972 - "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

# 1973 - Young, Gifted, and Black

# 1974 - "Master of Eyes"

# 1975 - "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing"

# 1982 - "Hold On, I'm Comin'"

# 1986 - "Freeway of Love"

# 1988 - Aretha

The most Grammys won in a single night is eight -- a record shared by Michael Jackson (1983) and Carlos Santana (2000).

Michael Jackson:
* Record of the Year - Beat It
* Album of the Year - Thriller
* Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male - Thriller
* Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male - Beat It
* Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male - Billie Jean
* Best Rhythm & Blues Song - Billie Jean
* Best Recording For Children - E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
* Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical)
Santana:
* Record Of The Year - Smooth
* Album Of The Year - Supernatural
* Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal - Maria Maria
* Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals - Smooth
* Best Pop Instrumental Performance - El Farol
* Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal - Put Your Lights On
* Best Rock Instrumental Performance - The Calling
* Best Rock Album - Supernatural

The record for most Grammys (5) won in a single night by a female artist is held by four artists: Beyoncé Knowles 2004, Norah Jones 2003, Alicia Keys 2002, Lauryn Hill 1999

Beyoncé:
*Best Female R&B Vocal Performance:Beyoncé for "Dangerously In Love 2"
*Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Luther Vandross & Beyoncé for "The Closer I Get to You"
*Best R&B Song Shawn Carter, Rich Harrison, Beyoncé Knowles & Eugene Record for "Crazy in Love" performed by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z
*Best Contemporary R&B AlbumBeyoncé for Dangerously in Love
*Best Rap/Sung Collaboration Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z for "Crazy In Love"

Norah Jones:
*Record of the Year Norah Jones for "Don't Know Why"
*Album of the Year Norah Jones for Come Away With Me
*Best New Artist Norah Jones
*Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Norah Jones for "Don't Know Why"
*Best Pop Vocal Album Norah Jones for Come Away With Me

Alicia Keys:
*Song of the Year Alicia Keys for "Fallin'"
*Best New ArtistAlicia Keys
*Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Alicia Keys for "Fallin'"
*Best R&B Song Alicia Keys (songwriter) for "Fallin'"
*Best R&B Album Alicia Keys for Songs in A Minor

Lauryn Hill:
*Album of the Year Lauryn Hill for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
*Best New ArtistLauryn Hill
*Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Lauryn Hill for "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
*Best R&B Song Lauryn Hill (songwriter) for "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
*Best R&B Album Lauryn Hill for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Christopher Cross (Grammy Awards of 1981) is the only artist to receive the "Big Four" (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist) in a single ceremony. As a side note, Norah Jones (Grammy Awards of 2003) won Record of the Year, Album of the Year; that same year her guitarist, Jesse Harris, won the Song of the Year for writing 'Don't Know Why'. Although Norah sang the song, she did not receive the Song of the Year Grammy because it is a songwriter's award.

Béla Fleck has been nominated in more categories than any other musician, namely country, pop, jazz, bluegrass, classical, folk, and spoken word, as well as composition and arranging.

Awards by year

Years reflect the year in which the awards were presented, for music released in the previous year.

External links

*Official site
*Grammy message board discussion

Grammy Award: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents

Grammy Award

Grammy records

Award categories

Awards by year

External links