February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” is up for Best Rock Album and the all-important Album of the Year category, where it will compete against Mariah’s “The Emancipation of Mimi,” Stefani’s “Love, Angel, Music, Baby,” West’s “Late Registration,” and McCartney’s “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.” The Irish band also has two singles in competition: “City of Blinding Lights,” which is nominated for Best Rock Song, and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” which is nominated for Best Rock Performance by a Group and Song of the Year. McCartney’s other nominations include one for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Male Pop Vocal for his single, “Fine Line.”
Also making an appearance on this year’s list are Irish trad legends The Chieftains, who are nominated in the Best Folk Album category for their most recent album, “Live From Dublin – A Tribute To Derek Bell.”
Even if she doesn’t go home with a single statue – highly unlikely, given her sheer number of nominations – Mariah’s already the year’s big winner. After her well-publicized emotional breakdown and business breakup (with her record label) a couple of years ago, the singer’s career seemed to be in a state of freefall. “Emancipation” took the critics, and the public, by storm, selling millions of copies and earning rave reviews.
Not only has Mariah made history as the singer with the most number one singles (surpassing Elvis and The Beatles), she’ll also score another first this New Year’s Eve when she becomes the first performer to sing live on Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” broadcast from Times Square.
Briefings
Former Wham! front man George Michael is a pop star and proud of it. Or at least, he was proud of it until the term became “a byword for [rhymes with spit].”
In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the “Freedom” singer laments the current industry practice of separating the songwriter from the singer. “Divide and conquer and all that,” he sighed. “Pop is a dirty word now.” And he says he feels sympathy for acts like Irish boy band Westlife.
“They probably sit there thinking, ‘It’s a bit of a pathetic job for a 29-year-old performing to old ladies and young girls,'” he said. “[But] When you hear what they have to sing and you can hear the machinations of some middle-aged . . . manager, it makes me feel physically ill that it’s so successful.”
It was a bittersweet week for former Beatle Paul McCartney. Last Thursday, he was nominated for three Grammy awards for his new album, “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.” The day also marked the 25th anniversary of the murder of his best friend and songwriting partner, John Lennon.
In an interview with BBC Radio 2, Macca, said that he’s still shocked and saddened by the depraved act, he chooses to concentrate on memories of the good times.
“I [think about] . . . how lucky and privileged I feel to be one of the people who spent the most time with him during his life, having met him as a teenager,” Paul told the interviewer. “People start these rumours: ‘He was this, he was that.’ I say, ‘Look, I’ve slept with him.’ We’ve done hitch-hiking holidays and we’ve had to top and tail it because there was only one bed. I say: ‘I knew him’.”
It’s hard to feel a lot of sympathy for anyone who can list “snogged Brad Pitt” on her resume, but give actress Kirsten Dunst a break. The “Interview with the Vampire” ing