Recording Academy set to hand out Grammys

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The 44th Annual Grammy Awards are being handed out in Los Angeles tonight without the kind of debate and controversy that attended last year's Grammys.

The biggest story then had as much to do with social issues as it did with recorded music, with critics questioning whether Academy voters had been socially irresponsible in nominating Eminem's album, "The Marshall Mathers LP," for four Grammys, including album of the year. Gay and lesbian advocates in particular complained that the record was severely homophobic, but one of the highlights of the telecast was Eminem's duet with gay rocker Elton John.

In the lead-up to tonight's Grammys, the only real argument had nothing to do with social messages, or even artistic merit.

Rather, it was a legal battle between American Music Awards producer Dick Clark and Recording Academy president/CEO Michael Greene over Greene's refusal to allow musicians to perform on the Grammys telecast if they have already performed on a competing awards show in recent months.

U2 leads the rest of the field with eight nominations, including album of the year ("All That You Can't Leave Behind"), record of the year ("Walk On") and song of the year ("Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of").

This will be the second straight year that "All That You Can't Leave Behind" is a top contender at the Grammys. Last year, it was not eligible for album of the year, but the first single -- "Beautiful Day" -- was eligible, and the veteran Irish rockers took home Grammys for song of the year and record of the year.

Newcomers India.Arie, with seven nominations, and Alicia Keys, with six, both have a shot at more or less replicating the phenomenal night Lauryn Hill had in 1998 -- when "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" won for album of the year and R&B album, and Hill won for new artist, female R&B performance and R&B song for "Doo Wop (That Thing)."

Both India.Arie ("Video") and Keys ("Fallin'") are up for record of the year, song of the year and new artist. However, while India.Arie's self-titled album is up for album of the year, Keys' "Songs in A Minor" is not.

With album of the year nominee "Love and Theft," Bob Dylan keeps a hot streak gong, both in the marketplace and in the critics' corner. His "Time Out of Mind" took album of the year honors in 1997, and he won the Oscar for best song last year for "Things Have Changed" from "Wonder Boys."

For the fourth time in six years, a rap/hip-hop album is up for album of the year. OutKast's "Stankonia" is also up for rap album of the year, and the Atlanta duo is up for record of the year and rap performance by a duo or group for the single, "Ms. Jackson."

The soundtrack from the Coen brothers movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is also up for album of the year. The collection of bluegrass and country roots music also snagged nominations for male country vocal performance ("O Death," Ralph Stanley), country collaboration with vocals ("Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch) and best compilation soundtrack album.

"Drops of Jupiter" by Train is up for record of the year and song of the year. "I'm Like a Bird" by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado is up for song of the year. Besides India.Arie and Keys, the other nominees for best new artist are Furtado, British singer-songwriter David Gray and the metal-influenced hip-hop band Linkin Park.

The 44th Grammys could be a big night for veteran conductor Pierre Boulez. With six nominations -- including two for classical album of the year -- he has a chance to add to his career total of 26 Grammys and get closer to the all-time Grammy winner, the late George Solti, who won the trophy 31 times.

Country singer Alison Krauss, R&B vocalist Brian McKnight and OutKast have five nominations apiece. T-Bone Burnett, Furtado, Train, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and Lucinda Williams have four nominations.

The Recording Academy is presenting 2002 Lifetime Achievement Awards to Count Basie, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Al Green and Joni Mitchell.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honors "lifelong artistic contributions to the recording medium." Past winners include Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Patsy Cline, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Barbra Streisand and Stevie Wonder.

Basie won nine Grammy Awards, including two at the 1st Annual Grammys in 1959.

Como's performance of "Catch A Falling Star" earned him the Grammy for best vocal performance by a male at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards. He is in the Grammy Hall of Fame with "Til the End of Time."

Clooney has never won a Grammy, but is nominated this year for best traditional pop album ("Sentimental Journey: The Girl Singer and Her New Big Band."

Al Green, one of the most influential R&B singers of the 1970s, has earned nine Grammys for hits including "Tired of Being Alone" and "Let's Stay Together," which is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

A five time Grammy winner, Mitchell is one of the most influential singer/songwriters of her generation. Her album, "Blue," is in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Producer-recording engineer Tom Dowd and pioneering rock and roll deejay Alan Freed are being honored with Trustees Awards, in recognition of "outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity."

Dowd has worked with such recording artists as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Diana Ross, John Coltrane, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. From 1942 to 1946 he worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University while also training as a musician.

Freed pioneered rock and roll airplay on mainstream radio stations in the 1950s. In 1959 WABC in New York asked Freed to sign a statement confirming that he had never accepted payola -- payment for playing certain records. He refused and was subsequently fired and charged with commercial bribery.

Freed paid a fine and received a suspended sentence, but his career was ruined. Before Freed's indictment, payola was not illegal, although commercial bribery was. After his case, anti-payola statutes were enacted in the United States.