Blog Posts by Paul Grein

Most pundits expected Mumford & Sons’ Babel to win Album of the Year. The shocker was that the album didn’t win its “home genre” award: Best Americana Album. The album lost that award to Bonnie Raitt’s Slipstream.

How rare it that—for an album to lose its “home genre” award and then turn around and win Album of the Year? Very rare. It’s only happened once before since the Recording Academy introduced genre album awards in most of the key genres in 1994 and 1995.

Mumford & Sons accept Album of the Year award for 'Babel' with presenter Adele (far R) onstage at the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on February 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Unlike last year, when Adele swept the Grammy Awards, this year the marquee awards were spread around. Mumford & Sons’ sophomore album Babel was voted Album of the Year. It was the second year in a row that a British artist has won that award. Adele took it last year for 21. Mumford & Sons, which has spearheaded a comeback for folk/rock, also won for Best Long Form Music Video for Big Easy Express.

“Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra took two awards, including Record of the Year. The classy breakup ballad echoes Sting’s best work. It was the best-selling song of 2012. (This marks the second year in a row that the year’s best-selling song has also won Record of the Year. Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” earned both distinctions last year.) Gotye won a third award: Best Alternative Music Album for Making Mirrors. (This should make up for the curious fact that Gotye was passed over for a nomination as Best New Artist.)

[ Photos: Grammys red carpet report card ]

The Black Keys won two awards in the pre-telecast portion of the 55th annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album for El Camino and Best Rock Song for “Lonely Boy.” They beat Bruce Springsteen, Jack White and Muse’s Matthew Bellamy in both categories.

In addition, the rock duo’s Dan Auerbach was voted Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

The duo’s strong showing in the pre-telecast awards increases the chances that it could be an upset winner for Album of the Year. It is competing for that award with Mumford & Sons’ Babel, .fun’s Some Nights, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange and Jack White’s Blunderbuss.

[ Photos: Grammys red carpet report card ]

fun. and Mumford & Sons both have a chance to land in the Grammy record book on Sunday. Both groups received six nominations this year. If either group wins them all, it will become just the second group or duo in Grammy history to win six or more awards in one night. Santana swept eight awards in 2000.

fun. is nominated for Best New Artist; Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Some Nights; and Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “We Are Young,” its smash collabo with Janelle Monae.

Can Adele squeeze out one more Grammy for a song from her blockbuster album 21? The British singer swept six awards last year, tying Beyonce’s record for the most Grammys won by a female artist in a single night. Adele is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance this year for “Set Fire To The Rain,” which was the album’s third #1 single. (She’s nominated for the live version from her best-selling DVD Live At The Royal Albert Hall.)

Her chief rival for the award is Kelly Clarkson, who is nominated for her #1 single “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).” The panel of Grammy insiders that determined the final nominations in the “Big Four” categories favored Clarkson. They put “Stronger” in the Record of the Year finals, but not “Set Fire To The Rain.” (“Stronger” is also a Song of the Year nominee, but “Set Fire To The Rain” wasn’t eligible in that contest).

The 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton was one for the history books. Now, their spouses are engaged in a contest that is similarly close, if perhaps a tad less consequential. Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton are competing for Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. Obama is nominated for American Grown; Clinton for Back To Work: Why We Need Smart Government For A Strong Economy. Both are books-on-tape released by Random House Audio.

This would be Bill Clinton’s second Grammy. He won for 2004’s My Life. This would put him in a tie with Barack Obama for most Grammys by a U.S. President. Obama won for 2005’s Dreams From My Father and 2007’s The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream. (The obvious difference: Obama won both of his Grammys before he became President. Clinton won his first after he left the White House.)

Many music luminaries died last year, from disco queen Donna Summer to Andy Williams, who hosted the first seven Grammy live telecasts. Many of them will be featured in the annual In Memoriam segment on Sunday night’s Grammy telecast. But Levon Helm is being singled out for special recognition. Elton John, Mavis Staples, Mumford & Sons, Zac Brown and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes will join together in a special salute to Helm, a founding member of The Band. Helm died on April 19 at age 71.

Helm won three Grammys. Dirt Farmer was voted Best Traditional Folk Album of 2007. Electric Dirt and Ramble At The Ryman were voted Best Americana Album of 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Kanye West and Jay-Z, whose shelves are already jammed with Grammys, could win three more awards this year: Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. A clean sweep of these three awards would boost West’s Grammy count to 21; Jay-Z’s to 17.

Watch The Throne, the pair’s chart-topping 2011 collaboration, was nominated for Best Rap Album last year, but lost to West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Even so, one of its tracks, “Otis,” won last year for Best Rap Performance. This year, its most successful track, “N****s In Paris,” is likely to win two awards. A third track from the album, “No Church In The Wild,” has a good chance to also win.