Music’s biggest night is only three weeks away now, where the 2014 Grammy Awards will take place live on CBS at 8PM Eastern, 7 Central. The Grammy Committee released its nomination list in early December to much fanfare and shock. One of the biggest awards of the night, if not the biggest, is “Record Of The Year”, an award that is recent years has gone to Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”, Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now”, and most recently Gotye & Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used To Know”. This year’s category is interesting as it really isn’t that cut and dry as it was in previous years, which makes this category amongst others that much more interesting. Let’s break down the nominees, and see who was left out, who should win and ultimately who will win.
Record Of The Year Nominees-
Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams- “Get Lucky”
Lorde- “Royals”
Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell Williams- “Blurred Lines”
Bruno Mars- “Locked Outta Heaven”
Imagine Dragons- “Radioactive”
Who Got Snubbed Yo-
There were a couple of people that I thought could’ve definitely been in the running for this category, but above all I think the Grammy Award Nomination Committee got this one right. Justin Timberlake was the biggest snub in my opinion for his song “Mirrors” as I thought he was kind of a shoo in for this and the other two main categories (Song, Album of the Year). Other hopefuls for this were Drake’s “Hold On We’re Going Home” and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” as they tend to love both artists in their perspective categories (Rap, Country).
The Long Shot-
The Long Shot here in my opinion is Bruno Mars, as when you look at his track record at the Grammy’s he always seems to be the bridesmaid and never the bride in terms of the big categories. The Grammy Award committee always nominates him for these particular awards, yet he never seems to win them. Granted he has won one, but he also has been nominated about 10 times in the past couple of years. So this will come and go for him again as he is always up against bigger fish.
Who Will Win-
There can definitely be an argument for each of the nominees for who will win this, minus Bruno Mars. I feel like Pharrell might be the thorn in both nominees sides because each song came out at the same time over the summer, and received similar fanfare in terms of chart positions, airplay and overall sales. I get the feeling that the Grammy Award committee that votes for this won’t really be able to differentiate between the two, and they will cancel themselves out. So this leaves “Radioactive” and “Royals”. Alternative has definitely had its moments for “Record Of The Year” over the past decade, with acts like Gotye, Kings Of Leon, Green Day and Amy Winehouse winning. That being said, my money is on “Radioactive” to win, as it seems to go with how the Grammy’s have voted on in the past. An upset for Lorde would be great, but I’m not counting on it that much.
Who Should Win-
I have a hard time breaking this down as for me it is between two songs- “Royals” and “Get Lucky”. “Blurred Lines” was great but I felt like it was overplayed and redundant after a while. I do feel as though “Blurred Lines” in the grand scheme of things could be considered the ROTY as it was the highest selling song on iTunes and stayed number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for such a long time, but personally I don’t feel that it is. Neither do I feel this way about “Locked Outta Heaven” and “Radioactive”. “Royals” has a simple beat with some simple backup singers, yet Lorde’s amazing falsetto and message of an anti bling society that she wants to be the queen of really rang true for me. In a world of Miley/One Direction mania, she really comes in to counteract something like those two and bring a more authentic sound to what she is doing. “Royals” would be a great winner. As for “Get Lucky”, two words- Nile Rodgers. Anytime you hook him up on a song it is going to be dope. “Get Lucky” is one of those songs that is just as good instrumentally as it is with Pharrell’s smooth vocals. It was the best dance track of 2013 in my opinion, and I would just love to see this win off the sheer fun of Daft Punk getting on the Grammy Award stage with those helmets to accept. Tee hee.
Who do you think should win? Take a listen to a Grammy podcast that I did with my good friend John Campanario last month after the nominations were released to hear our perspective on who should and will win. Best of luck to The Grammy Award nominees!
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