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  • Lady GaGa Ineligible for Best New Artist Grammy

    It’s not too early to start thinking about Grammy Award nominees, as they will be announced next month, but one story making the rounds is sure to add a layer of controversy to next year’s ceremony. Lady GaGa, widely considered to be the front-runner for the coveted Best New Artist trophy, is not eligible to be nominated for it. How come, you ask? Well, GaGa was nominated last year for Best Dance Recording for “Just Dance”. Once you are nominated for a Grammy in any other category, you are ineligible to be nominated for Best New Artist.

    So, the question then becomes: who the hell is gonna win it this year? With Lady GaGa out of the picture, it becomes a pretty wide open field. The front-runners appear to be the Zac Brown Band and Keri Hilson. ZBB don’t have much in the way of name recognition, but they *do* have a platinum album as well as huge country hits with “Chicken Fried” and “Toes”. The Nashville folk will come out in droves to support these guys. Meanwhile, Hilson’s album has sold well (going Gold recently) and her many collaborations (as both a songwriter and a singer) give her some juice in the industry. This all despite the fact that her album sucks eagle balls.

    Other possibilities include alt-rockers Cage the Elephant, collegiate rapper Asher Roth, and “American Idol” finishers David Cook and David Archuleta. Let’s look over at Soundscan and see what the top selling albums are this year by eligible debut artists (I’d also be curious to see whether the Grammy committee considers Miley Cyrus to be a new artist):

    1) Zac Brown Band “Foundation” 1m scanned
    2) Darius Rucker “Learn to Live” (yes, he’s eligible even though he already has a Best New Artist Grammy as a member of Hootie & the Blowfish) 677K
    3) Keri Hilson (477K)
    4) David Cook (440K)
    5) Hollywood Undead (406K)
    6) Jamey Johnson (391K)
    7) Chickenfoot (356K…I assume supergroups are eligible)
    8) 3OH!3 (295K)
    9) Owl City (271K…and a #1 single)
    10) The Lonely Island (262K…hey, if Justin Timberlake can win an Emmy, Andy Samberg can win a Grammy…besides, there’s a precedent here. Robin Williams was nominated for Best New Artist in 1980).

    As you can see-not a choice group of artists here. This should be interested.

  • Chart Chat 11/18/09: Bon Jovi Rules, Britney Sinks

    Since Billboard is going to start using the Comprehensive Album chart in a couple of weeks, let’s just get a jump and start using it from now going forward.

    In a hotly contested week for new releases, Bon Jovi lands at the top of the heap this week. 26 years into a successful career, the band scores yet another number one album with “The Circle” (if my calculations are correct, it’s their fourth, and second straight #1 debut). Jon and Co. start with a not-bad 163,000 sold. Not gangbusters, but then again Bon Jovi have never had particularly mind-blowing first weeks, at least not in the Soundscan era.

    Rock bands take the next three debuts, as Flyleaf enters at #8, Switchfoot’s new one comes in at #15, and Dashboard Confessional starts at #21. D.C. rapper Wale opens at #23, and there’s a good chance that number would have been higher if Wale’s record company had moved more units into stores. I rarely have trouble finding anything in Boston, and there were two different stores in Boston that didn’t have product on Tuesday.

    The most disappointing debut of the week has to be Britney Spears’ “Singles Collection”. Although it features the #1 single “3”, “Singles” debuts at a comparatively anemic #25, with 27,000 copies sold.

    A bigger story than this week’s debuts would be the effect of the Country Music Awards on sales this week. Artist of the year Taylor Swift gets a 30% bump to jump back up to #5, Lady Antebellum jumps 130% in sales to land at #13, and best new artist winner Darius Rucker sees his solo debut jump 80% in sales to jump to #30.

    Next week, there should be a very tight battle for the #1 spot. The front-runners are Norah Jones and 50 Cent, who both have had albums score first weeks of a million-plus. But there’s also John Mayer as well as dark horse Kris Allen. We could be looking at a completely new Top 10 at this time next week! Stay tuned.

    Meanwhile, here’s this week’s Top 20

    1) Bon Jovi “The Circle”
    2) Andrea Bocelli “My Christmas”
    3) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
    4) Michael Jackson “This is It”
    5) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    6) Various Artists “Now That’s What I Call Music 32”
    7) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    8) Flyleaf “Memento Mori”
    9) Soundtrack “Glee”
    10) Soundtrack “Twilight: New Moon”
    11) Casting Crowns “Peace on Earth”
    12) Taylor Swift “The Holiday Collection”
    13) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
    14) Sting “If On a Winter’s Night”
    15) Switchfoot “Hello Hurricane”
    16) Tim McGraw “Southern Voice”
    17) Zac Brown Band “Foundation”
    18) Jay-Z “Blueprint 3”
    19) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
    20) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”

  • First Look: Robin Thicke’s “Sex Therapy”

    Mothers, lock up your daughters.

    Folks who listen to R&B music are aware of certain songs that plain and simple ooze sex. Think Prince’s “Adore” or Barry White’s “Playing Your Game Baby” or “Turn off the Lights” and “Close the Door” by Teddy Pendergrass, or “‘Til the Cops Come Knockin’” by Maxwell, or…you get the picture. Well, the dude ruling the sex-jam game right now is Robin Thicke. He first set panties afire back in 2007 with his breakthrough hit “Lost Without U”. The song established Thicke as R&B’s breakout phenom and catapulted his sophomore album “The Evolution of Robin Thicke” to 1.5 million in sales.

    After a hit-or-miss follow up with last year’s “Something Else”, Robin is back with the title track to his fourth album, “Sex Therapy”. Believe me when I say that draws nationwide will be hitting the floor upon hearing this jam (which bears a slight resemblance musically to J. Holiday’s “Bed”. Thicke teams with Polow da Don for a jam that practically screams S-E-X.

    The video is just as erotic. Not only does Robin get to bone the lovely Paula Patton on the regular (and she’s expecting his baby!), but he gets to ogle and play around with several lovely females in this video. Talk about people you’d happily trade lives with.

    Anyway, I couldn’t find any embed code for the video, but Urban Daily has the video here. You might need to turn on the fan to cool down afterwards.

    “Sex Therapy” arrives in stores and online December 15th.