The nominations are out, and everyone from music lovers, musicians, singers, music composers and anyone and everyone who is connected even remotely with the music industry, is bound to make time to watch the annual Annual Grammy Awards Speculations as to who the big winners are going to be are always high.

Here is aninsight on music’s biggest event the Grammys, from its humble beginnings to it’s to its televised show that is eagerly watched by millions around the world and the nominees for 2008.

Music awards shows like the American Music awards, MTV Video Music awards, The Brit Awards, and many others may come and go, but the Grammys remain the greatest of them all representing the entire music spectrum from classical, country and gospel to rock, rap and reggae. Last year the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) completed half a century of the Grammy Awards and what a show it was. Live performances, snippets of past ceremonies and a galaxy of artists walking the red carpet. This year promises the same experience. But how did it all begin? Here’s a short rewind.

The Beginning:

The first Grammy awards were held in the year 1958 with the first live Grammys telecast in 1971 on ABC television. In 1970, a series of taped annual specials in the 1960s called ‘The Best on Record’ were broadcast on NBC. The first Grammy Award telecast took place on the night of November 29, 1959, as an episode of the NBC anthology series ‘Sunday Showcase’, which was normally devoted to plays, original TV dramas, and variety shows. Until 1971, awards ceremonies were held in both New York and Los Angeles, with winners accepting at either of the two venues.

Gramophone Trophy

The Grammy awards are named for the trophy which consists of a small, gilded gramophone statuette. The actual trophy is manufactured exclusively by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, CO. The trophies are all handmade and assembled. Years ago, the old smaller gramophone had to be revamped because the metals were too soft and there were many problems with the trophy breaking. The trophy was made bigger and grander. The Grammy is made up of many pieces and finally finished off in gold plating. As of 2007, 7,578 Grammy trophies have been awarded.

Eligibility

To be eligible for an award a recording must have been commercially released between 1^st October 2007 and 30^th September 2008. This is for all recordings released in the 2008 recording year. The NARAS and record companies are responsible for entering into nomination the works that they deem most deserving. The acceptance of gifts is prohibited and can result in termination of membership. The public have no say in the matter even though very much depends on public preferences.Once a work is entered, reviewing sessions are held by over 150 experts from the recording industry. This is done only to determine whether or not a work is eligible or entered into the proper category for official nomination. Academy members are not influenced by mass sales or personal friendships. The nomination process requires that members vote only in their fields of expertise. They may nominate in the four general categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Yer, Song of the Year and Best New Artist) and in no more than nine out of 31 fields on their ballots. Once the nominations are secured, Recording Academy members may then vote in the four general categories and in no more than eight of the 31 fields. After the nominees are announced on 4^th December 2008, final voting ballots are sent to the academy members. After the nominations are announced the recipients of all special awards such as lifetime achievement awards are finally announced along with likely performers and presenters names.All ballots are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

The Grammys

The award ceremony is generally held in February and the Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards) or Grammys are presented annually by the NARAS of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry. The awards ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and are also televised LIVE all over the world. It is one of the most widely-viewed televised music ceremonies. The Grammys are considered the highest honor in music and recording, analogous to the motion picture industry's Academy Awards (Oscars)

The Grammy Nominees album:

Every year and two weeks before the Grammy award ceremony, The Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Recordings partner with a record label and bring out the best selling series titled ‘Grammy Nominees 200_ that highlights artists and songs nominated for the Annual Grammy Awards of that year. The disc contains many of the most widely recognized Grammy categories. The Nominees CD is made possible by a special arrangement with all of the major music distribution companies and rotates labels from year to year.   So far there have been 15 editions that have been released.

Bouquets and Brickbats

Truly the Grammys aren’t your every day award ceremony. Whether a supporter or a denouncer of the annual gramophone distribution ceremony, it’s one of the most revered awards in the music recording industry today. From the day it began, the awards have rewarded the best of the best in popular music. But at the same time, the Grammys are often criticized for failing to represent adequately the sentiments of the public. Some critics have argued that the Grammys are merely the recording industry's attempt to try to bring in their best loved artists that they love listening to or those that have a large fan following. The awards have also come in for criticism from certain quarters, at times for ignoring certain deserving artists, and at other times not even including them in the final nominations, forget bagging the award itself.

The Grammys invite jazz, country, rock, soul, and classical into the same hall, but an artist bags an award not based on his sales, or demographic ratings, research, but voting by the Academy itself. It came as no surprise that the Grammys have ignored rock and metal in a big way. The instance of a Grammy being awarded in Best Rock / Metal performance to Jethro Tull came as surprise, especially when metal heads Metallica were gunning for the award. Jethro Tull later realized the folly and inserted a full page advertisement in US based music magazine ‘Billboard’, showing a flute lying amid a pile of iron bars with the line – ‘The flute is a heavy metal instrument’ below it. The Academy realized its mistake and the following year Metallica grabbed a Grammy in the same category.

Artists who have never won a Grammy are 50 Cent, Tupac, Spice Girls, Jimi Hendrix, Jessica Simpson, Ciara, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Diana Ross, Jewel, Janis Joplin, The Who, Backstreet Boys, Neil Young, Buddy Holly, N Sync, Aaliyah and Bon Jovi among many others.

Indians who won the Grammy Awards:

Pandit Ravi Shankar won the Grammy award three times in 1967, 1972 and 2001 during his lifetime. He won this award in 1967 for his program "West Meets East" and in 1972 he grabbed the award for his work on "The Concert for Bangladesh" featuring him, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann was named Album Of The Year. He did it again in 2001, when he won the Grammy award for his album "Full Circle" in the Best World Music Album category. The second Indian to win the Grammy award was Zakir Husain and he won Grammy award for "Planet Drum" in 1992. Incidentally The Best World Music category that was instituted in 1991. He again won the Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album 'Global Drum Project' with Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo in 2009.

Vishwa Mohan won the award in 1994 for his album "A Meeting by the River". Bhatt has the distinction of creating the Mohan Veena, won the Grammy along with guitar guru Ry Cooder in the World Music Album section in 1994. Now in 2010; AR Rahman extended the list by winning two awards for Slumdog Millionaire.

Sixty days after his death, sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy award, which was jointly accepted by his musically gifted daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones. The duo accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of their father, the late Ravi Shankar at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards Special Merit Awards Ceremony. This was his fourth Grammy.

Anoushka, a reputed sitarist herself, and Norah, who has carved a niche as a singer-songwriter, attended the pre-Grammy ceremony to accept the honour bestowed on their iconic father, who passed away on 11^th December, 2012 at the age of 92.

On that note we could also put 9 time Grammy winner Norah Jones in this category? She is the daughter of Ravi Shankar.

In the past many distinguished Indian musicians have been nominated for the Grammys like Asha Bhosale, Louise Banks, Anoushka Shankar, Debashish Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar and Bickram Ghosh to name a few, but the honour has evaded them so far. Let us wish that more Indians win this award and make the country proud.

The Final Day

Not all Grammys will be presented during the live telecast. As in previous years, most awards will be handed out during the so-called pre-telecast ceremony, held at the Nokia Theater next to the Staples Center, which takes place during the afternoon before the main show. From 2015, this ceremony will be known as the Premiere Ceremony. Approximately 70 Grammys will be presented at this ceremony.

The main show of the 57th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on 8^th February 2015, at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California. Rapper LL Cool J will host the show for the fourth consecutive time. In all, 83 Grammy Awards will be presented, one more than in 2014.

By Verus Ferreira