Grammy Nominations – Rahman

Nominations for the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced by ‘The Recording Academy’ and reflected an eclectic mix of the best and brightest over the past year in music, as determined by the voting members of The Academy.
AR Rahman gets nominated for Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire), written by Gulzar, performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaxmi Iyer & Vijay Prakash and published by AR Rahman’s own record label, KM Musiq, distributed by N.E.E.T. and Interscope Records. The award is for best song written For motion picture, television or other visual media. He also gets a nomination for best compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual Media for the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire.
Both Vijay Prakash and Mahalakshmi Iyer are Mumbai based singers of Tamil origin and Tanvi Shah was born and brought up in Chennai and speaks fluent Tamil. Incidentally, Jai Ho also won the BMI award in London recently and Tanvi flew down to collect it. The song Jai Ho was also redone by the popular girl group Pussycat Dolls, as Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) – It peaked at Number 3 in the UK charts and was Number 1 in many countries and reached the U.S Billboard Top 20 in both the Hot and Pop 100 categories.
Beyoncé topped the nominations with 10, Taylor Swift garnered 8, and the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell, and Kanye West each earned 6 nods. David Guetta, Jay-Z and Lady Gaga received 6 each; and Colbie Caillat, Michael Giacchino, Kings Of Leon, John Newton, RedOne, Bruce Springsteen, T-Pain, and Keith Urban each received 4 nominations.
The AR Rahman Tamil connection to the Grammys doesn’t stop here, as Jai Ho is part of M.I.A’s N.E.E.T record label, while M.I.A was nominated alongside AR Rahman for the song O Saya from Slumdog Millionaire last year at the Grammys. Her memorable baby bump performance with Hip Hop’s top stars a the Grammy ceremony, on top of giving birth just afterwards, not to mention that she was also nominated for Paper Planes last year intrinsically connects her to the awards as well.
AR Rahman is also working on many high profile international projects, including “Street Dancing” with Golden Globe winner English musician David A Stewart (Eurythmics). With his score for Couples Retreat winning many technical awards and the film itself topping box office charts the world over, not to mention his much anticipated Tamil projects like Gautham Menon’s Vinnai thaandi varuvaya and Mani Ratnam’s Raavana, AR Rahman is on an incredible career high right now.
GRAMMY ballots for the final round of voting will be mailed on Dec. 16 to the voting members of The Recording Academy. They are due back to the accounting firm of Deloitte by Jan. 8, 2010, when they will be tabulated and the results kept secret until the telecast. The 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on "GRAMMY Sunday," Jan. 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Thamarai team wish AR Rahman all success at the awards in 2010
Words: Ashanti OMkar (c) Thamarai.com