Adele Is Queen of the 2012 Grammy Nominations...but Guess Who's King?!

British songbird almost leads the field heading into the 54th Grammy Awards, airing Feb. 12 on CBS; she competes with Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Foo Fighters and Bruno Mars for Album of the Year

By Natalie Finn Dec 01, 2011 6:00 AMTags
Adele, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Dave Grohl of Foo FightersGetty Images, FilmMagic

Wait, someone's rolling in more Grammy nominations than Adele this year?

Indeed someone is, though the British songbird did pretty well for herself and is heading into the 54th Grammy Awards with six nominations, including Album of the Year for 21 and, for "Rolling in the Deep," Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Joining 21 in the illustrious Album of the Year category are Lady Gaga's Born This Way (surprise!), Foo Fighters' Wasting Light (surprise!), Rihanna's Loud and Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans.

But Mars wasn't the one who topped Adele. No, the familiar-sounding dude who did that was...

Kanye West!

You wouldn't know it from watching tonight's short-and-sweet Grammy nominations concert, but West leads all comers with seven, including Song of the Year for "All of the Lights" and two Best Rap Album nods—for his critical smash My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and his much-hyped collaboration with Jay-Z, Watch the Throne.

That's just so Kanye, to be battling himself on more than one occasion (he's also got two Best Rap Song possibilities, for "All of the Lights" and Watch's "Otis").

Let's have a toast for the jerkoffs that'll never take work off!

But it isn't that lonely at the top...

Adele's six nominations have her keeping company with Bruno Mars—whose ubiquitous hit "Grenade" is also up for Record and Song of the Year—and Foo Fighters, who can count Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance (the latter two for "Walk") among their six.

Lil Wayne and dubstep specialist Skrillex are next in line with five nominations apiece, Skrillex being the wild card entry in the Best New Artist field. The prestigious category includes Nicki Minaj, country trio the Band Perry, rapper J. Cole (the first aspiring Jay-Z signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation label) and Bon Iver (no matter that they released their freshman studio effort in 2008).

In fact, Bon Iver came charging in from the critically acclaimed fringes to also nab Song and Record of the Year nominations for "Holocene," as well as one for Best Alternative Rock Album for their self-titled sophomore effort.

May the Recording Academy always delve outside the Top 40 to round out their lists! (On an unrelated note, Katy Perry's "Firework" joins "Grenade," "Rolling in the Deep," "Holocene" and Mumford & Sons' "The Cave" in the Record of the Year category.)

As for Mumford & Sons, those guys are pretty mainstream now, too: The British folksters are also Song of the Year, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance nominees for "The Cave," for a grand total of four nominations.

In addition to the holy trinity, Adele's total haul includes Best Short Form Music Video for "Rolling in the Deep," Best Pop Solo Performance for "Someone Like You" and Best Pop Vocal Album.

We can only hope her sore pipes are all better by the time the Grammys are handed out on Feb. 12 at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.

But while these are the major nominations of note, plenty of your faves are still in the running for a shiny gramophone or two:

• What about the songs you just can't get out of your head, you ask?! Yes, Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" and Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" are nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

• FTP's Torches is also in the running for Best Alternative Music Album, as are Bon Iver, Radiohead's The King of Limbs, My Morning Jacket's Circuital and Death Cab for Cutie's Codes and Keys.

Eminem could share a Best Rap Song or Best Rap/Sung Collaboration win for "I Need a Doctor."

• Like it or not, Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. is up for Best R&B Album and he shares a Best Rap Song nod for "Look at Me Now."

• Like Kanye, Album of the Year nominee Rihanna is up against herself in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ("What's My Name" with Drake and "All of the Lights" with Kanye, Fergie and Kid Cudi).

Tina Fey could win a Best Spoken Word Album Grammy for her charming reading of her memoir Bossypants—but she'll have to get through Betty White's even more charming reading of If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) to do it.

• Ah, Best Score Soundtrack, the only category in which Black Swan could possibly face off against Tron: Legacy.

(Originally published Nov. 30, 2011, at 8:15 p.m. PT)