Grammy Nominations Announced - Kanye and Wino Rule

The Grammy nominations were just announced, and we're in for a bit of a surprise. Yet, this doesn't apply to the artist with the biggest number of nominations is concerned - I'm talking about the very talented, occasionally tantrum-throwing Kanye West, who received eight nominations. On second place, however, with six nominations, comes none other than Amy Winehouse - the very talented singer whose stormy love life and drug addiction seemed to have distracted the critics and public alike from her soulful, jazzy music. "She makes Lindsay Lohan look cool" it was said about Amy when the nominations were announced. Well, that's not too far from the truth - unfortunately.

Amy and Kanye West are both nominated for album of the year for their latest studio materials "Back to Black" and "Graduation", respectively. The troubled Winehouse is also nominated for the best new artist award, plus record and song of the year for her smashing hit single "Rehab." In this very category, she is competing against such household names as Beyonce("Irreplaceable"), the Foo Fighters ("The Pretender"), Rihanna ("Umbrella") and Justin Timberlake ("What Goes Around Comes Around").

Other contenders for the big night include the Foo Fighters, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Paul McCartney, T-Pain and Timbaland. Kanye and Amy are head to head in the album of the year category with the Foo Fighters, for "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace," Vince Gill for his four-disc set "These Days," - and (also a surprise) - Herbie Hancock and her tribute to Joni Mitchell, "River: The Joni Letters". Other song of the year candidates are Corrine Bailey Rae's "Like A Star," Carrie Underwood with her powerful revenge song "Before He Cheats," The Plain White T's with "Hey There Delilah" and "Umbrella".

It remains to be seen who the big winners will be - and the big losers. I'm not counting on any tantrum from Kanye anymore - and I do hope Amy Wino will manage to sort herself out by the time the award ceremony takes place. If we are to judge by her latest antics, I'm might be getting my hopes up too high. The singer's life has been spiraling out of control over the couple of months, and she seems to be relying more and more heavily on drugs to cope with everyday life. But I do hope she will be back to normal in the near future and maybe we will even be seeing her perform on stage at the Grammys. Fingers crossed.