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See, if you thought it was about the music or about the respect of the recording community, you'd be wrong. How else does one explain the nomination of Lou Bega, a third-rate Vin Diesel knockoff with a paunch, a scratchy voice and a song almost entirely lifted from mambo king Perez Prado? Running down a list of women you've dated over a stolen beat merits a Grammy nomination? OK, then those guys who shouted out all the women they'd slept with in their ad at the back of my high school yearbook better be up for a Pulitzer this year.

Bega's egregious nomination is not the only one -- what about Cher, who mailed it in for her 100-percent synthesized hit "Believe"? And what of this Bocelli character? For all I know, he sings in radio ads for pasta companies in Italy.

"Grammy Nominees 2000," a collection just released on CD, brings together most of the nominees in three popular categories -- record of the year, best new artist and best male pop vocal performance. It's a testament to the Academy's startling lack of originality. Bega, Bocelli and Cher are there, as are Martin, Spears and Aguilera. Kid Rock and TLC are there for the teenage "wish I was a rebel but I've got it too good" types, while their parents can hum along to Santana, Sting and Macy Gray.

See, the Grammy folks have so thoroughly sorted through the demographics of their target groups that the Grammy album and the nomination process at large miss almost any element of surprise. These nominees merely re-create the charts we've been bombarded with all year -- Billboard, Amazon.com, MTV's Total Request Live, radio Top 10s. Watching the festivities will only reinforce the machines that got these artists to their perches in the first place.

The only voice of dissent on the Grammy collection is left-field best new artist nominee Susan Tedeschi. A blues-folk singer from Boston, her song "It Hurt So Bad" is a fresh, sparkling ode to raw anguish with debts to early blues singers as well as pure '50s rock 'n' roll. On an album brimming with insipid, overproduced schlock, her guitar twangs and crystal voice are a welcome reprieve. Sure she won't win, but it's nice to have this moment with her before her dissent is fully commodified and she ends up doing a guest spot as a stand-in for Shepard on "Ally."
salon.com | Feb. 23, 2000

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