So now that the Grammys are over, I thought I'd look back at my personal choices and predictions of the Big Four winners and see what they were like compared to the actual winners:
Record Of The Year
With the exception of WANEGBT (where I simply cannot explain why the hell it's in this category), the songs in this category are all pretty good. Despite that, I think it's almost guaranteed that STIUTK will take this award. It was something different this year, it has a unique sound, and it was the biggest hit of the year.
My Choice: "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye ft. Kimbra
My Prediction: "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye ft. Kimbra
The Winner: "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye ft. Kimbra
Well that's 1 for my choice and 1 for my prediction. I'm really glad it won, especially considering it had a lot of competition in this category. Considering Gotye will (very sadly) likely fade into obscurity and end up being a one hit wonder, I'm glad that he at least got a Grammy for his masterpiece of a smash single.
Album Of The Year
Ooh, this is tough. While I've only listened to Some Nights and a bit of Babel, I've heard good things about all the albums in this category, so I really don't know who to choose here. Just based on how Bon Iver was the surprise winner of the Grammys last here, I'll go with Jack White.
My Choice: "Some Nights" - Fun.
My Prediction: "Blunderbuss" - Jack White
The Winner: "Babel" - Mumford & Sons
Yeah, I knew I would be completely wrong with this one. I guess I underestimated how much this year's awards would gear towards mainstream songs and artists, otherwise I would have picked Babel. I haven't listened to the whole thing, but it's good from what I've heard, so I'm not disappointed.
Song Of The Year
While The A Team could pull a surprise here, I think it's pretty clear that WAY has got this category. CMM and Stronger are too poppy and I just can't see Adorn winning a Grammy.
My Choice: We Are Young - Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe)
My Prediction: We Are Young - Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe)
The Winner: We Are Young - Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe)
SUCK IT, CALL ME MAYBE DIDN'T WIN, CARLY LEFT WITH NOTHING!. In all honesty, I was actually getting a bit afraid that CMM would take this one because of the massive cultural impact this song had. But I guess genuinely good writing pulled through over billions of Youtube parodies, so I'm extremely happy to see WAY take this one. CMM may have been the pop hit of 2012, but WAY was definitely the anthem of 2012.
Best New Artist
Another tough category. I have no idea who Alabama Shakes is and Hunter Hayes seems like a pretty basic young country star, so for me this boils down to Fun., Frank Ocean and The Lumineers. I've noticed that almost all the time, this category ends up being won by a less popular act, and I've heard good things about Frank Ocean, so I think he may take it.
My Choice: Fun.
My Prediction: Frank Ocean
The Winner: Fun.
Well, even though I didn't predict this, I'm sure as hell glad that my personal choice won!! This category had such huge competition and I was accepting the fact that Fun. wouldn't get this one. But I'm so happy that it did - they were by far the biggest breakout starts of 2012 and out of the three main new acts of the year (Gotye, Fun. and Carly), I predict that Fun. will be around the longest. I hope to see them winning some Grammys next year for "Carry On" or whatever new material they release afterwards.
Well, that's 2/4 for my predictions and 3/4 for my personal choices. I'm certainly satisfied with that, especially considering how much competition there was this year.
Also, just a note on Kelly's award, because everybody seems to be talking about that: I love Kelly, but Florence + The Machine totally got robbed. "Ceremonials" is a pure masterpiece, and every track on that album beats even Kelly's best songs. But like I said earlier, this year's Grammys catered to the mainstream audience a lot, so I'm not that surprised.
Anyways, I thought I'd also show some iTunes positions of songs that saw massive boosts because of the Grammys:
US iTunes:
1. "Ho Hey" - The Lumineers
2. "Suit & Tie" - Justin Timberlake ft. Jay-Z
3 & 39. "I Will Wait" - Mumford & Sons
5. "Stay" - Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
6. "Carry On" - Fun.
7. "Daylight" - Maroon 5
8. "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
10 & 99. "We Are Young" - Fun. ft. Janelle Monae
12. "The A Team" - Ed Sheeran
14. "Mirrors" - Justin Timberlake
15 & 83. "Girl On Fire" - Alicia Keys
16. "Lonely Boy" - The Black Keys
17. "Wanted" - Hunter Hayes
18. "Some Nights" - Fun.
21. "Somebody That I Used To Know" - Gotye ft. Kimbra
23 & 40. "Adorn" - Miguel
24. "Blown Away" - Carrie Underwood
28. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Kelly Clarkson