By Julie Miller, Vanity Fair
On Wednesday night, the Grammys announced their 2013 nominations. Some people heard the news at a special live Grammy-nominations concert in Nashville, many read about it on the Internet, while a select few (thousand) were alerted of the announcement personally by Taylor Swift's Instagram feed, which showed a photo of her nomination for Record of the Year. Either way, it was incredibly exciting music-awards news--unless you are Justin Bieber, One Direction, Lionel Richie, Nicki Minaj, or one of the many female performers shut out of this year's testosterone-heavy Grammy race. In that case, not so much.
Justin Bieber's management has already responded to the snub via Twitter. "This time there won't be any wise words, no excuses, I just plain DISAGREE," Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, tweeted. "The kid deserved it. Grammy board u blew it on this one." At the time of this post, One Direction--the boy band that includes Taylor Swift's latest beau, Harry Styles--has not commented on their lack of Grammy nominations (but has, charmingly, inquired about whether all of its fans got home safely from their last concert). For every snubbed One Direction member (five in total) and Justin Bieber (one in total, that we know of) though, there was an artist who received six nods this year. The half dozen artists who earned a half dozen nominations each include hospitable subway passenger Jay Z, Kanye West, Mumford & Sons, Frank Ocean, un-memorably-named pop band Fun, and the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach.
Meanwhile, it bears noting that female artists were completely shut out of the album-of-the-year category, whose nominees included The Black Keys, Fun, Mumford & Sons, Frank Ocean, and Jack White. In more encouraging female Grammy news, First Lady Michelle Obama was nominated in the spoken-word-album category for the audio version of her book, American Grown. With one nomination, the First Lady has already out-Grammy-ied Justin Bieber and One Direction in 2013. Congratulations to Michelle Obama, and all of the nominees.
The 55th Annual Grammy Awards air on CBS on February 10. The 2013 Grammy Award nominees can be viewed here.
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