Album of the year tonight– whoever wins, Lucian Grange will be happy. He’s the head of Universal Music Group. All five nominees for Album of the Year come from UMG. No Sony-Columbia-Epic, no Warner Music or anyone else.
Sony will wait until next year when Adele’s “25” is eligible, and hope that nothing better comes along in the meantime.
UMG has Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Chris Stapleton, and Alabama Shakes on various labels throughout their empire. Swift is the likely winner, but anyone of them could get a surprise win.
It’s pretty much the same for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Only Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” on Warner-Atlantic, is the exception.
So stay tuned…