Taylor nominated for THREE GRAMMY'S!

Taylor Swift followed up on her big night at the American Music Awards (where she took home three awards including Artist of the Year) with three nominations this morning for the 54th GRAMMY awards.

Taylor was nominated in three country music categories including Best Country Album for "Speak Now," Best Country Solo Performance, and Best Country Song both for her song "Mean."

The Grammy Awards will take place on February 12, 2012 on CBS. Check out below for a list of Taylor competitors in each category.

Best Country Album

• "My Kinda Party" - Jason Aldean
• "Chief" - Eric Church
• "Own The Night" - Lady Antebellum
• "Red River Blue" - Blake Shelton
• "Here for a Good Time" - George Strait
• "Speak Now" - Taylor Swift

Best Country Solo Performance

• "Dirt Road Anthem" - Jason Aldean
• "I'm Gonna Love You Through It" - Martina McBride
• "Honey Bee" - Blake Shelton
• "Mean" - Taylor Swift
• "Mama's Song" - Carrie Underwood

Best Country Song

• "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not" - Jim Collins & David Lee Murphy
• "God Gave Me You" - Dave Barnes
• "Just Fishin'" - Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell & Ed Hill
• "Mean" - Taylor Swift
• "Threaten Me With Heaven" - Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Will Owsley & Dillon O’Brian
• "You And Tequila" - Matraca Berg & Deana Carter

Grammy Preview - Feist

Seeing as how the days leading up to Christmas might be light on Taylor Swift news, I figured I would provided some insight on the artists Taylor will be competing against for Best New Artist at the Grammys. Today I will be focusing on Feist, but check back daily as I will be focusing on one artist daily.

Feist

Leslie Feist is a Canadian singer/song-writer who although is nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, has been on the indie scene for quite sometime. The 31 year old Nova Scotian native who performs using her last name as her stage name, also is a member of the indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene.

While she has been performing professionally since 1991, it was only in 2007 that she achieved widespread commercial success. Her success could be traced in part to three separate occurrences. The first occurrence was when the Lacoste ad featuring her oh-so-catchy song "Mushaboom" went into rotation. It was a song that tended to stick with you and seek out who sung it.

The second was when Feist became the object of affection by Perez Hilton. As his influence (unfortunately) is felt throughout the industry, his endorsement sent her song "1234" soaring up the online download charts.

Finally what pushed her over the top and into the mainstream was having "1234" featured in the new Apple iPod commercials. The colorful video as well as other catchy singles off her "The Reminder" album has rocketed her to commercial success, but unfortunately, in my opinion, will leave her in third place for the Best New Artist award.

Grammy Preview - Amy Winehouse

Seeing as how the days leading up to Christmas might be light on Taylor Swift news, I figured I would provided some insight on the artists Taylor will be competing against for Best New Artist at the Grammys. Today I will be focusing on Amy Winehouse, but check back daily as I will be focusing on one artist daily.

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse could be the best known artist of the five acts nominated, for both good and bad reasons. The talented 24 year old English singer/songwriter scored a top 40 hit in the US with her debut single "Rehab" off her sophmore album "Back to Black." Rehab hit #7 on the UK pop charts and her follow up single "You Know I'm No Good" also cracked the UK top 40.

Aside from being nominated for Best New Artist, Amy has also been nominated for 5 other Grammys this year. She has also garnered nomination for the World Music Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards, Vibe Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards.

It should also be noted that both her debut album, "Frank" and her follow-up, "Back to Black" have both been nominated for the prestigious Mercury Award, which is given to the best album in the UK.

No discussion of Amy Winehouse would be complete, however, with mentioning her troubles away from the stage (and even some times on-stage). Her and her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, have been the target of constant tabloid scrutiny both Stateside and in the UK due to their on-going drug, depression, and self-harm issues. She has been the focus of several front page stories in various tabloids as well as a constant source of news for gossip sites such as Perez Hilton.

Despite her personal issues, I still believe Winehouse is the front runner to take home Best New Artist this year.

"And the Grammy for Best New Artist goes to...TAYLOR SWIFT!" (Hopefully)

I've been on hiatus recently from maintaining this site, but I've still been keeping tabs on Taylor of course. And I figured today was as good a day as any to begin posting again.

What's so special about this day? Well Taylor was just nominated for a Grammy Award! She's up for Best New Artist against some fierce competition. She will be competing with Amy Winehouse, Ledisi, Paramore, and Feist (by the way, if you haven't caught on to Feist yet, go check her out...she's fantastic!).

As usual, Taylor was her typical cheerful self describing what she was feeling. "I decided to go into today knowing that I would have a good day, whether or not I was nominated," Swift said. "I was just really excited to be in the same room with Fergie and Akon, and then I looked around on that stage, and it looked like my iPod."

There was even more good news for Taylor. "Now this has officially been The Best Day Ever" Taylor said. "My label just told me this morning that my CD is certified double-platinum and I got a huge nomination I didn't even see coming."

The 50th Grammy Awards ceremony will take place from Los Angeles on February 10, 2008. Good luck Taylor!