Photo: Sergione Infuso – Corbis (Getty Images)
The Grammys are the biggest night in music, or at least that’s what the CBS commercials say. The stars will be out (Drake, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar) on Feb. 10 at Staples Center, but there will also be some names that will make you ask yourself who are these Grammy nominees?
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Don’t worry, it’s not because you’re old or out of touch. To be honest, we didn’t know that much about them either but we do now and so will you.
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Who Are These Grammy Nominees?
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Luke Combs - Best New Artist
Unfortunately Luke Combs is not Sean “P. Diddy” Comb’s son who shunned hip hop for country music but his story would be a lot more interesting if he was. The burly country western singer hails from the mountain tops of Asheville, North Carolina where he played football and sang Garth Brooks songs in the shower. The beer-chugging regular guy dropped out a couple credits shy of graduating from Appalachian State University to pursue his musical dreams in Nashville. After building a local buzz in the Tennessee music hotbed, Combs broke big with his debut album This Ones For You.
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H.E.R. - Album of the Year
Gabi Wilson is that other H.E.R. (not the Spike Jonze tech love story movie). Nominated for four Grammy's (including Best New Artist and Album of the year) the former Disney Radio star is going to be the new face of contemporary R&B.
Photo: Prince Williams (Getty Images)
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THE FEVER 333 - Best Rock Performance
The three-piece rapcore band out of Inglewood, CA call each concert a “demonstration". Their bounce off the walls energy has put the mosh back in concert pits, drawing the attention of Travis Barker and Vic Mensa, who collaborated with them on a remix of their hit song "Made in America."
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Virtual Self 'Ghost Voices' - Best Dance Recording
You may have never heard of Virtual Self but EMD fans know Porter Robinson, the man behind this audio-visual alter ego which opts for a more more techno sound rooted in vintage dance music from the early 2000s.
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Bring Me the Horizon - Best Rock Song
It hasn’t dawned on us that emo bands (see what we did there) are still a thing, they’ve just morphed into a new genre called “pop metal.” Covered in tattoos and dour faces, these English lads have been belting out hardcore ballads for years, packing dive bars to now stadium arenas while earning their first Grammy Nomination for “Mantra.”
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Halestorm - Best Rock Performance
Frontwoman Lzzy Hale and her bandmates and brother (drummer Arejay Hale) have been redefining hard rock long before female empowerment was the popular thing to do. For over two decades, two-time Grammy winners have built a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in any genre, playing an astonishing 250-plus shows a year.
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Tierra Whack - Music Video/Film
The Philly rapper has risen from the rap underground to open for Lauryn Hill and Flying Lotus. The young upstart's debut Whack World stood out for its social media savvy approach - 15 tracks, each exactly 1 minute long. The 60 second run-time went onto go viral on Instagram. Nothing Whack does is whack. Check out her Grammy-nominated video Mumbo Jumbo.
