EMINEM GETS 10 GRAMMY NOMINATIONS!

The biggest selling artist of the year now stands as the most Grammy-nominated.
Eminem earned 10 bids in this year's race, including nods in all three top categories, the only star to pull off the hat trick.

In a move neither surprising nor coincidental, Eminem's 3 million-selling "Recovery" CD got a nomination for Album of the Year, while his "Love the Way You Lie" rapped its way into both the top song and record slots.

The once-controversial MC recorded the hit song with Barbadian singer Rihanna, who earned two other nominations in smaller categories.
The second biggest contender this year (with seven nods) is newcomer Bruno Mars, who functions as the Beach Boy of this generation. His breezy songs dominated this past summer's charts.

Gaining six bids were New Yorkers Lady Gaga and Jay-Z. Gaga has a shot at Album of the Year while Jay could take the top record for a song that has become the new anthem of New York - "Empire State of Mind." Jay cut it with homegirl Alicia Keys, who got two other nominations.

Also figuring big was the tuneful Nashville trio Lady Antebellum, who earned six nods, including top record and song for their hit "Need You Now."

The year's quirkiest top nominee has to be the neo-soul artist Cee-Lo Green. He's up for both the ultimate song and record categories for a piece whose title can't be printed in full in this newspaper and can't be read at all on the air ("F--K You"). Cee-Lo's novelty song became a YouTube phenom this past summer.

The most surprising mention is a top song chance for Ray LaMontagne's "Beg Steal or Borrow," a critically heralded number that earned neither large sales nor significant airplay.

The much-desired Best New Artist category features some expected entries, including the world's first major Jewish Canadian rapper, Drake, along with the florid British rock act Florence and the Machine and the English folk group Mumford and Sons. But the category also features a star loved almost exclusively by teenage girls, Justin Bieber.

Even less expected is the placement here of Esperanza Spalding, a jazz singer and musician who plays the string bass.

Winners will be announced Sunday, Feb. 13, in a show telecast live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on CBS.