GRAMMY TO CHANGE RULES AFTER LADY GAGA SNUB?

The always eclectic Lady Gaga has been nominated for five 2010 Grammy Awards, including nods for Song of the Year for her hit single “Poker Face” and Record and Album of the Year for her breakout album “The Fame.” Her other two nominations include the Best Electronic/Dance album and Best Dance Recording categories, although many people feel she should have been nominated for Best New Artist. She probably would win for Best New Artist, but she was ruled ineligible because she was nominated for a Grammy previously when she won for Best Dance Recording for “Just Dance” at last year’s ceremony, before her album was eligible for Grammy consideration. This same scenario happened to Jennifer Hudson due to her 2007 nomination in the Outstanding Motion Picture Soundtrack Compilation category for Dreamgirls which prevented her from receiving the Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist in 2008.

At the Grammy Nomination event, the current president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Neil Portnow, talked about the Academy taking a look at possibly changing the rule so this scenario doesn’t happen again.

“In this particular chase there is a long standing rule that anybody that received a nomination in a previous year in any category was automatically not qualified for the Best New Artist category. I think, given the way that records are released now and the time span that’s involved and people working on other projects with other artists and so on, we wouldn’t want to penalize somebody who might be appropriate and valid for that kind of a consideration. So what we will do, our normal process is review and that will get reviewed this year and I would guess they’ll be some changes so that particular situation wouldn’t repeat itself.”

Lady Gaga has sold more than 1.5 million copies of “The Fame,” but the finalists for Best New Artist are Zac Brown Band, Keri Hilson, MGMT, Silversun Pickups and The Ting Tings. The Grammy Awards will be shown live on CBS on Sunday January 31st at 8pm. Lady Gaga is currently in the midst of a North American Tour with dates extending until January 24th in New York City.