WE LOVE MUSIC!
By Davalynn Betham, Lauren Folau, Aleah Cunningham and the Adventurers’ Class

The award season is upon us, and it’s time to pull out the big guns: The Grammys and the Academy Awards. Members of the Adventurers’ class at Pacific Horizons School took this opportunity to find out more about the Grammy Awards and the artists who are nominated for awards this year. We also put our math skills to work and found out which song students at our school thought should win Record of the Year.

The Grammys were awarded on 8th February, 2006.

Grammy Fun Facts

• The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Inc. was created in 1957.
• There are over 20,000 members of the Academy today.
• The first Annual Grammy Awards began in 1959.
• The awards are named for the trophy which the winner receives - a small gilded statuette of a gramophone.
• The eligibility period for the Grammys begins October 1 each year and ends September 30 of the following year.
• Soul and R&B legend Aretha Franklin has won 11 awards for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
• The most Grammys won in a single night is eight -- a record shared by Michael Jackson (1984), and Carlos Santana (2000).

The BIG Nominees

Mariah Carey, Kanye West, and newcomer John Legend each received eight Grammy nominations this year. Let’s get to know each artist a little better.

Biography of John Legend

John Legend (born as John Stephens) was born on December 28, 1978 in Springfield, Ohio. He grew up in Springfield, Ohio and started playing classical piano his grandmother taught him at the very young age of four. Legend attended Springfield North High School, graduating as Salutatorian at sixteen. Legend left Ohio at sixteen to go to college at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was there that he first found a larger audience.

Not yet out of his teens, Legend was tapped to play piano on Lauryn Hill’s “Everything Is Everything” in 1998. After completing college, he moved to New York where he began to build a loyal following playing in nightclubs and releasing CDs that he would sell at shows.

He also became an in-demand session musician, playing and occasionally writing for a wide array of artists, including Alicia Keys, Twista, Janet Jackson, and Kanye West.

Legend was recently nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including best new artist. The awards will be held February 8, 2006.


Biography of Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 in Huntington, New York. She was the third child of Patricia Hickey and Alfred Roy Carey. Mariah attended and graduated from Oldfield Middle School and Harborsfield High School in Greenland, New York. After moving to New York City, she became a backup singer for Brenda K.Starr. In 1988, Mariah Carey became a singer because of her friend Brenda. Brenda loved Mariah’s voice and thought that it was beautiful. So she gave Tommy Mottola (an executive of Columbia Records) at a party. Tommy listened to her tape and was impressed with what he heard. He returned to the party to search for Mariah, but she had already left. Tommy tracked her down and got her to sign a Record Contract. She has since become an R&B singer and an actress.


Biography of Kanye West

Kanye West was born into a privileged family with a mother who was a doctor on June 8 in the year of 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended Columbia College and Chicago State University, but he never graduated. He dropped out and started his music career. He became a co-worker with the artist Jay-Z. Jay-Z had West helped him make the album “The Blueprint”. On the album, 6 of the songs were produced by Kanye West. Kanye went on to work with other big hit artists such as Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, John Legend and many more. After assisting other artists he wanted to work on his own album. His 1st big hit album was called College Dropout. He went on to his 2nd album. Days, weeks, months went by and Late Registration came out in 2005. This was also a big hit for him. Over 904,000 copies were sold in the 1st week of it even being out. This year Kanye West received 10 Grammy Nominations. He is planning for 2 more albums to come out. One will be called “Graduation” and the other will be called “A Good Ass Job.” They will be coming out sooner or later.

Record of the Year

Our class made a list of the Record of the Year nominees, and we asked 36 students between the ages of ten and seventeen who they thought should win. Here is what we found out:

We Belong Together – Mariah Carey
8.3% voted for Mariah.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams- Green Day
33.3% voted for Green Day.

Hollaback Girl- Gwen Steffani
11.1% voted for Gwen.

Gold Digger- Kanye West
19.4% voted for Kanye.

Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
27.3% voted for the Gorillaz.