The 50th Annual Grammy Awards are this Sunday. As any good music fan and observer, I have my own ideas about who will take home awards and who will leave empty handed. Below I’ve listed the big award categories and my picks. I’ve added a little color commentary as well. Let me know what you think. Am I right or wrong? Who do you think will win?

Album Of The Year
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace– Foo Fighters?
These Days– Vince Gill?
River: The Joni Letters– Herbie Hancock?
Graduation– Kanye West?
Back To Black– Amy Winehouse?

Who Should Win: Personally, I am pulling for the Foo Fighters on this one. The album starts off strong with The Pretender and then rides off into the sunset with Seda. The best Foo Fighters album since The Colour and the Shape.

Who Will Win: The only thing that I would bet on is that (It’s)Herrbie Hancock and Vince Gill will not win. Other than that the field is wide open. Kanye has received a Best Album nomination for each of his albums. Bono even gave him the old “chin-up-man-we’ve-all-been-overlooked-before” speech from the Grammy stage when HTDAAB beat out Late Registration for Best Album 2 years ago. Of course, Graduation is no Late Registration. There are some stand out tracks like Stronger, Homecoming, and The Good Life but I didn’t feel like West took it to another level. It just seemed more of the same. It could be his year though. He has, however, whined about losing about 40 times too many. The Grammy voters might not look too kindly on whiners. They also might not look too kindly on crack. That is the cross Amy Winehouse has to bear in her quest for Grammy Gold. Some have suggested that voters might pass over Winehouse in this category in order to avoid glamorizing her substance abuse problem. One way to avoid that criticism would be for them to award her the Best Album and then show a recent picture of her. Nothing glamorous there. Out of those three (Foo Fighters, Kanye, Winehouse) I have probably listened to Winehouse’s Back to Black the most. I would like to see her win this but I’m not sure that will happen.

Update – Who Did Win: Who would have thunk it? (It’s)Herbie Hancock won Album of the Year… in 2008. Wow.

Record Of The Year?
Record of the Year goes to the artist and to the producer(s) of a particular track.

Irreplaceable– Beyoncé?
The Pretender– Foo Fighters
Umbrella– Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z?
What Goes Around…Comes Around– Justin Timberlake?
Rehab– Amy Winehouse?

Who Should Win: The deep, cinematic, heavy beats from Timbaland and the angst ridden, tortured voice of Justin Timberlake make What Goes Around my pick for Record of the Year.

Who Will Win: Probably Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh by Rihanna-ah-ah.

Update – Who Did Win: Rehab– Amy Winehouse?

Song Of The Year ?
Song of the Year is a songwriter’s award

Before He Cheats- Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood)
Hey There Delilah- Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T’s)
Like A Star- Corinne Bailey Rae, songwriter (Corinne Bailey Rae)
Rehab- Amy Winehouse, songwriter (Amy Winehouse)
Umbrella- Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius “Dream” Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)?

Who Should Win: What makes a song great? The music or the lyrics? For me the two are often inseparable so I might not be on the same page as the voters. Each of these songs tell a story. Whether it’s a revenge seeking girlfriend or an aspiring rock star writing to his beloved the words meld into the music and should create a kaleidoscope of pictures and feelings in the mind and in the heart. My vote is for Hey There Delilah.

Who Will Win:Probably Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh by Rihanna-ah-ah.

Update – Who Did Win: Rehab– Amy Winehouse

Best New Artist
Feist
Ledisi
Paramore
Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse?

Who Should Win: Amy Winehouse
Who Will Win: Amy Winehouse
Update – Who Did Win: Amy Winehouse
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So these are the 4 big awards that everybody cares about. I am no expert so I expect to wake up Monday morning only to find that I was way off on my predictions. Last year’s predictions were completely off. Will this year be the same? We shall see.

I want hear from you. Who are your picks? Did your favorite song or album get snubbed?