Jay Leno & Lady Gaga: Someone give the host a copy of the Grammy rulebook

This will be the final post in which Pop & Hiss mentions Lady Gaga not being in the running for a best new artist Grammy nod. Lady Gaga went on "The Jay Leno Show" on Monday night, with the host proclaiming in an interview with the artist that she is "kinda getting screwed here," as Recording Academy rules stipulate that an artist who has been previously nominated for a Grammy cannot be considered a best new artist.

As noted Monday, Lady Gaga will not be in the running for a best new artist award at the 2010 ceremony, despite being the year's most obvious breakout star. Yet let's be clear -- nobody is getting screwed here. If anything, the Recording Academy is getting unfairly beaten up over this complete non-issue.

Pop & Hiss has taken the Grammys to task multiple times, but the Recording Academy is in the right on this one. Here's why: The Haus of Gaga and Universal Music Group could have simply held off on submitting Lady Gaga for the career-making, oh-so-coveted best dance recording award last year, in which Gaga's "Just Dance" lost to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."

Don't remember that category? It wasn't broadcast on the air.

But the very act of submitting Lady Gaga for the 2009 Grammy Awards meant that Team Gaga was sacrificing the best chance the artist would have for a best new artist trophy. With her album "The Fame" released after the 2009 eligibility period ended, the entire music industry knew that her only shot for a best new artist nod would have been at the 2010 ceremony. The Grammys didn't go and pull a fast one on anybody.

And besides, when your record is a lock for an album of the year nod, who needs a best new artist nomination?

To her credit, Lady Gaga responded to Leno by saying she doesn't "rely on outside validation." Watch Lady Gaga perform "Bad Romance" on the NBC site. 

-- Todd Martens

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Photo:  Screenshot of Lady Gaga performing on "The Jay Leno Show." Credit: NBC

Comments

[Corey]

So why is Daft Punk winning awards for a song that came out in 2002?

[Todd Martens]

Hey Corey,
It was a version of the song on Daft Punk's "Alive 2007."

That's a whole other issue.

[Michael]

So much Lady GaGa, but no review of Shakira's new album?

[CallyWog]

Sometimes rules are stupid and arbitrary. Yeah, you can get hosed even if them are the rule. These incidents are good reason to revisit the rules, not mindlessly parrot them.

[Cisco]

NARAS should have never changed the rules for Best New Artist in the first place. This brouhaha all started when Whitney Houston was considered ineligible back in 1985 because she recorded a song in 1984. I've always said to NARAS via letters that the new rules were a disservice to the very artists whose first recordings debut were released during the eligibility period be considered for Best New Artist period. When you change the rules and have artists like Paula Cole, Shelby Lynne or Imogene Heap up for Best New Artist when they had already released recordings prior to their "breakout" hit is a slap in the face to those artists who have released their first recording. It's really an embarrassment to have an artists who has been recording music for about 5 years and winds up being nominated for Best New Artist all of a sudden just because that particular artist did not have a hit when they first debuted. This is one category NARAS can never get right whatsoever.