The Grammy Awards are considered the most entertaining music award show. There is always an anxiety in the music buffs to discover what goes behind the scene and how the nominees in the 95 categories are selected. The Grammy Trophies are handmade, assembled by Billings Artworks in pieces and finished in gold plating (Ridgeway Colorado). Please note the nomination is not taken over by the general public; not just anyone is allowed to vote for the nominees. There are certain criteria on basis of which an artist is selected as the member of the Academy. It is announced by The Recording Academy. Identities and professions of NARAS members are closely-held secret to keep up the integrity of the Grammy process.
To begin with, an artist must have creative credits on at least six commercial-released recordings. Only then the artist is eligible to become a voting member of National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. The Grammys nomination process begins with screening. National Academy of Recording Arts & sciences sends its official entry form across its members in U.S. The operation is set up every summer. The members enter the worthy recordings released for the period on the sent official form. Recording companies or individuals can also submit their recordings to be nominated.
Initial process involves the approval and accessing by NARAS. Later the Academy voters are invited to go carefully over the odd entries for a first-round ballot. It is the responsibility of the members to check if the entry is eligible and placed in the proper category such as Rock, Country, New Age, Rap, Classical and Latin. To ensure the quality grading of the voting, the members are instructed to vote only in their expertise fields. The members are allowed to nominate in the four general categories namely; Record of the year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. These four categories can include artists from any genre. Top vote-getters are not automatically nominated. These votes are further filtered by experts from the committees who determine the final nominee by top-secret ballot.
The final voting ballots are sent to The Recording Academy members after the nominations are announced. Ballots are secretly tabulated by an independent accounting firm Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu. It’s the responsibility of the accounting firm to keep the winners list veiled until the live telecast in which the Awards are presented.
Finally, the conquerors for “the Big Four” prestigious Grammy categories are announced by Deloitte in sealed envelopes. These sealed envelopes are escorted with police to the ceremony. Prizewinners names are unveiled in the function and are awarded with the Grammy Trophies. The Grammy trophies are engraved with the names of the winners and delivered personally by John. To receive a Grammy Award is definitely the ‘ultimate’ honor for a recording artist.
The first award ceremony took place on the night of November 29, 1959. The first Grammy winners were Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee for ‘Volare’ honored with Record of the Year Award; Henry Mancini was awarded the first Album of the Year. Best Vocal Performance Awards was presented to Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como.