Rihanna, one album cycle and several hairstyles ago. (Getty Images)

Tonight at 10p.m., CBS airs the Grammy Awards Nomination Concert, a splashy special co-hosted by Taylor Swift (whose album Red, despite having come out in 2012, won't be recognized this year due to the eligibility calendar). So who will be nominated? We have a few minimally educated guesses:

Album of the Year

• Babel, Mumford and Sons
• El Camino, The Black Keys
• Kisses on the Bottom, Paul McCartney
• Take Care, Drake
• Talk That Talk, Rihanna

Mumford and Sons and the Black Keys, in varying ways, tie the Grammys into historically popular and nostalgic genres, while the kids are served by nods to Drake and Rihanna. Rihanna, whose album Loud also took what's become the pure-pop spot occupied previously by Katy Perry, seems like the safest way to honor the EDM vogue (and, yes, we know she's released an album since Talk That Talk). Drake is a young, sensitive rapper getting a nomination that could also go to young, sensitive R&B singer Frank Ocean for his risky Channel Orange, but it seems likely Mr. Ocean will get his due in the New Artist category. And, finally, you may have forgotten or never known perennial nominee Paul McCartney released an album called (ew) Kisses on the Bottom, but his Olympics performance and the fact that it's an album of standards (Grammy's favorite thing!) mean he could end up at the ceremony.

Record of the Year

• "Diamonds," Rihanna
• "I Will Wait," Mumford and Sons
• "Somebody That I Used to Know," Gotye feat. Kimbra
• "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," Taylor Swift
• "We Are Young," fun. feat. Janelle Monaé

Taylor Swift and Rihanna both scored #1 Hot 100 hits within the eligibility, and both sound pretty vanguard-y (Ms. Swift's record is as palatable for a non-country audience as anything she's ever recorded). Meanwhile, Gotye and fun. both came out of nowhere with comparable Billboard hits--inescapable through the summer months and yet seemingly more accessible to the fuddy-duddy Grammy voter than the airy (and perfectly so) "Call Me Maybe." And Mumford and Sons, given their commercial success and appeal to a traditional aesthetic that sounds nothing like EDM, will likely be the Adele of this year's Grammys once nods to Calvin Harris et al. are dispensed with. For Song of the Year, a category honoring songwriters, sub out "Diamonds" for Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain."

Best New Artist

• fun.
• Gotye
• Ellie Goulding
• Frank Ocean
• One Direction

Much as we hope the year's most forcefully debated singer, dead-eyed semiotic student Lana Del Rey, could snag a nod, this race is between fun. and Frank Ocean, with Gotye inducted for his inescapability, Ellie Goulding for her persistence (she was a "new artist" several years ago but only now getting her due), and One Direction because Justin Bieber and the Backstreet Boys were once nominated in this category, too.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do... It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].

The more you know, indeed. Mr. Grohl was ultimately played off the stage while shouting about rock and roll, prompting at least one viewer to Google to make sure he recalled the correct definition of "rockism." Mr. Grohl, in his statement, notes that his speech was "not the Gettysburg Address, but hey......I'm a drummer, remember?"

Mr. Grohl went on to discuss the technological advances in the music industry, noting:

unfortunately,  some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell...I'm not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really fucking hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me.

The singer is in no way backing down from his criticism of, say, the entire Best Pop Vocal Album field save Adele. But he does have room to praise Skrillex, because he knows Skrillex is popular. "We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the "craft" is equally as important, I'm sure." (Nice use of the passive-aggressive "I'm sure" there! Dave Grohl: master of the neg.)

Not to pile on a musician who had a week of criticism (we're talking about Dave Grohl here), but if Mr. Grohl is so terribly concerned with authenticity, why did he perform alongside Chris Brown, America's top lip-syncher?

Kate Winslet (Getty Images)

With this past weekend's Grammys, producer Scott Rudin became the latest entertainer to earn the ugly, ineffective title of "EGOT"--having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. (His new Grammy was for The Book of Mormon.) He's one of only eleven such winners--and the first in a decade. We demand yet more societal approbation for our most gifted singer/actor/producer/whatevers! Here, in order, are some entertainers who stand a chance of getting the Quadruple Crown (sorry, but a way better term than "EGOT") in the next ten years:

Kate Winslet

Why she could do it: All she needs is a Tony, having immediately jumped to TV once she had an Oscar in hand--and winning an Emmy immediately thereafter. She has the eye of the tiger and is likely training to play Mama Rose as we speak.

Mitigating factor: The Tonys have gotten more sensitive about awarding carpet-bagging movie stars.

Fun fact: She beat the Muppets, among others, to win her Grammy for Best Spoken-Word Album for Children.

Robin Williams

Why he could do it: We haven't heard from Robin Williams in a while, and it'd be a nice little comeback narrative if he were to win the Tony he needs to complete the square.

Mitigating factor: The last time we heard from him was an appearance on Broadway after a long absence in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, for which he failed to medal.

Fun fact: He probably shouldn't have an Oscar!

Al Pacino

Why he could do it: He just needs a Grammy, and other awards bodies have shown a willingness to hand Mr. Pacino trophies more as a signifier of respect/fear than for a decent performance (c.f.: Scent of a Woman).

Mitigating factor: Not known for a mellifluous voice, and a spoken-word album for children is probably out of reach.

Fun fact: He was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Any Given Sunday, which he lost to Tom Hanks.

Elton John

Why he could do it: He's missing an Emmy, and given the spotty state of his career (recently picking a fight he couldn't hope to win with Madonna over a song from Gnomeo and Juliet) is about five minutes from a PBS special or self-aggrandizing 30 Rock guest spot.

Mitigating factor: Has probably picked fights with half the television Academy; was not amazing on Saturday Night Live last year.

Fun fact: Is already a knight and summarily probably doesn't care about the Emmys.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

Why they could do it: If and when The Book of Mormon comes to the screen, it could give the South Park creators the Oscar they need.

Mitigating factor: Failed to win an Oscar for their song from the South Park movie, and are probably better-remembered among Ernest Borgnine's contemporaries for dressing in drag at the ceremony.

Fun fact: Really wacky guys!

Cynthia Nixon

Why she could do it: She's such a Miranda! (By which we mean: Hardworking.)

Mitigating factor: The award she needs is the hardest one to get (the Oscar), and she was passed over for the Rabbit Hole role that got Nicole Kidman nominated last year.

Fun fact: Actually defines herself as "more of a Cynthia."

Rihanna (Getty Images)

March 2012: "Chris Brown Meets With Nelson Mandela, Who Thanks Him for Service to Mankind"

April 2012: "Nicki Minaj To Record Note-for-Note Cover of 'Like a Prayer' Featuring Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne"

August 2012: "Rihanna Releases Seventh Album"

September 2012: "Lady Gaga To Release Album of Standards Sung A Capella, No Longer Wear High Heels, in Bid for Grammy Recognition"

November 2012: "Chris Brown Considered a Frontrunner for Nobel Peace Prize"

December 2012: "Adele's Four Grammy Acceptance Speeches Nominated for a Total of Twelve Grammys"

February 2013: "Taylor Swift Performs Song Striking Back at 2012 Grammy Critics At the Grammys"

March 2013: "Rihanna Releases Eighth Album"

April 2013: "Rihanna Releases Ninth Album"

June 2013: "Taylor Swift Spotted Feasting on the Heart of Her 2013 Grammy Critics"

July 2013: "Music Industry Scientists Freeze Springsteen's Brain: 'We Froze McCartney Two Years Ago But He Keeps Trying to Sing,' They Say"

August 2013: "Music Industry Scientists Develop Drug To Allow Americans To Forget Chris Brown's Violent and Misogynist Tendencies: 'What a Dancer!' Says America"

September 2013: "Somewhere In Wisconsin, Bon Iver Finally Finishes Ambivalent Grammy Speech"

We reached Stoute for his first interview on the subject as he traveled back to New York from the NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles. "I watched the show with a few artists who refused to go. I was watching with an artist who received six nominations, who refused. Everybody expected the normal letdown. When Arcade Fire won Album of the Year, I wasn't taken aback by that. What I was taken aback by--after they performed to close the show. Then they win Album of the Year. Then they're ready to perform [a second time]. That's when it becomes the WWE. They've gone too far in showing the world that it's premeditated."

If the show's premeditated in this way, wouldn't it make more sense to give a top award to a crowd-pleaser like Eminem, then? "Eminem and Kanye keep chasing this elusive award... it's part of the cynical circumstance in which they keep coming back." Stoute doesn't necessarily believe, it seems, that the awards are rigged against them, but that a fatal lack of transparency in the awards-giving process (including the longevity of less-plugged-in voters and their possible collusion with show producers to orchestrate big moments like the Arcade Fire performance) dooms the Grammys to irrelevance.

"The feedback I'm hearing--artists are saying I'm not coming next year. Why would I show up on TV to be the star of my own demise? Many, many artists are very upset. Everybody knows the artists that I've worked with." Stoute has business dealings with Jay-Z--could he be the six-time nominee who skipped this year's show in frustration? "He wasn't there because he's just sick of it. They showed his picture [during the broadcast], and it's from Reasonable Doubt. They don't even have a picture more recent out of the last 15 years."

Stoute mentioned that popular artists are curious about the possibility of creating a more artist-driven awards ceremony, or at least better understanding the voting system and production methods of the notoriously tight-lipped and confounding NARAS. "The same thing happened after the Bush election, in Florida. People were saying, wait a minute, we don't understand this. It forced everybody to understand--I didn't know this, I didn't know about electoral votes." The Observer mentioned that it had seemed most winners gave acceptance speeches immediately after performing. "There you go! You're thinking--wait a minute, where's Vince McMahon?"

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

Which 1990s TV star is going to come back with a reality show about her macadamia nut farm?

What is Nicole Kidman's favorite pop song?

Who should newly minted Best New Artist Esperanza Spalding fear?

How many "pieces of artwork" come in Radiohead's "newspaper album," and how would one describe their size?

Who'd actually be willing to claim responsibility for the look of Rihanna's new video?

What optimistic adjective would Columbia Pictures use to describe their new Spider-Man film?

Whose entourage likes to stand around in a "human chain"? (Hint: this person is not Yolanda Adams.)

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

A spokesperson for Us Weekly said told the Observer: "We do have a fact-checking system in place, and like all other news organizations, mistakes happen, and we try to correct them." This is the second error in a week for Us's website, after their "Sarah Palin would deport Christina Aguilera" story, later corrected with an "Oopsies... our bad!". The spokesperson indicated that Us Weekly had not made a correction--the photo on Us Weekly's current article depicts Houston. When reached, a spokesperson for Getty Images was unable to describe how photographs get labeled during major press events like last night's Grammys.

Update, February 15: Getty Images issued the Observer this statement: "Getty Images actively advocates and upholds strict guidelines pertaining to the dissemination of its editorial content.  As such, when Getty Images was made aware of the caption, it was immediately corrected on our website."

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_