(For a complete list of 52nd GRAMMY Award winners, please click here.)
For the first time in its history, The Recording Academy is incorporating an unprecedented amount of digital and social media campaign elements into its celebration of the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, which will air live on CBS Jan. 31, 8–11:30 p.m. ET/PT.
The comprehensive strategy harnesses the best of social media engagement, blogging, Web development, and live video streaming, and is the result of the collaboration and integration of an impressive number of technologies and partners. In addition to launching its FanBuzz Visualizer (a real-time barometer of GRAMMY-nominated artists with the most social media buzz) and "We're All Fans" ad campaign (www.wereallfans.com harnesses the power of social media and its unique ability to directly connect fans and artists), The Recording Academy has designed its entire digital campaign recognizing that music fans discover, share and consume content in a radically different way today. This enhanced effort will provide music lovers an unprecedented opportunity to experience and participate in Music's Biggest Night.
"We are starting to establish a strong and engaging presence in the digital space, and the multiple other ambitious initiatives we are rolling out represent just the beginning of a life-size mosaic in the digital world," said Peter Anton, Vice President, Digital Media, The Recording Academy. "We want to offer music lovers a higher level of interaction with the GRAMMY brand on GRAMMY.com, and across our social media channels including new and exciting digital applications that they've never before experienced, resulting in a much more meaningful connection."
GRAMMY Live — a robust experience leveraging the power of streaming technologies to provide a deeper fan experience with the GRAMMYs — is a 72-hour participatory online broadcast featuring live video, photos, blogging and micro-blogging, official news reports, and personalized updates from three mobile GRAMMY vloggers. Fans worldwide will experience the GRAMMYs beyond the telecast with never-before-seen GRAMMY clips, exclusive GRAMMY cams, roaming live coverage at various GRAMMY Week events, and additional behind-the-scenes footage to complement the telecast of the show with red carpet coverage, backstage interviews, exclusive photo sessions with winners, and press room interviews. GRAMMY Live will kick off Jan. 29 at 2:30 p.m. PST with The Academy's Social Media Rock Stars Summit at the GRAMMY Museum.
The GRAMMYs' new blogger program on GRAMMY.com sets the bar high for this year's show by allowing a handful of past Best New Artist winners and current Best New Artist nominees, including the Zac Brown Band, José Feliciano, Carrie Underwood, and Jody Watley, to blog firsthand about their amazing experiences from nominations to the awards telecast. Other participants include the official artist of the 52nd GRAMMY Awards Shepard Fairey (creator of the Barack Obama "Hope" poster); contributing editor to Rolling Stone, Huffington Post blogger and Emmy-nominated TV and GRAMMY writer David Wild; and a variety of genre-specific music bloggers.
In addition, GRAMMY.com now empowers fans to view, share and discuss hours of archived video footage and photos, and a live countdown clock to the telecast also appears on the site and is available as a widget.
The new GRAMMY iPhone/iTouch application, "The GRAMMYs," is available at the iTunes App store and includes a "Guess the GRAMMYs" component, which allows users to make their best guesses for winners in 21 select categories as well as purchase the nominated music. Once users make their choices, they can register their selections and challenge friends to play along. After the show, an e-mail will be sent to users showing how well their guesses stood up against actual winners. Also included is a GRAMMY Trivia component along with "Did You Know?" trivia factoids and images from past legendary GRAMMY Moments.
The Digital Media team at The Recording Academy has partnered with the most progressive online broadcast companies and leveraged the best of both open source and proprietary technologies to deliver a cohesive, exciting and more enriching user experience for the re-launch of GRAMMY.com, newly launched GRAMMY iPhone/iTouch App, and GRAMMY Live. Partners include AEG Digital Media, Akamai, Diversion Media, LiveCast, LiveU, Lullabot, NeoSpire, Ooyala, Reliam, and Simplynew.
The 52nd GRAMMY Awards will take place live on Sunday, Jan. 31 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The show also will be supported on radio via Westwood One worldwide, and covered online at GRAMMY.com and CBS.com, and on YouTube. Additional performers, presenters and special segments will be announced soon. For GRAMMY coverage, updates and breaking news, please visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook.