39 geeky Grammy facts

Where Elmo meets Ol' Dirty Bastard and she-God

The MusicRadar Team, Fri 6 Feb 2009, 11:00 am GMT

Remember these Grammy facts and you can bore friends for days

Sunday 8 February marks the 51st Grammy awards ceremony in Los Angeles California. That means a night of glitz, glamour, large amounts of back-slapping and usually a little controversy about who wins.

As with The Brits in the UK, the Grammys aren't popular with everyone.

Maynard James Keenan of Tool reckons: "I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It's the music business celebrating itself. That's basically what it's all about."

All true, perhaps. Then again, Keenan has never won, has he?

Let's put aside the arguments for one moment. You can row about MusicRadar's fearless 2009 Grammys predictions, and we can start again when MusicRadar posts its 2009 Grammy awards live blog on Sunday from California.

For now, let's just get on with…

39 geeky Grammy facts

1. The first Grammy Awards were presented on 4 May 1959. Record Of The Year was Volare by Domenico Modugno.

2. In 1959, there were 22 awards. In 2009, there will be 110.

3. The Grammys were originally launched to ward off the 'threat' of rock 'n roll explosion. The Best Rock And Roll Recording category wasn't added until 1962.

4. Approximately 7,000 academy members vote in the nominating and final voting process, and all ballots are tabulated by accounting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Record companies are not allowed to vote.

5. The first Grammy for a Rap Performance went to DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) in 1989.

Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince in the house

6. In 1989, Milli Vanilli became the first artists to be stripped of their Grammy (for Best New Artist) when it was discovered they didn't sing on 'their' album.

7. At the 1998 Grammys, when Bob Dylan was performing live, a man called Michael Portnoy appeared on stage wearing no shirt with the words "Soy Bomb" painted on his chest. He started dancing, badly. Removed by security, he later explained his dance was "an act of revolution". Portnoy later explained: "Soy represents dense nutritional life. Bomb is, obviously, an explosive destructive force. So, soy bomb is what I think art should be: dense, transformational, explosive life." Eh?

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