The 49th Annual GRAMMY Awards Roundup: Film/TV/Visual Media Field
GRAMMY.com
The GRAMMY Awards honor recordings in 108 categories across 31 fields, from rap to classical. To help readers get a better sense of the nominees and the wealth of recordings they’ve created over the past year, GRAMMY.com has prepared these field Roundups, which give quick details on the nominees in an easy-to-read format.
A controversial story about two cowboys in love comes face-to-face with a popular television show about the private lives of doctors and a poignant biopic of American legend Johnny Cash in the race for a GRAMMY Award in the BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK ALBUM FOR MOTION PICTURE, TELEVISION OR OTHER VISUAL MEDIA category. The composer of scores for celebrated films such as The Motorcycle Diaries and Babel, Argentine-born and Los Angeles-based musician Gustavo Santaolalla won an Academy Award last year for his soundtrack to the Ang Lee film Brokeback Mountain. Santaolalla is now nominated for a GRAMMY on the strength of the album that compiles the music heard throughout Brokeback — including his own compositions, as well as songs such as Willie Nelson's "He Was A Friend Of Mine" and Linda Ronstadt's "It's So Easy." Contemporary soundscapes are cherished by Mitchell Leib and Alexandra Patsavas as producers of the Grey's Anatomy — Volume 2 compilation. The disc includes the bluesy alternative-rock sounds of Gomez ("How We Operate"), the lounge artistry of Ursula One Thousand ("Kaboom!"), and an acoustic version of Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars." Directed with care and sensitivity by James Mangold, Walk The Line follows the career of Johnny Cash and his tempestuous relationship with June Carter. T Bone Burnett competes for a GRAMMY as producer of the soundtrack, which includes many Cash classics. Rounding up the nominations are Chris Montan and Randy Newman for their work on Cars, and Mychael Danna with Little Miss Sunshine.
The name of John Williams has become a tradition in the BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK ALBUM FOR MOTION PICTURE, TELEVISION OR OTHER VISUAL MEDIA category — and it is quite frequent to find the prolific composer of the Star Wars theme competing against himself with more than one nomination per year. This time, however, there are actually two musicians who can boast nominations for two different scores. Williams vies for the award with the moody scores to Memoirs Of A Geisha and Munich. And Hans Zimmer, a familiar name to those who follow movie soundtracks, is nominated for his work in two Hollywood blockbusters: The Da Vinci Code and Pirates Of The Caribbean — Dead Man's Chest. Finally, Harry Gregson-Williams' majestic music score for The Chronicles Of Narnia — The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is also nominated. Narnia marks the third time that Gregson-Williams collaborates with director Andrew Adamson. They have worked together on the Shrek films.
A British chanteuse blessed with a remarkable vocal range, Imogen Heap gained fame throughout Europe and the United States in 2002 as a member of Frou Frou, the duo she founded with producer Guy Sigsworth. Since then, Heap has nurtured a successful solo career. She is now nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the BEST SONG WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURE, TELEVISION OR OTHER VISUAL MEDIA category for "Can't Take It In," a wistful song she wrote and performed for the movie The Chronicles Of Narnia — The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. A bluesier kind of vocalist, Melissa Etheridge is nominated for "I Need To Wake Up," a soulful, mostly acoustic tune that she composed for the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. A gentle ballad included in the Disney film Cars, "Our Town" brings together two giants of American pop: the song was written by Randy Newman and performed by James Taylor. Adding a dash of country to the procedures, Dolly Parton is nominated for "Travelin' Through," a song included in the film Transamerica. Rounding out the category with a bit of Broadway pizzazz, Mel Brooks vies for the award on the strength of "There's Nothing Like A Show On Broadway," a jazzy song performed by Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the smash musical The Producers.
