The Grammys: They Call the Name Mariah

Thus, there's major hissy-fit potential when the Grammy ceremony is held in Los Angeles on Feb. 8. Particularly since there's precedence: When West didn't win the best new artist award at the American Music Awards, he huffed and puffed and generally comported himself like a big baby.

Perhaps he should just take a deep breath and pat himself on the back of his Yves Saint Laurent suit. His eight Grammy nominations -- including record of the year for the infectious "Gold Digger," the rap songwriting award for "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" and best rap album and best album album for "Late Registration" -- come a year after he scored 10 nominations for his debut CD, "College Dropout," among other projects. (He wound up winning three statuettes.)

And besides, the third big winner on nomination day was West's own sidekick, Legend, who has collaborated extensively with his mentor and whose album, "Get Lifted," was released on West's boutique label.

An old-style soul singer trapped in a hip-hop world, Legend is up for, among other awards, best new artist, where he'll compete against the emo idols Fall Out Boy, crunk princess Ciara, piano-rockers Keane and the country outfit SugarLand. (Notable by its absence: the Arcade Fire, though the indie-rock band's "Funeral" is nominated for best alternative album and the band's "Cold Wind," featured on HBO's "Six Feet Under," is up for best song written for movies or TV.)

Legend is also in the running for song of the year. His composition "Ordinary People," co-written with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, will compete for Grammy's highest-profile writing award with Springsteen's "Devils & Dust," U2's "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," Carey's "We Belong Together" (for which the singer shared co-writing credits with three others) and "Bless the Broken Road," penned by Bobby Boyd, Jeff Hanna and Marcus Hummon and performed by Rascal Flatts.

Carey is the only song-of-the-year candidate to be nominated for record of the year as well. Vying against her in the latter category: West ("Gold Digger"), Green Day ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams"), the Gorillaz ("Feel Good Inc.") and Stefani ("Hollaback Girl," the tune that taught a generation how to spell bananas).

Nominees with Washington ties include Amerie (contemporary R&B album for "Touch" and female R&B vocal performance for the insanely funky "1 Thing"); Deep Dish (dance recording, "Say Hello"); Emmylou Harris (female country vocal, "The Connection"); Tom Paxton (traditional folk album, "Live in the UK"); incoming Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop (as conductor in the category of best instrumental soloist performance with orchestra, "UFO"); and National Symphony Orchestra music director Leonard Slatkin (three nominations for his "Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience" recording, including best classical album).

The Foo Fighters, founded and fronted by Northern Virginia's Dave Grohl, received four nominations: Rock album ("In Your Honor"), rock song and rock performance by a duo or group ("Best of You") and pop collaboration with vocals ("Virginia Moon," featuring Norah Jones). And Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer were nominated in the musical album for children category, for "Scat Like That: A Musical Word Odyssey." It's their 11th nomination. They also performed on and produced Paxton's Grammy-nominated live album.

"We're not bored by this; it's not old hat," Fink insisted of the nominations. "It's a total thrill for us."

Oh, and in perhaps the only time you'll ever see Bob Dylan and R. Kelly mentioned in the same sentence: Filmmaker Martin Scorsese's outstanding Dylan documentary, "No Direction Home," will square off against R&B singer Kelly's strangely compelling, five-part "Trapped in the Closet" soap opera in the best long-form music video race. "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones," "Brian Wilson Presents 'Smile' " and Springsteen's "Devils & Dust" are also in the running.