8 Grammy Nominations for Mariah Carey !!!

Meet the new Mimi, same as the old . . . Mariah.

Pop diva Mariah Carey, whose once-flourishing career was left for dead after a series of artistic misfires and a very public meltdown, has returned -- officially and rather emphatically -- to full-on flourish mode. Carey's remarkable comeback reached a crescendo today when she grabbed eight Grammy nominations, including one for the biggest award of all: album of the year.

"The Emancipation of Mimi," Carey's best-selling release in years, will compete with Kanye West's ambitious rap opus, "Late Registration," Gwen Stefani's delightful if fluffy dance-pop cycle, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby," U2's soulful "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and, following a longstanding recording academy tradition of including at least one aged artist every year, Paul McCartney's "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." (It's Sir Paul's best work in a long, long time. But still.)

Carey's smash hit, "We Belong Together," is up for record and song of the year, plus the more specialized R&B songwriting and female R&B vocal performance awards. "It's Like That," the other big song from "The Emancipation of Mimi," got a nod in the female pop vocal category, and a third "Mimi" track -- "Mine Again" -- is up for best traditional R&B vocal performance.

"Mimi" is also up for best contemporary R&B album. Not to be confused with, simply, best R&B album.

>>> I've been a fan of Mariah since her early successes in the 90's and the most intriguing thing about her music career is that despite a boatload of platinum awards, she only has 2 Grammy Awards to her name.

In 1996, despite having 6 nominations, she ended up winning not even 1. This to me came in as a shock considering that "One Sweet Day" is such a terrific and moving song that it became the longest running #1 single in billboard Hot 100 history. Plus, I wanted her to win a Grammy for the song "Always Be My Baby".

This time around, I would really be pissed off with the Grammys should she not win at least 4 of these golden gramophones. The 4 awards I'm expecting her to win, effortlessly, are the awards for: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.

I was actually surprised that she was nominated for "It's Like That" since I figured that the critics never did like her simple lyrics for her catchy carrier singles. But I'm glad, she got this nomination. She can win this together with "Mine Again", which is another surprise for me. She sadly didn't get nomination(s) for "Shake It Off", my favourite track in her multi-platinum album.

Here's the list of all her nominations for the 2006 Grammy Awards

Album of the Year (The Emancipation of Mimi)
Record of the Year (We Belong Together)
Song of the Year (We Belong Together)
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (It's Like That)
Best Female R&B Vocal Performace (We Belong Together)
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (Mine Again)
Best R&B Song (We Belong Together)
Best Contemporary R&B Album (The Emancipation of Mimi)