Radiohead expected to perform at Grammy Awards
Expect Radiohead to be announced Monday morning as one of the performing acts on the Feb. 8 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, joining the likes of Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Carrie Underwood and fellow Brits Coldplay. Radiohead, who are nominated for album of the year for "In Rainbows," have been quite the Grammy boosters in 2009, with singer Thom Yorke appearing in a television and print ad campaign to hype the Recording Academy-hosted gala.
Indie-focused website Pitchfork reported the news Sunday evening, and the Recording Academy is expected to announce more performing artists early Monday morning. A Grammy spokeswoman did not comment on the Pitchfork report. With Radiohead in, all but two of the album of the year candidates will be on board for the telecast.
It's rare that an artist up for the top prize would not make some sort of live music appearance on the Grammy telecast. However, that's precisely what's happened with Radiohead in the past. The act has been nominated for album of the year twice -- for "OK Computer" and "Kid A" -- but did not perform in either year.
"In Rainbows" will compete for album of the year with Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III," Coldplay's "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends," Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" and "Raising Sand" from Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.
The face of Radiohead frontman Yorke can be seen in a Grammy television ad, in which the singer discusses some of his favorite songs -- many of them never nominated for a Grammy. Yorke's ad highlights such adventurous artists as Scott Walker, Bjork and Modeselektor, among others.
The print ad was earlier posted on this blog, although Idolator noted that some changes have been made to the ad since it was first revealed on Pop & Hiss. For instance, references to Walker and Autechre have been shrunk to make way for the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. A Grammy spokeswoman says the changes were made to reflect the artists Yorke discusses in the television spot, and no acts were removed from the original advertisement -- only made smaller.