IN GRAMMY NOMINATIONS, AS IN MARKETSHARE, UMG DOMINATES

While there were no big surprises in the major categories, as the Grammy nominations were announced Thursday morning in New York, they’re undoubtedly popping champagne corks and sucking down mimosas at Universal Music Group, which picked up four of the five album nominations, two each from Interscope and IDJ, as well as three Record nods.

Album of the Year nominees are Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi (Island/IDJ), Paul McCartney’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol), Gwen Stefani’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby., (Interscope), U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Interscope) and Kanye West’s Late Registration (Roc-A-Fella/IDJ).

Record of the Year nominees are Carey’s “We Belong Together,” Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” featuring De La Soul (Virgin), Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (Reprise), Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and West’s “Gold Digger,” smashes every one.

Best New Artist nominees are Ciara (LaFace/ZLG), Fall Out Boy (Island/IDJ), Keane (Interscope), John Legend (Columbia) and Sugarland (Mercury Nashville).

Carey, West and his protégé Legend led the field with eight nominations apiece, followed by 50 Cent and Stevie Wonder with six. Stefani, U2 and Bruce Springsteen got five each, as the Boss’ “Devils and Dust” was nominated for songwriters' award Song of the Year, along with Carey's “We Belong Together,” Legend's “Ordinary People,” Rascal Flatts' “Bless the Broken Road” and U2's “Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own.”

Collectively, UMG’s heavy half-dozen—Carey, Stefani, U2, West, 50 Cent and Wonder—accounted for 38 nominations. We’ll wait for UMG corporate publicity to add up the total number of noms racked up by the company.

The odd band out in all this is Coldplay, which got three noms, all in the rock area, but no biggies. We weren't gonna editorialize, but anyone with a pair of working ears should be able to discern that X&Y is one of the best-sounding, best-written and best-performed albums of the decade, let alone 2005. Thank you.

The 48th Annual Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, televised, as always, by CBS.