THE GRAMMY COUNTDOWN

With less than a week to go before Grammy nominations are announced, the tension is high among artists, label execs and other players. The value of those nominations to an act’s career is incalculable, and in particular Best New Artist contenders are dealing with the anticipation. Meanwhile, some wonder how labels with multiple superstars (like, oh, say, Adele and Beyoncé) who might well be competing in major categories are navigating that very classy problem. Of course, it’s out of the labels’ hands; they have minimal input after doing the heavy lifting that got the acts to this point. Stay tuned as the drama unfolds.