The "Best Pop Vocal Album" category has always been highly-anticipated at the Grammy Awards and 2011 appears to be no different. The nominees this year are Justin Bieber ("My World 2.0"), Susan Boyle ("I Dreamed a Dream"), Lady Gaga ("The Fame Monster"), John Mayer ("Battle Studies") and Katy Perry ("Teenage Dream").
Four of the nominees had three singles on his or her album that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard charts, except for Susan Boyle, who had only two singles and neither peaked higher than sixty.
Right off the bat, it seems unlikely that Susan Boyle will win this category, especially because she is up against some of today's biggest pop artists.
While Justin Bieber has become one of the most popular artists today, he might still be too young to win this category. This group is filled with singers who have had much more experience in the music business and have already been nominated and won Grammys in previous years.
John Mayer, who has won eight Grammy Awards in the past eight years, returned to the music scene in 2009 with his album, "Battle Studies," which focused on his struggles with heartbreak. While the album did well with fans and peaked at number one on the Billboard Charts, its singles did not do as well as expected, as none of them broke the top 10.
Mayer's previous album, "Continuum," was released in 2006, and since then both Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have emerged on the scene, stealing the spotlight from all other pop artists.
Lady Gaga's album, "The Fame Monster," only peaked at number five on the Billboard Charts. Since the release of her latest album, the hype surrounding Lady Gaga has seemed to dwindle. Neither her singles nor her album peaked as high as they did on her last album, "The Fame."
Out of all of the nominees, Katy Perry seems most likely to win this category. 2010 was her year with every single that she released going straight to number one. Her album was also on top of the Billboard Charts for multiple weeks.
In the end, all of these artists have earned their nominations, but whoever the winner of this category is will most likely reign supreme in the pop music world.
Kristyn Lyncheski can be reached at kristyn.lyncheski@student.shu.edu.
