The 51st Annual Grammy Awards!

THE NODS ARE IN...

When it comes to this year's Grammy nominations, LIL WAYNE was the big winner during last night's announcements, scooping a whopping eight nods, including Album of The Year and Best Rap Album for Tha Carter III.

COLDPLAY were next, with an impressive seven nods, including Album of the Year for Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends -- remember, that's the full album title -- plus Record and Song of the Year for the song "Viva La Vida."

JAY-Z, NE-YO and KANYE WEST each grabbed six nominations; most surprising of that trio was Ne-Yo, whose Year Of The Gentleman album received a nod in the prestigious Album of the Year category.

This year's Grammy nominations included some expected and well-deserved nods, and some outright snubs. For example: --LEONA LEWIS was not nominated for Best New Artist, despite being one of the successful new acts of the year. And while "Bleeding Love" was nominated for Record of The Year, it didn't get a Song of the Year nod, which was also surprising.

KATY PERRY only received one nod, for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, despite the all-encompassing success of her hit "I Kissed A Girl."

DUFFY and ALICIA KEYS, who many predicted would clean up in the nominations, got just three nods each. In Duffy's case, she seemed to have lost some ground to another young British soul singer, ADELE.

ONEREPUBLIC only received one nod, even though "Apologize" was one of the biggest records of the last year.

TAYLOR SWIFT, who was prominently featured in the Grammy Nominations special last night, was shut out completely.

THE JONAS BROTHERS' nod for Best New Artist is huge, since it demonstrates that the Recording Academy seems them as true musicians, and not just a bunch of lightweight teen idols.

Sunday, February 8th, 2009 on CBS-TV.