Grammys nominations get it right

Anytime the Grammys get anything right, it’s cause for a minor celebration.

And at least three good reasons to start a party were revealed when the Recording Academy released its 110-category nomination list Wednesday night in an hourlong concert special on CBS.

The first commendable headline is that the most nominated artist, with eight, is Lil Wayne. “Tha Carter III,” the new album from the New Orleans rapper, is the biggest seller of the year, but the deranged and dreadlocked MC’s abundant talents are of more of a … shall we say, rambunctious variety than the Grammys are in the habit of rewarding.

The second happy surprise is that Philadelphia’s rising R&B singer, Jazmine Sullivan, pulled in five nominations, tying her for fourth-most with perennial Grammy favorites John Mayer and Alison Krauss.

(In a mild shocker, another fresh-faced star with an album called “Fearless,” 18-year-old Taylor Swift, received not a single nod – though she did co-host the show from L.A.’s Nokia Theater.)

It stood to reason that Sullivan, whose “Fearless” debut scored hits with “Need U Bad” and “Bust Your Windows,” would snag a nomination for best new artist (one of the four major categories, along with album, record and song).

But Sullivan, 21, surpassed expectations by also scoring nominations for female R&B performance, R&B song, traditional R&B performance, and contemporary R&B album.

The third pleasant surprise is that M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” has a chance to win record of the year. The nomination puts icing on the cake of one of the most heartening developments of the year: the emergence – thanks, in large part to the song’s inclusion on the trailer to the genius stoner comedy “Pineapple Express” – of the Sri Lankan-British firebrand Maya Arulpragasam as a full-blown pop star.

The Recording Academy is by far the most generous of the organizations giving out popular-arts awards; it hands out trophies like Ronald Reagan gave out jellybeans. So there are several story lines to follow when the miniature gramophones are handed out on Feb. 8.

Brit soft-rockers Coldplay got the second-highest number of nominations, seven, on the strength of “Viva La Vida,” or “Death and All His Friends,” named in all four major categories.

Artier (and superior) Brit-rockers Radiohead, whose “In Rainbows” was an Internet-only release in 2007 and an actual CD this year, received six nominations – seven, including Nigel Godrich as producer of the year.

Joining those Brits in the best-album competition – along with Lil Wayne, and Krauss and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant’s seductive “Raising Sand” – was neo-soul singer Ne-Yo, whose suave “Year of the Gentleman” pulled six nominations, tying Kanye West and Jay-Z.