BublÈ plans to give up Grammys for hockey game
Canadian crooner Michael BublÈ is nominated for a Grammy Award for best traditional pop vocal album, but plans to stay home and watch the Vancouver Canucks play on the night of the awards ceremony.
The Vancouver artist, competing for the award with fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan, said he’s boycotting the Feb. 11 event in Los Angeles because his category will not be presented live on TV.
“Our category is selling way too many records to be given away at a dinner before, so I’m just not going to show up,” BublÈ said, lashing out at organizers for not giving his category the respect he says it deserves.
Most of the Grammys are awarded at an afternoon ceremony before the televised gala.
BublÈ is nominated for Caught in the Act. He’s competing against McLachlan’s Wintersong, Bette Midler’s Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook, Smokey Robinson’s Timeless Love and Tony Bennett’s Duets.
That’s another thing that peeves the singer, who won four Junos in 2006.
Last year, in his first Grammy nomination, he lost out in the traditional pop album category to Bennett, one of his idols and a sentimental favourite for the American music industry.
“Why should I go to the Grammys?” he said. “‘Cause I’ll lose. No, I’ll lose. They might as well have already scratched Tony Bennett’s name into the damn thing. I’m not going.”
It’s a chore just to get recognized, he said.
BublÈ said he feels “like a dirtbag” sometimes when he walks an awards show red carpet and fans don’t recognize him, “just because I’m not in the tabloids.”
All in all, he’d rather not miss the hockey game.
“I’m going to stay home and watch the (Vancouver) Canucks,” said BublÈ, who lives in Vancouver with his girlfriend, Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt.
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