Nominations for this year’s Reggae Grammy Award have snubbed rising stars in favour of recognised artistes, including two Marleys, Buju Banton, Gregory Isaacs and Sean Paul.

The nominees were unveiled at Club Nokia in Los Angeles on Wednesday night as part of a prime-time CBS special. This year’s nominations include:

• Rasta Got Soul, Buju Banton (Gargamel Music, Inc);

• Brand New Me, Gregory Isaacs (Tad’s Record);

• Imperial Blaze, Sean Paul (VP/Atlantic)

• Awake, Julian Marley (Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong/Universal Republic);

• Mind Control— Acoustic, Stephen Marley (Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong/Universal Republic)

“I feel very good about it. This time I have 100 per cent chance,” Gregory Isaacs told Splash. Isaacs’ manager, Copeland Forbes, added: “I feel very good about it; we just got back from Brazil and Argentina, and there was massive crowds of 35,000. He’s very excited and we are travelling like crazy. Things are looking great.” The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards are scheduled to be held on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles. The album Mind Control may sound familiar as it won the 2007 Grammy Reggae Award. Stephen Marley has revamped it as an acoustic album and is now gunning for a second Grammy. At the same time, the Grammys have ignored albums by rising stars Tarrus Riley, Mavado, US-based Easy Star All Stars and Mishka, which all charted strongly on the Billboards charts.

Roger Steffens, who has chaired the Reggae Grammy Screening Committee, stated in 2008 that the Reggae Grammys were not based on merit or sales but name recognition. He quipped that the Marley name was so popular that once nominated “they would have won, of course”.

“I don’t know what the Grammy is based on. I don’t know how many people voted in the category. It could be 200 people; it could be all 14,000. They never told us. It’s not based on merit, it’s not based on sales. I think it’s probably mostly based on name recognition or major label behind the artiste. So please, I don’t have any power, I don’t even vote to maintain my neutrality. I hope that is understood and I’ve made that clear,” Steffens told the Observer in 2008. “I can’t think of any common denominator among all the past … years of winners other than name-recognition. I am not saying that they don’t deserve it; don’t make it look like I’m saying that these people don’t deserve it. All I’m saying is I don’t see a common denominator other than name-recognition.”