Adele and Bruno Mars are set to compete in every major Grammy category, while Canadians Drake and Deadmau5 received three nods apiece as the annual awards bash announced its nominations on Wednesday night.
While Adele and Mars took six nominations each -- including nods for album, song and record of the year -- the overall lead belonged to Chicago rapper Kanye West, a seven-time nominee heading into the Feb. 12 awards show.
Still, West was shut out of the evening's marquee category, with his critically beloved masterwork "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" failing to make the cut for album of the year consideration.
Instead, Adele's mournful juggernaut "21" and Mars' hit-packed "Doo-Wops & Hooligans" will compete with Foo Fighters' "Wasting Light," Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," and Rihanna's "Loud."
The Foo Fighters also had six nominations while dubstep star Skrillex provided one of the evening's surprises by amassing five nominations.
Indeed, while Adele -- the British crooner who took the charts by storm with her surprise smash of a breakup album -- was expected to feature heavily in the 54th instalment of the Grammys, the nominations still featured plenty of minor shocks.
Chief among those were the four nominations for Wisconsin indie-folk outfit Bon Iver. The group, led by distinctive singer Justin Vernon, is up for song and record of the year as well as best new artist, a category that also features Nicki Minaj, the Band Perry, J. Cole and Skrillex.
And the top categories featured other surprising omissions aside from West, including country phenomenon Taylor Swift and veteran crooner Tony Bennett.
The nominations were announced after the Recording Academy's fourth annual live concert special, which aired on CBS from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The hour-long event featured performances by key nominees like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and the Band Perry.
While most assumed this would be a down year for Canadian hopefuls, several Canucks landed nominations.
Toronto rapper Drake -- a six-time nominee in the past -- released his sophomore opus "Take Care" too late for Grammy consideration but still managed three nominations, including one for best rap performance for his Minaj collaboration "Moment 4 Life" and two more in the best rap/sung collaboration category: the posse cut "I'm On One" and his Rihanna duet "What's My Name?"
He's also up for best rap/sung collaboration for "I'm On One" and his Rihanna collaboration "What's My Name?"
Deadmau5 -- the Niagara Falls, Ont., producer whose real name is Joel Zimmerman -- is also a previous nominee. This year, he's up for best dance album for "4x4=12," best dance recording for his Greta Svabo Bech collaboration "Raise Your Weapon" and best remixed recording for his version of Foo Fighters' "Rope."
Other Canadian nominees include Ajax, Ont., pop-punk outfit Sum 41 -- who are up for best hard rock/metal performance for "Blood in My Eyes" -- and Toronto's Melanie Fiona, who landed a nomination for best traditional R&B performance for her Cee Lo Green duet "Fool For You," which also earned a nomination for best R&B song.
Unlike the past two years -- in which Swift and trio Lady Antellebum racked up a spate of nominations -- no country act managed to soar in the general categories, with the Band Perry grabbing the only country nod in the mainstream categories.
The 54th Grammy ceremony will mark the first since the academy shaved its categories from 109 to 78 this year, amid some protest, with several niche categories -- including best Zydeco or Cajun music album -- getting eliminated and others being streamlined.
With files from The Associated Press.
