And speaking of the Grammy nominations...

The Black Keys scored five nominations for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on Wednesday night, and singer Dan Auerbach earned a sixth, putting him among a crowded field of artists with six nods each, including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons and fun.

It's a strong showing for the Black Keys, who released their seventh album, El Camino, last December. The duo's LP is up for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album, while their song Lonely Boy is nominated for Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. Auerbach is also nominated for non-classical Producer of the Year for his work on El Camino and albums by Dr. John and Hacienda.

New York indie-pop band fun. and R&B singer Frank Ocean will face off against the Keys with nominations for Record of the Year and Album of the Year, and against each other for Best New Artist, where Alabama Shakes, the Lumineers and Hunter Hayes are also contenders. Mumford & Sons' Babel and Jack White's Blunderbuss round out the Album of the Year contenders, along with fun.'s Some Nights and Ocean's Channel Orange.

Along with Ocean's Thinkin Bout You and fun.'s We Are Young, the other nominees for Record of the Year, an artist's award, are Kelly Clarkson's Stronger, Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know and Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. We Are Young and Stronger are also nominated for Song of the Year, a songwriter's award. They'll vie against Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe, Miguel's Adorn and Ed Sheeran's The A Team.

Jay-Z and Kanye West's 2011 album Watch the Throne yielded nominations in Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for N***as in Paris, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for No Church in the Wild (which accounts for another of Ocean's nods). West will compete against himself in Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance: his song Mercy is nominated in each.

Along with El Camino, the other Best Rock Album nominees are Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto, Muse's The 2nd Law, Bruce Springsteen's Wrecking Ball and White's Blunderbuss. Springsteen and White earned three nominations each.

The nominees were announced on Wednesday night during the Grammy Nominations Concert Live in Nashville, where the Who, Maroon 5, Ne-Yo, and fun. performed. The 55th Annual Grammy Awards will air on CBS on February 10th, 2013. Nominees in the major categories are below. The full list is at Grammy.com.

Album of the Year
El Camino – The Black Keys
Some Nights – Fun.
Babel – Mumford & Sons
Channel Orange – Frank Ocean
Blunderbuss – Jack White

Record of the Year
Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
We Are Young – Fun., featuring Janelle Monáe
Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye, featuring Kimbra
Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift

Best New Artist
Alabama Shakes
fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Song of the Year
The A Team – Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
Adorn – Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
Call Me Maybe – Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen and Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) – Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin and Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
We Are Young – Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost and Nate Ruess, songwriters (fun., featuring Janelle Monáe)

[RS]