79
Hawaii native Bruno Mars scored seven Grammy Award nominations last night, the second-highest tally behind rapper Eminem.
The Roosevelt High School graduate was nominated for best male pop vocal performance for "Just the Way You Are," and his work with newcomer B.o.B on "Nothin’ on You" brought nominations for best rap/sung collaboration, best rap song (a songwriting award) and record of the year (Mars was a performer and producer).
Mars also was nominated as co-writer and producer of Cee Lo’s "(Expletive) You," which was nominated for both record of the year and song of the year.
"It’s just been a great year, incredible, incredible year, and I can’t believe this is happening to me," Mars said.
It has been a breakout year for Mars, although the news was not all positive. The singer-songwriter was arrested in Las Vegas in September and charged with possession of 2.6 grams of cocaine. That case is pending.
The top nominee of the night was the resurgent Eminem, who won 10 awards nods, including the biggest prizes: album, song and record of the year.
Nominees in the Hawaiian music album category were Tia Carrere for "Huana Ke Aloha," Daniel Ho for "Polani," Ledward Kaapana for "The Legend," Jeff Peterson for "Maui on My Mind — Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" and "Amy Hanaiali’i and Slack Key Masters Of Hawaii."
The Grammys will be awarded Feb. 13.
>>For a full list of Grammy nominees, visit www.honolulupulse.com.
