Awarded to the producers and artist behind the song, this is the more general of the two awards. All 5 nominees have one thing in common, which is huge commercial success, the lowest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 being Cee-Lo Green’s F*** You which reached number 9 despite topping the UK charts. The other nominees contain 3 number 1’s and a number 2, so discarding, or rewarding a nominee for poor commercial success is irrelevant here. The big contenders are the aforemetioned Cee-Lo track, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now and the obvious choice of Eminem and Rihanna with Love The Way You Lie all of which are nominated for the Song award too. Going on the producer based criteria though, I wouldn’t rule out B.O.B and Bruno Mars’ crossover hit Nothin’ On You though, which shares the featured vocalist format of two fellow nominees. From these songs, I would look in Eminem’s direction to snatch the win, the now well known production style of Alex Da Kid (The man behind B.O.B’s other hit Airplanes) making the song one of the most loved of 2010.

There’s still one track left for consideration though, and it’s a big one. With the best chorus hook this side of the millennium, Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alcia Keys would be my pick for Record of the Year at this year’s Grammys. That opening production, Jay-Z proving exactly why his latest record has been his biggest in years, and the feel good nature of the track makes me think voters will lean towards Jay’s track, rather than Em’s. Other than those songs, I wouldn’t put a shock victory by Lady Antebellum out of the question, as being the only song not to lean heavily on RnB/Hip Hop votes. The feeling that Empire gives though is undoubtedly why it should take the prize on Sunday. 

As mentioned above F*** You, Love The Way You Lie and Need You Now are present on the Song of the Year nomination list too. All three feature excellent lyrics and fully deserve their nominations here, but could the tunes that complete the list pull off a win on the night?  Ray LaMontagne’s Beg Steal and Borrow and Miranda Lambert’s The House That Built Me are both present here for a reason and grammy voters could well veer in the opposite genre direction than any of song present in either list with the former. This marks the folk singers first ever nomination at the Grammys, and voters could see that as a much needed opportunity to reward him for his songwriting talent. Despite Lambert’s song appearing in multiple categories, if a country song is set to win the award it will surely be Lady Antebellum for their track. 

My personal pick has to be Cee-Lo Green who not only wrote the best FU song the industry has ever heard (with some help from Bruno Mars) but one of the catchiest melodies seen all year. This award is Cee-Lo’s to win I think, and I reckon he will leave the show on Sunday very proud of scoring the first explicitly titled winner of Song Of The Year.

So there we have it, the 2nd and 3rd awards of the big 4 set to be given out at this year’s Grammy awards. Here’s how things would look if I’m right with my picks.

Check back tomorrow for the final of the big 4, Best New Artist, which sees Florence take on Beiber.