Grammy Showdown: 2012

Kevin Mazur/Ian Gavan/C Flanigan/Michael Stewart/Getty Images

Can Adele pull off a clean sweep? Will Kanye West win solo or with big bro Jay-Z? Our all-star panel – and a Las Vegas oddsmaker – break it down.

Panel of Experts: Adam Lambert, Common, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, producer-DJ Avicii and Kelly Clarkson

Album of the Year

21 Adele

Wasting Light Foo Fighters

Born This Way Lady Gaga

Doo-Wop & Hooligans Bruno Mars

Loud Rihanna

The Experts Say

Mark Hoppus Adele's album was inescapable this year. Housewives, hipsters and people who normally listen to hip-hop all love it.

Common I can put Adele's album on and listen to the whole thing. But Lady Gaga may pull off an upset.

Avicii Bruno Mars had a shitload of hits on Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and he's so talented. His melodies really get to me.

Vegas Odds Favor

Adele 1-2

Who Should Win: Adele

After owning the charts for more than a year, Adele's hit-stacked LP is all but guaranteed to take the prize.

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Push It”

Salt-N-Pepa | 1987

Originating as a B side to their cover of the Stax classic “Tramp,” Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandi “Pepa” Denton and Dee Dee “DJ Spinderella” Roper came up with the goods on this career-making, Grammy-nominated platinum single about working it on the dancefloor. “Push It” has been sampled and spliced to death since it debuted in 1987, yet the original track is as fresh and fly as when SNP — among the few original women of hip-hop — debuted it. “Most men will never believe ‘Push It’ was never about sex,” said James. “And that’s why the record went to Number One,” said Denton. “Everybody thought it was about sex.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter