Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Awarded for	quality contemporary R&B music albums
Country	United States
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
First awarded	2003
Last awarded	2011
Website	grammy.com

The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album was an Honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, ^[1] to recording artists for quality works on albums in the contemporary R&B music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". ^[2]

The award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, which recognizes R&B albums with more contemporary musical stylings, was first presented to Ashanti at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003 for her self-titled debut album. Prior to the creation of this category, contemporary R&B albums were eligible for the more general category Best R&B Album. ^[3] According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award is reserved for albums "containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded contemporary R&B vocal tracks" which may also "incorporate production elements found in rap music". ^[4] Award recipients included the producers, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists.

Beyoncé holds the record for the most wins, with three (all of her first three solo albums have earned her the award). Usher is the only other artist to receive the award more than once. The award has been presented to artists from the United States each year to date. Beyoncé and Ne-Yo share the record for the most nominations, with three each. In addition, Beyoncé earned a nomination as a member of the group Destiny's Child for the album Destiny Fulfilled . Brandy, Chris Brown, Janet Jackson and R. Kelly share the record for the most nominations without a win, with two each.

From 2012, this category was discontinued as part of a major overhaul of the Grammy Award categories. Recordings in this category were shifted back to the Best R&B Album category. ^[5]

Award discontinuation In 2011, the Recording Academy dropped the number of Grammy award categories from 109 to 78. This decision was made to make the awards more significant by concentrating on fewer, more thorough categories. The Academy believed that having too many specialized awards lowered the significance of winning a Grammy. As part of these revisions, they abolished the Best Contemporary R&B Album category and combined it with others to create a single award for Best R&B Album.

One major reason for this consolidation was the growing overlap between "traditional" and "contemporary" R&B. Contemporary R&B frequently incorporates elements from various genres, such as hip-hop, pop, and electronic music, making it difficult to draw clear lines between forms. The Academy decided that combining these categories would better reflect the diversity of R&B.

Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy at the time, stated that the objective was to prioritize the quality of Grammy Awards over the number of categories. Although some musicians and fans argued that modern R&B had a distinct sound that deserved its prize, the Academy believed that this change would keep the awards in sync with the evolving music environment. Sources: 1. Recording Academy Press Release - "Recording Academy Announces Changes to Grammy Awards Categories for 2012" (2011) 2. Rolling Stone Article - "Grammys Cut 31 Categories in Massive Overhaul" (2011) 3. Billboard Article - "Grammys Drop 31 Categories in Recording Academy Overhaul" (2011)

Recipients

First award recipient Ashanti at the Red Dress Collection fashion show in 2008

Year [I]	Performing artist(s)	Work	Nominees	Ref.
2003	Ashanti	Ashanti	Brandy – Full Moon Faith Evans – Faithfully Floetry – Floetic Meshell Ndegeocello – Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape	[6]
2004	Beyoncé	Dangerously in Love	Ashanti – Chapter II Mary J. Blige – Love & Life Anthony Hamilton – Comin' from Where I'm From R. Kelly – Chocolate Factory	[7] [8]
2005	Usher	Confessions	Brandy – Afrodisiac Janet Jackson – Damita Jo Christina Milian – It's About Time Mario Winans – Hurt No More	[9]
2006	Mariah Carey	The Emancipation of Mimi	Amerie – Touch Destiny's Child – Destiny Fulfilled Mario – Turning Point Omarion – O	[10]
2007	Beyoncé	B'Day	Chris Brown – Chris Brown Janet Jackson – 20 Y.O. Kelis – Kelis Was Here Ne-Yo – In My Own Words	[11]
2008	Ne-Yo	Because of You	Akon – Konvicted Keyshia Cole – Just like You Fantasia – Fantasia Emily King – East Side Story	[12]
2009	Mary J. Blige	Growing Pains	J. Holiday – Back of My Lac' Karina – First Love Ne-Yo – Year of the Gentleman Jazmine Sullivan – Fearless	[13]
2010	Beyoncé	I Am... Sasha Fierce	Jamie Foxx – Intuition Pleasure P – The Introduction of Marcus Cooper Trey Songz – Ready T-Pain – Three Ringz	[14]
2011	Usher	Raymond v. Raymond	R. Kelly – Untitled Chris Brown – Graffiti Ryan Leslie – Transition Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid	[15]

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

See also

• R&B and Soul Music portal

• List of Grammy Award categories
• List of R&B musicians
• Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

References

General

• "Grammy Award Winners". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 3, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2011. Note: User must select the "R&B" category as the genre under the search feature.
• "Grammy Awards: Best Contemporary R&B Album". Rock on the Net. Archived from the original on December 9, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2011.

Specific

1. "Grammy Awards at a Glance". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
2. "Overview". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
3. Cinquemani, Sal (January 21, 2003). "The 45th Annual Grammy Awards: Winner Predictions". Slant Magazine . Archived from the original on July 14, 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
4. "52nd OEP Category Description Guide" (PDF). National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 27, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
5. "Full Category List". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. 2011. Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
6. "Complete list of Grammy nominees; ceremony set for Feb. 23". San Francisco Chronicle . January 8, 2003. p. 3. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2011.
7. "46th Annual GRAMMY Award – Best Contemporary R&B Album" (video). National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
8. "Grammy nominations". St. Petersburg Times. February 8, 2004. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
9. "Grammy Award nominees in top categories". USA Today . Gannett Company. December 7, 2004. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2011.
10. "Complete list of Grammy Award nominations". USA Today. Gannett Company. December 8, 2005. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
11. "49th Annual Grammy Awards Winners List". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on December 20, 2006. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
12. "2008 Grammy Award Winners and Nominees". The New York Times . February 9, 2008. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
13. "Grammy 2009 Winners List". MTV. February 8, 2009. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
14. Bruno, Mike (January 31, 2010). "Grammy Awards 2010: The winners list". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
15. "Grammy Nominees 2011". AOL Music. Archived from the original on February 6, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2011.

External links

• Official site of the Grammy Awards Archived May 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine