Grammy rewind - Sheena Easton wins Best New Artist

Best New Artist is supposed to go to someone new who shows great potential.

A swing and a miss, Grammys.

I was listening to her recent Singles collection. She was one of those performer who moved from style to style but never really found her own. I liked "Ice Out In the Rain" more than most of her hits. "Strut" is great, though.

R1 you stupid asshole Sheena Easton had Top 40 singles in the US for a 10 year stretch.

In winning this award, she beat Luther Vandross, The Go-Go’s, James Ingram, and Adam and the Ants.

Sheena Easton is my favorite singer.

I love Sheena. I worked with her about five years ago. She was in great voice. Plus she was a doll backstage offering to meet my friends, take photos, talk, laugh and joke together. I always remember Sheena as so professional, but so much fun. A great entertainer and good ol' broad. It was a gay ol' time. And you could tell, Sheena had such a good time with us too.

How tall is she, r6? She looks like a tiny fairy sprite in the video at OP.

James Ingram is one of my all time favorites and of course Luther... But they had both been around for many years as session musicians so I'm sure that factored in a bit to the "new" artist voting.

R6 was that in London’s West End - 42nd Street??

R7 Sheena is 5’ 3/4” tall.

Luther and James should’ve tied.

[Quote] James Ingram is one of my all time favorites and of course Luther... But they had both been around for many years as session musicians so I'm sure that factored in a bit to the "new" artist voting.

Oh, yeah. It had nothing to do with their skin color and genre.

[quote]Sheena Easton is my favorite singer.

That's rather sad.

[quote]Oh, yeah. It had nothing to do with their skin color and genre.

That's why Sade, Natalie Cole, A Taste of Honey and Alicia Keys were all snubbed too.

Oor Sheena.

She's altered some of the vowel sounds.

She’s somewhat forgotten today, but she did have a pretty impressive 10 year streak of Top 40 hits.

People thought the Go Go's were going to get it. They were HUGE in 1981. I think Entertainment Tonight covered their going to the show.

Luther hadn't really had his momentum yet. That would come in another two or three years.

Sheena had three hit singles in a row, and she was currently riding the success of For Your Eyes Only (she was the first singer to actually appear in the opening credits of a Bond movie).

James never really had a solid career as a solo artist aside from duets.

Adam and the Ants was a surprise nomination. Goody two Shoes wasn't out yet.

I just listened to Luther's debut album, "Never Too Much." Only the title track is a highlight.

Imagine if it had been Debbie Harry. Blondie were in the running for the theme to "For Your Eyes Only."

Sheena sings Irene!

Sheena is still so pretty but she really needs someone to give her a makeover - that dress, hair, makeup - girl, please.

Should she revert to short hair?

R22 No, but less harsh die, and a few less extensions. The makeup is not flattering, yet she's so pretty. The dress in that video at R14 just needs to be burned.

*dye

What about this one? And has she lost her soprano?

That Dress Barn dress, and that harsh hair color - someone help her.

She called a pro bono stylist and said, "Give me the plump Brenda Dickson!"

The Go-Gos were never expected to take the award. Sheena was a shoo-in. The Go-Gos were just starting to garner awareness after the voting was finished. Their first big hit was We Got the Beat, and that's what caused their album to hit #1, not Our Lips are Sealed, which was a middling Top 20 song. It was enough to get them noticed, but not enough people were aware of them. Awareness was a factor for all four of the losing nominees. Luther had one single at that point which stalled in the 20s on the pop chart. James Ingram didn't even have his own album at that point; he was just a guest vocalist on a couple tracks from a Quincy Jones LP, and no one knew who Adam and the Ants were except for the few suburbanite teens whose families had cable and got early MTV.

Sheena was huge in 1981. And her 2nd album and just been released at the end of the year, which kept her consistently on the charts and the radio through the Grammys. Had the awards happened two months later, perhaps The Go-Gos might have given her a run for her money, but I believe she still would have won.

[quote]Sheena was huge in 1981

She looks pretty big in those recent videos, too.

Did she ever date Adam Ant? They favor each other as we say in the south

Nice voice and a couple of dwcent pop hits but she is responsible for one if the most forgetable Bond songs in history.

I also think that, if the Grammy rules back then were as they are currently, Juice Newton might have actually won the award over Sheena. Juice had an (arguably) even bigger year with three Top 10 singles and crossover country success. It was her first hit album and single(s) but she had been recording for six years. Back then it had to be your first ever release, no exceptions, which in true Grammy fashion were totally inconsistent. Both Whitney Houston and Richard Marx were declared ineligible in their respective years because each had a track on someone else's album prior to their debuts (Whitney had duets on albums by Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass, and Richard Marx had a song on the Nothing in Common soundtrack). However in the year Marx was deemed ineligible, Jody Watley won for her first solo album despite the fact that she had been a lead singer for Shalamar for 6 years beginning in 1977 and had been nominated for a Grammy with them.

[quote]she is responsible for one if the most forgetable Bond songs in history.

Like you forgot the second "t" in forgettable?

R31 critics and Bond theme enthusiasts disagree with you.

Juice Newton had no Hollywood support. Sheena Easton was high profile and welcomed into the USA with enthusiasm. She had a highly rated HBO concert special in 1982 - Sheena Easton Live at The Palace. In 1983 she had her own prime time NBC, Emmy award nominated tv special. Sheena Easton: Act I.

[quote] She had a highly rated HBO concert special in 1982 - Sheena Easton Live at The Palace. In 1983 she had her own prime time NBC, Emmy award nominated tv special. Sheena Easton: Act I.

And those had to do with her winning the 1981 award how?

You missed the point of the reply, fool!

Juice newton didn’t have a bond theme. In 1981 having a bond theme was a big deal.

Datalounge is so fascinating to me, being the home of very niche fan clubs for artists the rest of the world has generally forgotten.

[quote] You missed the point of the reply, fool!

No, dear. You failed to make your point. Sorry.

To the juice newton freak….

Move on tampon! You cannot rewrite history no matter how hard your pathetic shut-in micro-mind wants to.

Triggered much, R41? There has been one post about Juice Newton.

I bet the juice queen impales herself with a traffic cone she stole from road construction outside her shithole house. She does this while singing queen of hearts to the roaches who reside in her kitchen cabinets.

R41 is the Kim Carnes troll.

R44 is the Stevie nicks is a cunt, Wendy O Williams was influential and juice newton is more deserving queen

R43 I don’t even care about juice Newton but why on earth do you feel so strongly ?!

^Because Juice is best.

How did Adam & the Ants get nominated for Best New Artist in 1981? They had already released two albums prior to that year and in 1981 came out with album #3? Meanwhile bands like Men At Work and Duran Duran, who each had debut albums in 1981, were overlooked? Men At Work's album even reached #1 in the U.S.

Gorgeous song:

Sheena Easton - For Your Eyes Only (HD official music video)

Men at Work weren't overlooked. They won Best New Artist in 1982.

Regarding Adam & The Ants, I believe the rule was first US release. Dirk Wears White Sox was only available in the US as an import upon its UK release. Kings of the Wild Frontier was their first US release and that was the end of 1980, so it was considered a 1981 release. (The music charts and the Grammys have an eligibility year that begins around Oct/Nov of the prior year.)

Eurythmics were the same case. They were nominated for Best New Artist in 1983, but had already put an album out in 1980 called In the Garden. But it had only been available as an import, so Sweet Dreams was considered their US debut.

[quote]Men at Work weren't overlooked. They won Best New Artist in 1982.

Thanks. Then maybe their 1981 album wasn't released in the U.S. until 1982.

It was released in the US in Nov 1981

I liked Sheena Easton's album YOU COULD HAVE BEEN WITH ME. It was her 2nd album and features the top 40 hits - You Could Have Been With Me and When He Shines. It was released in November of 1981.