Lady Gaga Sparks Rule Changes For The Grammy's Best New Artist Category

A lot of fans were a bit perturbed to find out that Lady Gaga wasn't nominated in the best new artist category at this year's Grammy Awards festivities. She was practically everywhere and her album The Fame was an excellent LP for a new artist.

The reason that was given regarding Gaga's exclusion from the best new artist category was that her single "Just Dance" was nominated in 2008 before she became a big deal and according to the rules, a previous Grammy nominee can not be nominated for best new artist.

It seems that Gaga's "monsters" have made so much noise that the Recording Academy President Neil Portnow has made some changes so that the aforementioned scenario doesn't repeat itself.

In his words,

"More and more, the first release of a new artist is as a featured artist on someone else's album or the new artist may release a single long before the release of his/her/their entire first album."

"By current rules, if the other artist's album or the new artist's single receives a nomination, the new artist may never have the opportunity to compete in the best new artist category. With this change, each artist will have at least one opportunity to enter in this important and highly visible category." {Source}

This may be great news for the new artists of today that are on everyone's hit track without an album of their own. This might cause some conflict, but this change is good.

Speaking of Lady Gaga, her tour touched down at NYC's Madison Square Garden last night. She will be in concert tonight as well as Friday.

Here is her performance of "Telephone" at last night's concert...

Did she just call Beyonce a shady b*tch at the 1:42 mark?!