Boasting the usual mix of hot new performers and totally left-field choices, the nominees for the 54th annual Grammy Awards were announced last night, in advance of next year's Fcebruary 12 ceremony. The most-nominated performers included Kanye West, who is up for 7 statues including Song of the Year for "All of Lights," and Adele, whose name is part of almost all of the top categories like Record of the Year ("Rolling in the Deep"), Album of the Year (21) and Song of the Year ("Rolling in the Deep"). Bruno Mars also pulled off six nods, including Record of the Year for the inescapable hit "Grenade."

The Best New Artist Category, which sometimes picks the stars of tomorrow (Maroon 5, Alicia Keys) and sometimes goes out on a crazy tangent (Paula Cole, last year's Esperanza Spalding), nominated a huge variety of acts this year. Predictably Nicki Minaj was in the mix, but her competition includes long-running indie darling Bon Iver, along with country act The Band Perry, rapper J. Cole, and Skrillex. If Nicki Minaj doesn't win that prize I'll eat one of her brightly colored wigs.

Below is a selected list of the top nominees; for the full list you can go to the Grammys site, where you can see nominations for Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Mumford & Sons, Pink and a nomination for Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, for his standards album Music is Better Than Words. He's up against Tony Bennett, Susan Boyle, Harry Connick Jr. and Barbra Streisand for that prize, which makes it surely the oddest category at this year's Grammys, including the one pitting Lady Gaga against the Foo Fighters. Also keep an eye on the Best Spoken Word Album, where both Tina Fey and Betty White are nominated for reading their own books-- this is the category where a lot of EGOT winners sneak in their Grammy win, so keep an eye on Fey going forward.

Record of the Year
Rolling in the Deep, Adele
Holocene, Bon Iver
Grenade, Bruno Mars
The Cave, Mumford & Sons
Firework, Katy Perry

Album of the Year
21, Adele
Wasting Light, Foo Fighters
Born This Way, Lady Gaga
Doo-Wops and Hooligans, Bruno Mars
Loud, Rihanna

Song of the Year
All of the Lights
The Cave
Grenade
Holocene
Rolling in the Deep

Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex