Jazmine Sullivan

When Jazmine Sullivan got her invitation to the Grammy Awards nominations telecast, she was hoping she wouldn't leave without being mentioned in at least one category. "I thought, 'I hope they don't invite me and I'm not even nominated,' " she said backstage at the Nokia Theatre on Wednesday.

When Jazmine Sullivan got her invitation to the Grammy Awards nominations telecast, she was hoping she wouldn't leave without being mentioned in at least one category. "I thought, 'I hope they don't invite me and I'm not even nominated,' " she said backstage at the Nokia Theatre on Wednesday.

     Nearly a year after Philip Phillips edged her out of being “American Idol's” first female victor since 2006, Jessica Sanchez is making her debut. The 17-year-old mini pop diva will issue her post-“Idol” debut, “Me, You & the Music,” on April 30, 19 Recordings/Interscope Records announced Thursday. Sanchez, who also competed on the first season of “America's Got Talent,” won over “Idol” viewers during the singing compeition's 11 th season with stunning covers of Beyoncé, Jazmine Sullivan and Whitney Houston that made her an early front-runner.

The Early Show Paula Abdul. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Nicolas Cage; Good Housekeeping's VIP Awards with Rosemary Ellis; Albert Cutie. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Regis and Kelly Gwyneth Paltrow; Paula Abdul. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Lisa Ling; Denis Leary. 10 a.m. KABC The Doctors A junk-food diet. (N) 11 a.m. KCAL The Talk Nicole Richie. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS Dr. Phil Man finds his wife and children after 15 years of searching.

RECORD OF THE YEAR "Halo" Beyoncé Knowles & Ryan Tedder, producers; Jim Caruana, Mark "Spike" Stent & Ryan Tedder, engineers/mixers "I Gotta Feeling" David Guetta & Frederick Riesterer, producers; will.i.am, Dylan "3-D" Dresdow & Padraic "Padlock" Kerin, engineers/mixers "Use Somebody" Jacquire King & Angelo Petraglia, producers; Jacquire King, engineer/mixer "Poker Face" RedOne, producer; Robert Orton, RedOne & Dave Russell, engineers/mixers "You Belong With Me" Nathan Chapman & Taylor Swift, producers; Chad Carlson & Justin Niebank, engineers/mixers SONG OF THE YEAR "Poker Face" Lady Gaga & RedOne, songwriters (Lady Gaga)

Another 10 contestants - the last of the women -- shrank to just five on the third night of the Sudden Death rounds in Las Vegas. Surveying the landscape, you can't fault the judges for failing to embrace eclecticism. They gave us … Zoanette Johnson: Despite what any of us watching at home think, this out-there Tulsa, Okla., 20-year-old has been a judge favorite almost from the moment she stepped in front of them at auditions and sang the national anthem. Her final Hollywood performance, which she made up on the spot while accompanying herself on drums, prompted Nicki Minaj to declare herself grateful to be part of "The Zoanette Era. " On Wednesday night, we learned more of Johnson's backstory.

On the hit series "Glee," Lea Michele plays Rachel Berry, a plucky high-school sophomore whose Broadway-caliber singing voice affords her little protection from the dismissive eyes of her cool-kid classmates. Not unlike a pimply-faced Dungeons & Dragons master, Rachel's prestige within McKinley High's glee club works in inverse proportion to her popularity at school. Thursday night at the Gibson Amphitheatre, where the cast of the music-heavy "Glee" performed the first of four live concerts there, Michele needed guarding just like her fictional alter ego. But as the actress strolled through the audience belting out "Don't Rain on My Parade," it wasn't bullies and bimbos her security retinue was keeping at arm's length; rather, it was frenzied "Glee" fans desperate for a close-up glimpse of this rising star.

Heading into tonight's ceremony at Staples Center, we handicap the winners in four of the most high-profile categories. BEST NEW ARTIST The field at a glance: With Adele and Duffy, there's plenty of U.K.-bred retro soul amid the best new artist crop. Though neither artist has the '60s-inspired theatricality of last year's winner, Amy Winehouse -- the bumping, keyboard-scorched groove of Duffy's "Mercy" comes close -- both are tapping into a vintage, Grammy-approved sound. They'll compete with teen pop studs the Jonas Brothers and another soul/R&B newcomer in Jazmine Sullivan, who snared five Grammy noms.

The Grammy Museum will open downtown this weekend, but on Wednesday night the venerable awards brand was trying to prove it's no relic in this "American Idol" era. The nominations for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards were announced Wednesday not at some early-morning news conference -- as they have been in the past -- but sprinkled in a one-hour prime-time special featuring performances by Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and other stars singing classic songs at the Nokia Theatre.

Lil Wayne's eight Grammy Award nominations Wednesday can be interpreted as the record industry's sincere thanks to the New Orleans rapper for proving that it's still possible to sell 1 million albums in a week, which he did in June with "Tha Carter III." He did it by exploiting nontraditional avenues, galvanizing rap fans in the months leading to the album's release with a series of mix tapes distributed over the Internet.

Young women are often treated like the empty calories of American culture -- they're as hard to resist as a forbidden sweet, as guiltily denied and as easily forgotten. This truism applies to this suddenly very serious year as much as it did in the teeny-bopper-dominated 1950s and the flapper-fueled 1920s.