Artists Tune Up For Grammys

The nation's hottest musicians are tuning up for their biggest night of the year. The Grammy Awards are handed out Feb. 8. But some people are wondering whether this special evening will take a back seat to the controversy at the Super Bowl halftime show.

National Correspondent Hattie Kauffman spoke to some of this year's nominees for The Early Show.

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters is looking forward to the performances. "One of the great things about coming to the Grammys," he says, "is you get to see a lot of these people performing that you wouldn't normally see. You probably wouldn't find me at a Beyonce concert, but I get to go to the Grammys and see her perform, and it's pretty cool."

Sting already has 15 Grammys and he's nominated for two more. But he says he takes each nomination seriously. "Music is its own reward. You don't need this. Plenty of people make great music without ever being nominated. It doesn't really matter. But when you are nominated, yeah, I take it seriously."

Several don't want their big night to be overshadowed by Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance.

Grohl says, "Is a shame when something like what happened at the Super Bowl kind of supercedes the music.

"It just cheapens it, it has nothing to do with music and it breaks my heart."

Annie Lennox says, "Its irrelevant to me if people want to bare their breasts, or if it's an accident or the interesting thing is people in the media have picked up on this profoundly and everyone's talking about that. So?" She asks with a laugh.

Lennox is nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, and she'll sing afterward at the Beverly Hills party thrown by legendary record producer Clive Davis.

"It's got its own tradition now," Davis says about one of the biggest parties of the year. "It's the only one that really celebrates music."

This year's Grammy ceremony will be especially poignant for Davis. For years, he brought the music of Luther Vandross to the world.

Vandross suffered a debilitating stroke last year. Shortly after, his album "Dance With My Father" won five Grammy nominations. He's too ill to attend the ceremony, but several artists, including Alicia Keys, will honor him.

Keys says, "This Grammy tribute for Luther Vandross is really special to me because he's such an incredible artist, and somebody that I've admired for years and years, and years."

Vandross' mom, Mary, says, "Even now, if you speak with Luther concerning the Grammys, watch the expression on his face. I think he's ecstatic."

Beyonce Knowles points out, "His voice is like no one else. I know all of us have been praying for him. He's a legend. He's a legend."

Davis notes, "He used one word when I told him he got five Grammy nominations. And Luther said, 'Fabulous,' repeated it two or three times. He'll definitely be watching."

"A House Is Not A Home" is the title of the song Keys says she will be singing. "One of my favorite songs that he's ever done," she says. "It's going to be beautiful."