Aguilera Carlos Santana acknowledges photographers before the launch of Microsoft's Window 2000 in San Francisco, where he performed. Clear off the mantel, Carlos Santana. You'll need room for all the trophies. At least that's the conventional wisdom heading into Wednesday's Grammy Awards. Santana received 10 nominations, including the big ones for record and album of the year, and he's expected to do very well.
Grammy voters have a history of belatedly honoring industry veterans.
The well-liked Santana, who played the original Woodstock, is a perfect candidate for the same royal treatment given Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton in the past. His comeback album, Supernatural, was a phenomenal hit. Perhaps most importantly, Santana dominated the nominations in a generally lackluster year. There's no big critical favorite, no Lauryn Hill, around to complicate things. For those reasons, we're not bucking the conventional wisdom.