MUMBAI: The Recording Academy announced its official sponsors and partners for this year’s 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast. CBS Interactive, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Hilton Hotels, People, USA Today, Verizon, Westwood One Radio, and XM Satellite Radio all are supporters of The Recording Academy and its Grammy Week events. Nokia has partnered with The Recording Academy as the first official international handset partner. Other key partners significantly contributing to this year’s excitement include Borders and iTunes.

“The Recording Academy has strategically built deeply integrated partnerships with some of the most relevant and dynamic brands in the world today,” said The Recording Academy chief marketing officer Evan Greene. “Our sponsors and partners are a vital component in our proactive and ongoing efforts to bring greater awareness to the Grammy brand and promote our 50th Grammy Awards Celebration, and we look forward to another stellar Grammy season together.”

CBS Interactive is the “official online partner” of The Recording Academy and Grammy Awards, and will develop online programming and communities while promoting exclusive Grammy-related content that will be distributed across the company’s vast network of online, wireless and digital platforms — including CBS.com, CBS Audience Network, CBS Mobile and Last.fm, among others.

Delta Air Lines comes on board as the new “official airline” sponsor, and will create a Grammy-branded plane that will fly contest winners across the US from New York to Los Angeles for a once-in-a-lifetime concert in the sky featuring five-time Grammy-winning artist John Legend. < Page Break >

Returning for its fourth consecutive year as the “official vehicle” of the Grammy Awards, General Motors will provide a fleet of more than 100 “fuel-friendly” vehicles including both Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and FlexFuel E85 ethanol SUVs to transport Grammy nominees and other artists to various Grammy Week activities, including the red carpet arrivals for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Chevrolet will also “electrify” the red carpet with the display of the extended-range electric vehicle Chevy Volt concept car. In support of this year’s MusiCares Person of the Year honoree, Aretha Franklin, Cadillac will donate a CTS — the 2008 Motor Trend Car of the Year — which will be customized with a special pink hue and hand-signed by Franklin to be auctioned off live at this year’s benefit gala dinner on 8 February.

Long time Academy and Grammy sponsor Hilton Hotels is featuring the “Journey to the Grammys” sweepstakes, giving consumers a chance to win a three-day, two-night stay at the Hilton Checkers in Los Angeles, access to a Hilton VIP pre- Grammy party, a chance to walk the red carpet, two tickets to the 50th Grammy Awards and unique Grammy memorabilia. Other prizes include Hilton-branded guitars, a three-night stay at any Hilton hotel in the United States, the 2008 Grammy Nominees CDs and a collection of CDs by artists featured in Hilton’s “Travel Should Take You Places” advertising campaign.

People magazine hosted the second annual “Official Grammy Kick-Off Party” at the Avalon in Hollywood, the same day that Grammy nominations were announced on 6 December, 2007. Hosted by Fergie, the party included live performances by Fall Out Boy, Natasha Bedingfield, and Ne-Yo. As the “official print media partner” of The Recording Academy and the Grammy Awards, People has offered one of its readers the chance to be on the Grammy stage for the “Ultimate Fan Experience” during one of the segments of the 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast. People.com will also host special Grammy content. 

In its second year, USA Today, the “official national newspaper” of the Grammy Awards and Grammy Week activities for the second year, will participate in the Grammy Telecast Viewing Parties in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. USA Today will promote the 50th GRAMMY Awards and the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute honoring Aretha Franklin with advertising and promotion, and will bring three lucky readers to the Grammy Awards as part of its Grammy VIP Access Sweepstakes.

Verizon returns for its fourth year as the “official broadband sponsor” of The Recording Academy and the Grammy Awards. Verizon once again implements customer promotions within its broadband portals featuring sweepstakes for Grammy prize packages. < Page Break >

Westwood One Radio Network, the “official terrestrial radio” sponsor will provide the excitement of Grammy programming (including nomination and look-back specials for nine music formats) across the country and delivers more excitement as nearly 40 domestic stations and 10 International partners interview celebrities and nominees two days prior to the televised broadcast. Each radio station also will have the opportunity to pre-broadcast on their Web sites and at grammyradio.com

XM Satellite Radio returns as the “official satellite radio” partner and will feature a ” Grammy Radio” channel the weekend leading up to the Grammy Awards. The channel will provide specialty programming and comprehensive coverage of Grammy Week events as well as live broadcasts from the pre-telecast Grammy Awards show and behind-the-scenes interviews with Grammy winners and nominees.

This year, The Recording Academy partners with Nokia as the first “official handset” partner internationally. Nokia will promote the Grammy Awards to its worldwide users, giving them content never before available on handsets.

The Academy has also collaborated with promotional partner Borders and new online music partner iTunes. In its second year of partnership with The Academy, Borders not only provided two lucky Borders Rewards members the chance to attend this year’s Grammy Awards, they published the official 50th Grammy Awards Anniversary coffee table book, And The Grammy Goes To…, and offered an exclusive two disc Grammy CD set. In addition, Borders stores across the country feature the new exclusive Paperchase “Grammy Brand” stationery products including collectible pins, notebooks and magazine bags.

The Recording Academy partnered with iTunes this year to offer its Academy voting members the opportunity to listen to full streams of Grammy-nominated music in a variety of categories. In addition, iTunes built a co-branded iTunes/Grammy promotional gadget on iGoogle that promotes the Grammy telecast by giving tens of millions of iTunes and iGoogle users the opportunity to make their Grammy picks and listen to streams of Grammy-nominated music.