Nora Jones VS Michelle Branch - Let's Go to the Video

At the 45th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 23rd at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Norah Jones and her album "Come Away With Me" won eight Grammys  Norah won five awards - Album of the Year, Record of the Year (for "Don't Know Why"), Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Don't Know Why") and Best Pop Vocal Album. In addition, "Don't Know Why" won three awards for Song of the Year (awarded to the songwriter, Jesse Harris), Best Producer, non-classical (Arif Mardin) and Best Engineered album, non-classical (awarded to engineers Husky Huskolds, Arif Mardin and Jay Newland)..

OK - maybe Norah won the award(s) - including Best New Artist, but perhaps Michelle Branch deserved that award.

Doing some non - partial investigating........

Nora Jones had 1 hit song. "Don't Know why" - The video wasn't bad - just nothing special. MTV didn’t even play the video for her single, "Don’t Know Why," until six months after its release.

By contrast Michelle Branch (also nominated for best new female artist) had 3 hits on her Album Spirit Room.

1.) "Everywhere" - 2). "All You Wanted" and 3). "Goodbye to You." 

Michelle's music videos constantly received high ratings & requests on MTV's TRL. ( Total Requests Live) The video "Everywhere" also won MTV's Viewers Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards.

If the ability to create a loyal fan base is any indicator of best new artist. Michelle Branch should have won the Best new Artist award hands down. A review of the Michelle Branch message board on her website showed she has 8 times the number of "registered fans" and posts VS Nora Jones. This having been pointed out, and raising a few eyebrows. Here is Norah Jones management excuse and response: (So those #'s are no longer available.)

Source: http://www.norahjones.com

"Hey all..... I just want to let you know that this message board will temporarily be out of service. I apologize to all who have recently signed up and to all of you incredibly supportive regulars. The board was, as Norah had more and more fans, starting to get a little messy. I as moderator of the board could barely give the needed attention to it. Then BAM! this Grammy craziness took it over the top! The board has been so out of control the past few days."

The official Norah Jones site then refers people to http://www.norahjones.info where moderator Music boy writes: "I say that we don't want to have the kind of message board mayhem that occurred on Norah's site after the Grammys. This should be a social safe haven, for fans to come & talk about Norah's music/career, & to appropriately express themselves, without fear of having their character assassinated. It should be a fun place, period! I'm sure that most of you would also like to have it be a place where Norah & the Band can come, without worrying about what horrible hate thread, or insult they may have to read next. It should be a fun place for them to come to as well. After all, they inspired this site, & these boards.

It is to that end, that I will not hesitate to delete posts that: Trash Norah or the band, other members, moderators, the management of this site, as well as any posts that are generally hurtful, vulgar, or off topic."

Talk about selective censorship. Any post that suggests the opinion Michelle deserved the award, even in a polite fashion is quickly deleted. What happened is many of Michelle's fans blasted off on the Nora Jones.com message board. As well as some avid Avril Lavigne fans. Seems many, many people disagreed with this decision. It got so insane Norah's management deleted the entire message board.

Michelle writes all her own songs, ( Jesse Harris wrote "Don't know Why" not Norah Jones ) Something perhaps the Grammy Judges didn't consider. Much less that Michelle Branch wrote THREE hits all by herself - lyrics and music. One poster writes "Maybe if Michelle's father was in the music business and had the connections Norah's father has the vote would of been different".

The Grammys have always tended to skew old, which is to say their 15,000 voters favor music that is targeted to adults rather than kids. That’s why Steely Dan’s forgettable "Two Against Nature" beat Eminem’s far superior "Marshall Mathers LP" for best album in 2001. It’s why, last year, the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, a collection of old-timey country tunes that country-format radio wouldn’t touch, defeated U2’s "All That You Can’t Leave Behind." So this year's vote should not be a huge shock.

If it's any consolation, the Grammys did see fit to award Santana and Michelle Branch with "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals" for "The Game Of Love". Does that count as 4 hits this year VS Norah's 1 hit that she didn't even write? Next year Michelle Branch won't qualify as a new artist - nor will the Grammy Judges change their vote after the fact. Unfortunately what should of been Michelle's moment in the spotlight has passed. All the "Norah Jones Sucks" posts won't change that either.

So enough kids - grow up and move on.

Here at Internet Video Magazine the focus is on the videos.

With this in mind, I would like to nominate Michelle Branch with a special IVM award for "Best New Female Artist Videos". Having looked at 1000's of Internet videos - The people who do the encoding and streaming of her clips do an excellent job and have set the standard of quality others should strive to attain. Crisp, clean and very well presented on a equally as nice Flash web site. Offered up in Quicktime, Real Player and Windows Media Player for slow, medium and fast connections. Looking at the Real Player version of "Everywhere" full screen it was hard to determine that this was Internet video and not broadcast television. The EPK interview clip is also a nice touch and provides a unique insight to this young fresh new artist.

Kind of gives new meaning to Norah's song "Don't know why".....

Michelle will be going on tour with the Dixie Chicks and has a new album due out in June 2003. When questioned on the delay of what was thought to be a completed album. The delay has to do with a video they want to have complete to launch with the new album. 4 months from now? - "Yes, it's production intensive" according to a spokesperson at her Maverick label. Hummmmm? We will all be watching for it.

To view Michelle Branch's videos visit her site @

Article by 4Video AKA Kevin icks.

Well known & respected in Streaming Media circles 4Video is a Video Artist who resides in Clearwater, Florida.. An early pioneer of Internet Video he has followed the growth and advancement of this medium since it's infancy.

4Video provides streaming media hosting for Gannett News Corp in 3 major metro markets. Content creation for a variety of business clients. Live Streaming. And is an authorized reseller and installer of Canon & Axis remote controllable network web cams for video monitoring and webcasting. His well placed connections, experience , insight and an ear to the ground makes him one of Internet Video Magazines favorite contributors.