Ciara leads the nominations for the 2005 Vibe Awards, the annual awards event staged by the US music magazine. Ciara appears on five shortlists, including the one for Artist Of The Year, for which she competes with Mariah Carey, John Legend, 50 Cent and Kanye West.
Carey, Legend and West are also all nominated for the Album Of The Year Award for their respective long players - 'The Emancipation of Mimi', 'Get Lifted' and 'Late Registration'. The Game's 'The Documentary' and Lil Kim's 'The Naked Truth' are also up for the prestigious best long player gong.
Elsewhere in the shortlists, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Ludacris, TI and The Game compete for Rapper of the Year, while Boyz N Da Hood, Cassidy, Juelz Santana, Mike Jones and TI are all shortlisted for the Street Anthem Award. A full nomination list is at the bottom of today's Daily.
Last year's Vibe Awards, of course, proved controversial after a man was stabbed after he tried to attack Dr Dre. Rapper Young Buck, signed to Dre's label, was accused of stabbing Dre's attacker, and he is due in court later this month to face those charges. With that in mind some questioned whether the Vibe Awards would go ahead this year at all.
Commenting on those events, Vibe publisher Kenard Gibbs told Billboard this week: "For obvious reasons, it was up in the air at one point. Everyone was very concerned as to what would be the fallout of something like this. But after conversations with UPN [who broadcast it], our advertisers and the record community, we found everyone was committed to supporting this platform."