Frank Ocean, who has been credited as
the first mainstream hip-hop artist to come out bisexual, on
Wednesday received six Grammy Awards nominations.
The 25-year-old Ocean, a member of the
Odd Future collective, led the nominees for the 55th
annual Grammy Awards, which are to be handed out on February 10 in
Los Angeles.
Ocean's Channel Orange is vying
for Album of the Year and Thinking Bout You was nominated in
the Record of the Year category.
Ocean was also nominated in the
categories of Best Urban Contemporary Album (Channel Orange),
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (No Church in the Wild) and Best
Short Form Music Video (No Church in the Wild).
Ocean is competing against the Alabama
Shakes, fun, Hunter Hayes and the Lumineers in the Best New Artist
category.
Other openly gay performers nominated
for Grammys include Dave Koz for Best Pop Instrumental Album (Live
at the Blue Note Tokyo). The Best Spoken Word Album category
includes three openly gay nominees: Rachel Maddow (Drift: The
Unmooring of American Military Power), Ellen DeGeneres (Seriously
… I'm Kidding) and Janis Ian (Society's Child: My
Autobiography). Openly bisexual Margaret Cho was nominated in
the Best Comedy Album category for Cho Dependent: Live in Concert.