NEW YORK: Sting and Billy Joel lead the Grammy award nominations

announced yesterday, with each nominated for album, record, and song of

the year. Sting took six nominations and Joel four. The 36th annual

awards ceremony by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

will be held in New York on March 1. The academy will also give lifetime

achievement awards to soul singer Aretha Franklin, Bill Evans, a jazz

pianist and bandleader who died in 1980, and concert pianist Artur

Rubinstein, who died in 1982.