Maroon 5 Set To Perform On The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live on 12/5; LL Cool J to Host

Three-time GRAMMY^®-winning group Maroon 5 are the first act announced to perform on "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night^®." Two-time GRAMMY winner LL Cool J returns to host the one-hour special, which takes place live for the first time ever at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Dec. 5. The show - which will announce nominations in several categories as well as feature performances by past GRAMMY winners and/or nominees - will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network (www.cbs.com) from 10 – 11 p.m. ET/PT (9 p.m. Central). Additional performers and presenters will be announced shortly. For updates and breaking news, please visit www.grammy.com, and The Recording Academy^®'s social networks on Twitter and Facebook: www.twitter.com/thegrammys, www.facebook.com/thegrammys.

Following the one-hour live telecast, guests will experience a one-hour exclusive concert by one of the evening's performers. Pre-sale tickets for "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night" go on sale today to select VIPs. Tickets to the general public will go on sale Fri., Sept. 21, and are available online at www.ticketmaster.com or via Ticketmaster charge-by-phone lines at 800.745.3000.                                                            

This concert special marks the fifth time nominations for the annual GRAMMY Awards will be announced live on primetime television. Last year's airing of the nominations special helped lead to increased ratings for the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, which attracted 39.9 million viewers, the largest GRAMMY audience since 1984 and the second largest in history. The telecast was also the biggest social event in the history of television to date, drawing 13 million social media comments with the conversation on Twitter reaching a record high at 160,341 tweets per minute during the live telecast. Additionally, the 54th GRAMMY Awards telecast received six Emmy^®nominations and won two: Outstanding Art Direction For Variety Or Nonfiction Programming (Brian Stonestreet, Production Designer;Alana Billingsley, Art Director; Matt Steinbrenner, Art Director) and Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Variety Special (Robert A. Dickinson, Lighting Designer; Jon Kusner, Lighting Director; Travis Hagenbuch, Lighting Director; Andy O'Reilly, Lighting Director).

LL Cool J has hosted "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night" since its inception inDecember 2008, and also hosted the annual GRAMMY Awards telecast for the first time earlier this year.

The road to Music's Biggest Night begins with "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!!" and culminates with the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards, live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, and broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. 

"The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night" is produced by AEG Ehrlich Ventures, LLC. Ken Ehrlich is the executive producer. LL Cool J is producer.