Posted by Nate Jones on 01/09/2013 at 11:32 AM daily-dust, News

The Popdust Files: awards shows, chris brown, fun, grammy awards, grammys, mumford and sons, rihanna, rumors, taylor swift, the black keys, tv

If the Grammys could feel shame, surely last year’s ceremony was enough to do the trick, as the award show’s de facto Chris Brown celebration (in his first appearance since assaulting Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 awards, Breezy performed twice and picked up the trophy for best R&B album) drew nearly unanimous criticism and set off the year’s first Chris Brown Twitter feuds.

With that Internet firestorm fresh in mind, then, the Grammys seem to have gone in nearly the opposite direction for their upcoming 55th ceremonies. From the first round of announced performers, there’s nary a controversial act in sight: Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Mumford and Sons, fun. and the Black Keys. That’s one universally beloved pop-country star, one automatic hit machine, one collection of banjo-plucking uplift merchants, one inoffensively theatrical bunch of falsetto enthusiasts and one anthropomorphic Rolling Stone cover. All they need is the Foo Fighters and this would be the most Grammy lineup ever.

Fear not, though, there’s still a whiff of excitement around the whole endeavor, and it comes from the usual suspect. Word out of Radar Online says that Chris Brown is adamant about performing alongside Rihanna during this year’s ceremonies.  This of course is a rumor that pops up every time one of them is scheduled for a high-profile appearance, but at least this year, with the pair grabbing Slurpees and recording songs together, there’s at least means, motive and opportunity for such an act of epic trolling to go down.