While it's no surprise that the Grammy gods smiled on Santana this year, pop got its due as well as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera all grabbed multiple nominations when the contenders for the 42nd annual Grammy Awards were announced on Tuesday.

Living guitar legend Carlos Santana leads the pack with 11 nominations, including two in the Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals category. Santana will also vie for Record of the Year, Song of the Year (an award that would actually go to "Smooth" songwriters Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas), and Album of the Year.

Limp Bizkit also grabbed a couple nods as well, snagging nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Hard Rock Performance, where the band will compete against buds Korn and Kid Rock as well as Buckcherry and Metallica.

Some of the more unlikely faces in this year's Grammy field include Black Sabbath (nominated for Best Metal Performance), Hole (up for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group

With Vocal), and MTV's own Tyrese (nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance).

This year's nominees were announced in a joint ceremony that saw Christina Aguilera, Mark McGrath, Mary J. Blige, Sarah McLachlan, and others man the podium in Los Angeles while Britney Spears, Marc Anthony, and others did the honors in New York. The event was carried live on the official Grammy Web site (at www.grammy.com).

This year's winners will be honored on February 23 at Los Angeles' Staples Center, and the ceremony will be carried live on CBS.

For more Grammy news, check out the [article id="1469939"]MTV News Grammy Archive[/article].