Poll: Will Chris Brown ever get a Grammy hug?

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Because the Grammy is a peer-group award, it reflects how music industry leaders feel about one another. Like Chris Brown. He’s never won a Grammy. After his felony assault of Rihanna, Brown did manage to whip up three nominations. But he was shut out when the awards were handed out last February.

Now that his new CD is out, can Brown finally be a winner?

His new music is certainly selling like one. Reports the L.A. Times: ‘ ‘F.A.M.E.’ entered Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart at No. 1 Wednesday with first-week sales of 270,000 copies, the second-highest total of the year despite — or perhaps partly because of — the singer’s tirade after ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ host Robin Roberts had asked him about his 2009 assault on former girlfriend Rihanna rather than limiting their discussion to the album. It gives Brown his first No. 1 on the national album chart, although its initial-week sales total is slightly down from his 2004 high of 294,000 for ‘Exclusive,’ which peaked at No. 4 in Billboard.’

At the last Grammys, Brown’s ‘Graffiti’ lost the award for best contemporary R&B album to Usher‘s ‘Raymond vs. Raymond.’ His collaboration with Tank, ‘Take My Time,’ lost best performance by an R&B group with vocals to Sade‘s ‘Soldier of Love.’ He lost the rap/sung collaboration Grammy to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ ‘Empire State of Mind.’

-- Tom O’Neil