Grammy Awards to be protested by snubbed musicians

Hundreds of musicians will be protesting tonight's Grammy Awards ceremony.

The protest is in response to Grammy coordinators removing 31 categories from the event, mostly in the Latin, jazz, rhythm and blues and country categories. The reasoning behind the change was to slim down the original 109 categories due to time contraints, but detractors believe that the move is racially motivated and favours mainstream music companies.

Musicians including Paul Simon and Carlos Santana have spoken out against the decision since its announcement last year. Hundreds of musicians are expected to demonstrate outside of the Staples Centre in Los Angeles where the ceremony is being held tonight.

On Thursday (February 9), a protest petition with nearly 23,000 signatures was presented to Recording Academy officials.

In defiance of the Grammys, several events have been held in LA to preserve and celebrate the genres that have been snubbed, including the 'Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For the Love of R&B' event Thursday night, where the late Whitney Houston performed her last duet with Price. The R&B genre lost four nomination categories this year.

Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and the Foo Fighters will be among the performers at tonight's ceremony.

Jennifer Hudson will also be providing a tribute performance to Whitney Houston.

Watch Whitney Houston accept the award for 'Best Pop Vocal Performance' at the 28th Annual Grammys below: