For the past six decades, The Grammy Awards have been highly sought after by musicians from every genre, every country and every stage of their career. Seen as the pinnacle of ultimate success, artists spend years chasing the coveted golden gramophones.
But in recent years, the annual award show has been seen in a less than flattering light, with accusations of sexism, racism, favouritism and tokenism abound. So why are the Grammys still held in such high regard? And how justified is the controversy that surrounds the awards?
In 2020, Deborah Dugan – the President and Chief Executive of the Recording Academy, who organises and hosts the Grammys – was put on administrative leave from the company, amidst a series of misconduct accusations from a subordinate. The Recording Academy didn’t say much about the allegations, simply citing “a senior female member of the Recording Academy team” as the reason for Dugan’s departure. However, it came to light that the dismissal came just a few weeks after she sent a letter to the company’s HR department claiming that “something was seriously amiss at the Academy.” This damning letter went on to mention various occasions in which conflicts of interest, voting irregularities and massive financial mismanagement were evident. She accused them of having “exorbitant and unnecessary legal bills,” and deemed the organisation a “boys’ club.” Dugan then went on to explain that she was kicked out for speaking out against sexual harassment from male members of the Academy.
This was not the first time allegations of sexism were aired within the Recording Academy. Back in 2018, during the 60th annual Grammy Awards, the then-President, Neil Portnow, was fielding questions at a press junket. When faced with the question of why only one solo female artist (pop singer Alessia Cara) had won an award that year, Portnow responded: “Women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level need to step up” – despite the fact that the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, P!nk, Ke$ha, Lorde and Lana Del Rey had all been nominated across every single major category.
P!nk took to Twitter in defiance, telling her fans: “When we celebrate and honour the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair.”
But it’s not just sexism that seems to be an issue in the Academy.
At the 2021 Grammys, The Weeknd, whose acclaimed album After Hours was one of the biggest commercial successes of 2020, failed to pick up any nominations at all. There’s speculation that the snub has something to do with issues over his performing at the Super Bowl, as well as at the Grammys. After the nominations were announced, The Weeknd headed to Twitter to say “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”
A source close to the three-time Grammy winner spoke to Rolling Stone saying “[The Recording Academy] had all these conversations with The Weeknd team over the past month, and today the Weeknd had not one nomination and is now completely ignored by The Grammys. This was the year they were supposed to rise up. What is the process and where is the transparency?”
The Weeknd continued, saying: “If you were like, ‘Do you think the Grammys are racist?’ I think the only real answer is that in the last 61 years of the Grammys, only 10 black artists have won Album of the Year.” The last black artist to win Album of the Year was Herbie Hancock, who won back in 2008, with an album of covers originally by a white artist. The Weeknd also stated that the three Grammys he’s already won now mean nothing to him, and he’s over wanting to win again.
Historically, black artists do win big in the urban and hip hop categories. But it seems that hip hop and urban music, despite commercial success or cultural impact, are never considered ‘good enough’ to win in the more general categories. This is segregating the black artists from their white counterparts, and it’s not just black musicians who are being sidelined.
Korean boy band BTS were named the world’s best selling artist of 2020 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, beating the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd and Billie Eilish, and are the first Kpop band to be nominated for a Grammy. Their 2020 album, Map Of The Soul: 7, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and in July was named by Forbes as The Best Selling Worldwide Album of 2020.
Yet these impressive accolades weren’t enough to earn the group a well deserved Album of the Year nomination. Although the group submitted MOTS: 7 for Album Of The Year, Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical and Best Pop Vocal Album, they only picked up one nomination: Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their song ‘Dynamite.’ BTS’ large and loyal fan base were incredibly vocal about the snub, questioning the validity, motives and music industry knowledge of a committee who obviously didn’t take into account current trends and hard facts and figures when making nominations. Furthermore, they questioned the motives behind the single nomination BTS did receive. To them, it felt like an empty gesture of tokenism – a weak attempt at inclusivity and diversity within an organisation that is historically, and overwhelmingly, White American.
These allegations of sexism and racism aren’t the only thing upsetting people. The voting committee continuously seems to omit artists from the nominations who deserve to be there, coming across as out of touch with the music scene and current culture. When questioned about why The Weeknd hadn’t been nominated this year, the Academy simply responded: “Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer and fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists. It’s really tough to predict what the voters are going to vote for in any given year.”
Despite a strong female Line up of nominees this year – including Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, Taylor Swift and Beyonce – Halsey stood out as a glaring omission, confusing fans and critics alike. At the start of 2020, Halsey’s new album, Manic, debuted straight in at #2 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, becoming the singer’s third top-two album, and her biggest album debut in the country. It was also the first album of the year to be certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America. Despite these incredible records proving that Manic was, undeniably, one of the most commercially successful albums of the year, Halsey did not receive a single nomination.
In a 2019 interview with Sway Calloway, Eminem spoke candidly about how many artists had been robbed at the Grammys and that he felt he’d sold his soul in order to win — with the Academy assuring artists that they’d ‘win big,’ only to give the trophy to someone who was widely considered far less deserving. “They’re always pitching this hint that you might win Album of the Year,” he said. “I sat at home this year for the Grammys and watched Jay and Kendrick not get it. And I felt like one of them should have got it. Every year we went, I’d be up for Album of the Year and then the winner is ‘Norah Jones’…who? I’m not trying to say anything bad about her music, I just, at that point, had never heard of her, and none of my friends had either.”
He went on to say how angry he was that Steely Dan beat The Marshall Mathers LP to Album of the Year in 2001, with their album Two Against Nature, despite Eminem peaking at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling 1.7 million copies in the first week, and Steely Dan peaking at #6 with 141,000 sales in their first week. Steely Dan also picked up Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, beating the likes of Radiohead, Beck, Dr. Dre, The Backstreet Boys And N*Sync. This supposed ‘revenge of the baby boomers’ — a label given by Stereogum writer Zachary Schonfield — almost certainly accounts for a lot of the resentment and distrust that younger, contemporary audiences hold towards the awards today.
To fans, it’s obvious who should be nominated each year, and why: those who are the most commercially successful, based on hard facts and figures. However, the Recording Academy has a very different idea of success and who deserves a nomination.
Ahead of the 2021 awards, Deborah Dugan complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that board and committee members were consistently using the nominations as “an opportunity to push forward artists with whom they have relationships.” She also suggested that members would regularly tamper with nominations in favour of certain artists, regardless of whether or not they were eligible. The Academy denied these allegations, stating that the committee was professional and made up of industry experts and respected peers of those being nominated, and nominations were submitted and voted for fairly, equally and without bias. So how are the nominations chosen, and by whom?
To be eligible for a Grammy nomination, an album or song must have been released within the period of October 1 of the previous year through to August 31 of the current year (so 2021 nominees had to have released work between October 1st 2019, and August 31st 2020). Nominations are submitted by members of the Academy’s voting committee (although it remains unclear how or why they choose their submissions) or by the artists and labels themselves. The voting committee is made up of around 350 members, all experts within certain industry areas. These members are never publicly named. There are multiple rounds of votes, after which results are sent to an independent accounting firm and the winners in each category are counted. Not even committee members know who the winners are until they are announced on the night.
Yet, amidst all the controversy, and knowing full well about the issues within the organisation, artists continue to chase their shot at winning big. Why? Because however out of touch or corrupt they may be, new and underrepresented artists feel that they need the Recording Academy to help them rise to the top of the industry and have little choice but to play by their rules and brush off their supposed shortcomings.
Whatever the truth behind the accusations, some steps are being made towards making the awards more diverse and inclusive. In 2019, the Academy set up a team to address equality and diversity within the Academy, and begin working towards improvements. Dugan stated: “[We] are personally and professionally committed to advancing and championing diversity, inclusivity, transparency — making processes simple and understandable.”
Without transparency surrounding the voting process and committee members – and with seemingly very little work actually being done to rectify equality and diversity issues – the Academy is leaving itself wide open to scrutiny and misunderstanding. It wouldn’t take much for them to gain the trust and respect of the artists and the general public. Instead, they appear to be making excuses and standing on ever more shaky ground. And with vocal and active Gen Z / millennial audiences more tuned in to unjustness, and more stars taking a stand, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the Grammys fall from grace.
