INCLUSIVITY GETS A NEW NUMBER AT GRAMMYS
The categories for the record, album, and song of the year, and the Best New Artist will now have 8 nominations instead of 5
The Recording Academy, among several changes in its awards process, has increased the number of nominations for its top categories — Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist — from five to eight.
“This change will better reflect the large number of entries in these categories, and allow voters, greater flexibility when selecting this year’s best recordings,” read the announcement sent to the Academy members.
The decision is being seen as being in response to the uproar over the low number of female nominees and winners for the 2018 awards. The nominations this year were seen as musically and racially diverse as possible, with Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Childish Gambino, Khalid, and SZA leading the pack. However, the winners’ list did not reflect the wider variety of nominees, as Mars swept Best Album, Song and Record, and in some categories, votes were believed to have been split between the rappers Jay-Z and Lamar.
Veteran music industry executive and honcho Martin Bandier told Variety: “I think the expansion of the nominations is a great thing. There is such a wide diversity of music today and narrowing it down to only five in a major category is not inclusive enough.
“This is much better for the industry and I’m happy to see this change. It gives more talented people a shot and gives voters a bigger spectrum to choose from. I predict there will be some very interesting events as a result.”
In other changes, music supervisors will be considered nominees in the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album category. They will no longer be eligible for consideration as album producers, unless they produced at least 51 percent of the album in question.
The Recording Academy also stated that the nominations for the World Music Field will now be determined through its own Nominations Review Committee.
THE DECISION IS BEING SEEN AS A RESPONSE TO THE UPROAR OVER THE LOW NUMBER OF FEMALE NOMINEES AND WINNERS FOR THE 2018 EDITION