Grammy chief Portnow regrets ‘ women need to step up’ remark
Los Angeles: Recording Academy president/ CEO Neil Portnow has sort of apologised for his “women need t step up” comment, saying he was not as articulate as he should have been.
Portnow’s remark prompted angry social media posts from musicians such as Charli XCX, Sheryl Crow and others.
“Sunday night, I was asked a question about the lack of female artist representation in certain categories of this year’s Grammy Awardss. Regrettably, I used two words, ‘ step up,’ that, when taken out of context, do not convey my beliefs and the point I was trying to make,” he said to Variety. Portnow said the recording industry must recognise that women who dream of careers in music face barriers that men have never faced.
“I regret that I wasn’t as articulate as I should have been in conveying this thought. I remain committed to doing everything I can to make our music community a better, safer, and more representative place for everyone.” While the award ceremony was high on diversity talk, the awards were dominated by men except for Alessia Cara’s win in Best New Artist category.
Asked about the lack of women in the winner’s list, Portnow had said, “It has to begin with... 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... ( They need) to step up because I think they would be welcome.”