Grammys to change after hot Weeknd alleges fraud
The Grammy Awards have changed their tune and voted to remove anonymous nomination review committees – groups that determined the contenders for key awards.
The Recording Academy made the announcement yesterday after its board of trustees met and approved the change.
‘‘It’s been a year of unprecedented, transformational change for the Recording Academy, and I’m immensely proud to be able to continue our journey of growth,’’ said Harvey Mason Jr, the academy’s interim president and CEO.
The move comes after Canadian singer and producer The Weeknd blasted the Grammys and called them ‘‘corrupt’’, after he earned zero nominations for the 2021 awards despite having the year’s biggest single in the US with Blinding Lights.
Nominees will now be based purely on votes by the academy’s 11,000-plus voting members.
For the Grammys’ top four awards – album, song and record of the year, and best new artist – a nomination review committee of at least 20 music generalists selected the eight nominees from a top 20 decided by academy members’ votes.
Most of the 80-plus categories were decided by nomination review committees, which were intended to safeguard a specific genre’s integrity and to serve as additional checks and balances.
While nominees for some categories like best pop vocal album and best pop solo performance were based purely on votes, a number of genre categories had nomination review committees. These included rap, rock, R&B, country, dance/electronic music, American Roots, Latin, jazz, and gospel/Christian music. The committees for those groups consisted of 13 to 17 voting members, who selected five nominees from a top 15.
But questions have loomed for years around the nominations process, with music industry players calling for more transparency because the selection of finalists happens behind closed doors. Others have claimed that members of key nominating committees promoted projects they worked on or projects they favoured based on personal relationships.
Last year the academy changed its rules so that musicians invited to participate in a nomination review committee now have to agree to the terms of a conflict of interest disclosure form, and reveal if they would benefit from an artist’s nomination for that category, whether the ties are familial or creative.
This seemed like a response to former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan, who was fired only months into her job and just days before the 2020 Grammys. Dugan had said the awards were rigged and muddled with conflicts of interest.
Doubts about the voting process reached greater heights when The Weeknd – who topped the US charts with Blinding Lights and Heartless, released the successful album After Hours, and performed at the Super Bowl – was snubbed for this year’s Grammys, held last month.
In most other music awards, The Weeknd has been a key nominee – he earned 16 Billboard Music Award nominations this financial, week – and he Grammys show.
Change has been a topic of conversation at the Grammys for years.
The awards have been criticised over the diversity in the top prizes, which rarely go to rap and contemporary R&B stars, including heavyweights like Beyonce, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Drake, Jay-Z, Mariah Carey and John Legend. While those acts have won in the rap and R&B categories, when it comes to major prizes such as album, song and record of the year, the winners tend to be in the pop, rock, jazz or country genres.
The awards have also been targeted for a lack of female winners in the top categories. – boycotted the