The Grammys Chief Done Pissed Off A Whole Lotta Women

30 Jan, 2018

The 60th Grammy Awards went smoothly enough as the stars came out, mega-collabs lit up Madison Square Garden in New York, and the winners went away, well, grinning. But something wasn’t quite right about the industry’s night of nights, observers noted. Something important was missing: women.

Speaking to the press backstage at Madison Square Garden, the show’s producers responded to chatter about the underrepresentation of women, and in particular the absence of Lorde from the stage.

Of the 86 awards handed out Sunday, only 17 went to women or female-led bands. Recording Academy president Neil Portnow told reporters backstage he thinks increased visibility on the broadcast comes with more women who “step up” to become part of the industry.

“I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and their souls who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on an executive level to step up,” he said. “Because I think they would be welcome, I don’t have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face, but I think it’s really a combination — it’s us as an industry making the welcome mat very obvious, creating mentorships, creating opportunities not only for women but for all people who want to be creative and really paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists who feel like they can do anything and say anything. The other thing that’s interesting today in terms of technology is nobody is beholden or stuck in a system where you’ve got just the label as a way to get your music heard. There’s so many opportunities today. So if someone’s passionate about it, doesn’t matter what your gender, genre, geography — do it yourself, take it from your heart and put it out there.”

Later Monday, Pink responded to Portnow’s comments on Twitter, writing: “WOMEN IN MUSIC don’t need to ‘step up.’ Women have been stepping up since the beginning of time. Stepping up, and also stepping aside. Women OWNED music this year. They’ve been KILLING IT. And every year before this. When we celebrate and honor 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.”

As for Lorde, the New Zealander hit the summit of the Billboard 200 for the first time with Melodrama, her sophomore album, which was shortlisted for album of the year. Lorde was the only woman nominated for the prize, but she apparently wasn’t extended an invite to perform solo. And people want to know why.

Backstage, Portnow and Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich were pressed on the awkward situation. “These shows are always a matter of choices, and we know we have a box and the box gets full and filled up,” Ehrlich told reporters. “She had a great album, album of the year is a big honor, but there’s no way we can really deal with everybody. Sometimes people get left out that shouldn’t, but on the other hand, we did the best we can to make sure that it’s a representative and balanced show.”

Earlier, Lorde reportedly declined an offer to perform as part of a group tribute to Tom Petty involving his song “American Girl,” though she did take the stage Friday night to cover Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs” at the pre-Grammys MusiCares Person of the Year.

Lorde’s mother, the NZ poet Sonja Yelich, shared her thoughts on her daughter’s apparent snub with a Twitter post, highlighting a New York Times article that addressed gender inequality among Grammy winners.

Portnow also tackled the controversy. “We have a wealth of riches every year, and it’s hard to have a balanced show and have everybody involved,” he told reporters Sunday night. “Every year is different, we can’t have a performance from every nominee — we have over 80 categories. So we have to realize that we’ve got to create something that has balance, and so on and so forth. And what you saw was our best judgment of how to do that.”

THR.com

Image Rollingstone twitter

Mentioned In This Post: