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      Cardi B Defends Grammys: So Many Indie Black Artists Get Nominated This Year

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      The ‘Bodak Yellow’ hitmaker urges fans to push aside the Grammy drama and celebrate lesser-known black artists who get nominated at this year’s biggest night in music.

      Mar 15, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Cardi B is shining a spotlight on some of the lesser-known 2020 Grammy nominees by publicly congratulating them on social media.
      The hip-hop star has taken to Twitter to hail a number of fellow black musicians who received nods ahead of Sunday’s (14Mar21) ceremony, amid The Weeknd’s criticism of the awards show following his controversial snub.
      “How I feel bout the Grammies,” Cardi tweeted. “Don’t forget to congratulate the small black artist that got nominated that got overshadowed again cause of the drama .It’s their moment finally (sic)!”
      She then shared a lengthy statement expressing her sentiments in full, writing, “I do feel that there were some albums and songs that should have been considered for nominations. Maybe by next year they will get it right.”
      “However let’s not forget the Grammys nominated soo many independent Black artists this year that don’t get the exposure by blogs, magazines and other award shows like Chika, D Smoke, Royce 5’9, Freddie Gibbs, Jay Electronica, Kaytranada, Brittany Howard, Mykal Kilgor, Ledisi, Jean & Marcus Baylor, Luke James, Gregory Porter, Giveon, Ant Clemons, Robert Grasper, Free Nationals & Thundercat and so much more (sic).”

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      “It’s frustrating sometimes to work and work on your craft and you feel overlooked because you might not look like others, are not mixxy (sociable) so you not always around other artists, you rap or sing about different material, you stay out of drama and the media or yet still not as popular,” she continued.
      “However you’re talented (as) f**k and one day you wake up and you find out you’re nominated and got a notice from one of the biggest award shows purely cause of your TALENT!”
      Cardi concluded her statement by reminding fans to give props to those worthy of the recognition, adding, “Soo besides all the bulls**t let’s not forget to congratulate these artists. This is their moment too and they been working their a** off with no exposure and let’s not overshadow it with feelings cause your favorite might not be on the list (sic).”
      Cardi hasn’t been nominated at this year’s Grammy Awards, but the “WAP” hitmaker is set to perform during the ceremony.
      The rap star faced some push back from followers accusing her of siding with Recording Academy officials in their dispute with The Weeknd, who slammed the organisation as “corrupt,” but she fought back to defend her position.
      “I’m highlighting these underrated artist that got nominated and no one blinked a eye to congratulate them cause everybody throwing tantrums over artist that submit their music to a award show that they claim they hate,” she vented. “AGAIN CONGRATS TO YALL (sic)!”

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      Beyonce, John Legend, Kanye West and More Among Early Winners at 2021 Grammy Awards

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      WENN

      The ‘Brown-Skinned Girl’ singer, the ‘All of Me’ hitmaker, and the ‘Jesus Is King’ star have scooped Golden Gramophones early during the biggest night in music.

      Mar 15, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Beyonce and her daughter Blue Ivy, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Beck, Billie Eilish, John Legend, and Kanye West were among the early Grammy winners on Sunday (14Mar21), as they picked up honours at the virtual Premiere Ceremony.
      Beyonce and Blue Ivy claimed the Best Music Video prize for “Brown-Skinned Girl” while Kanye landed the Best Contemporary Christian Music Album award for “Jesus Is King”.
      Beck was among the group that claimed the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Hyperspace, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas collected the Best Song Written For Visual Media prize for their James Bond theme “No Time To Die”, and John Legend’s “Bigger Love” was named Best R&B Album.

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      There were also early wins for “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice”, which scored the Best Music Film prize, PJ Morton (Best Gospel Album), Nas (Best Rap Album), Megan Thee Stallion (Best Rap Performance), Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Rain On Me”), and Grupo Niche (Best Tropical Latin Album), while the late John Prine, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic, was honoured with the Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song gongs for his final recording, “I Remember Everything”.
      Early double winners also included Fiona Apple, late jazz great Chick Corea, and Maria Schneider.
      The list of some selected early winners for the 63rd Grammys:
      Best Contemporary Christian Music Album: “Jesus Is King” – Kanye West
      Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: “Jojo Rabbit” – Taika Waititi, compilation producer
      Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media: “Joker” – Hildur Guonadottir, composer
      Best Song Written For Visual Media: “No Time To Die” – Billie Eilish O’Connell & Finneas Baird O’Connell, songwriters (Billie Eilish)
      Best Music Video: “Brown Skin Girl” – Beyonce Knowles, Blue Ivy, & WizKid
      Best Traditional R&B Performance: “Anything For You” – Ledisi
      Best R&B Song: “Better Than I Imagined” – Robert Glasper, Meshell Ndegeocello & Gabriella Wilson, songwriters (Robert Glasper Featuring H.E.R. & Meshell Ndegeocello)
      Best Progressive R&B Album: “It Is What It Is” – Thundercat
      Best R&B Album: “Bigger Love” – John Legend
      Best Rap Album: “King’s Disease” – Nas
      Best Rap Performance: “Savage” – Megan Thee Stallion Featuring Beyonce Knowles
      Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Rain On Me” – Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande
      Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: “American Standard” – James Taylor
      Best Rock Performance: “Shameika” – Fiona Apple
      Best Metal Performance: “Bum-Rush” – Body Count
      Best Rock Song: “Stay High” – Brittany Howard
      Best Rock Album: “The New Abnormal” – The Strokes
      Best Country Solo Performance: “When My Amy Prays” – Vince Gill
      Best Country Duo/Group Performance: “10,000 Hours” – Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber
      Best Country Song: “Crowded Table” – Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, & Lori McKenna, songwriters (The Highwomen)

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      Flory Jagoda, Keeper of Sephardic Music Tradition, Dies at 97

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFlory Jagoda, Keeper of Sephardic Music Tradition, Dies at 97A charismatic musician, she sang and wrote songs that linked her to Jewish ancestors who lived in Spain until their expulsion in 1492.Flory Jagoda, left, performing with Heather Spence in Potomac, Md., in 2012. She sang songs she knew from her childhood in the former Yugoslavia and wrote new ones in the Sephardic tradition.Credit…Dayna Smith/Getty ImagesMarch 14, 2021, 2:43 p.m. ETTo Flory Jagoda, the language, rhythms and joys of the Sephardic Jewish music she sang and wrote connected her to her beloved nona — her grandmother — who lived in the small mountain village of Vlasenica in the former Yugoslavia.“I think all the feeling that I have for the Sephardic culture, for stories, for song — it’s really a gift from her to me that I will have for the rest of my life,” Mrs. Jagoda said in an oral history interview for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museumin 1995.They were songs of home and family, of love and Hanukkah, many of them in the diasporic language — Ladino, a form of Castilian Spanish mixed with Hebrew, Arabic and Turkish — spoken by the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. Some eventually settled in Vlasenica, where Mrs. Jagoda spent part of her childhood, among her beloved grandparents and extended family.Mrs. Jagoda was a Bosnian. She spoke Ladino with her family in Vlasenica, but she conversed in Bosnian and Serbo-Croatian to outsiders.“Our ancestors were Spanish Jews,” she said in the 2014 documentary “Flory’s Flame.” “You carry that love subconsciously. It’s in you. Everything that was Spanish to us was Jewish.”A charismatic musician who played accordion and guitar and was known for the quavery trills of her singing voice, Mrs. Jagoda recorded five albums; performed in her homeland long after immigrating to the United States; and was named a National Heritage Fellow in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts.Mrs. Jagoda died on Jan. 29 in a memory care facility in Alexandria, Va. She was 97.Her daughter Betty Jagoda Murphy confirmed the death.Flory Papo was born on Dec. 21, 1923, in Sarajevo, when it was the capital of Yugoslavia, to Samuel and Rosa (Altarac) Papo. Her father was a musician.When Flory was a baby, her parents divorced and she moved with her mother to Vlasenica, where they lived with her grandparents for several years and where she remained when her mother married Michael Kabilijo. Eventually, at about 10, Flory joined her mother and stepfather in Zagreb. She was close to her nona, Berta Altarac, and unhappy about the move to a big city.But she adjusted. Her stepfather bought her an accordion and adopted her. But the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 forced the family to move.Her stepfather bought train tickets to the Croatian city of Split, using gentile names for the family. Flory went first, charming other travelers on the trip by playing her accordion.“I play it for four hours,” she said in “Flory’s Flame.” “They all came into the compartment. They love it. They love music over there. They sang, we had a party, the conductor came in and sat there and he started singing. Saved my life.”She later wrote a song about the episode, which in English translation says in part:My father tells me,“Don’t speak! Just play your accordion!Play your accordion and sing your songs!”I don’t know why I’m running.What have I done?After Flory and her family had spent several months in Split, the Italian Fascists controlling the city sent hundreds of Jewish refugees, including them, to Korcula, a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, where she taught accordion in exchange for food.In 1943, with the Nazis approaching Korcula and other Adriatic islands, Flory and her parents fled on a fishing boat to Bari, an Italian port city on the Adriatic. She spent the rest of the war there.While working as a typist for a U.S. Army salvage depot in Bari, she met Harry Jagoda, a master sergeant. They married in June 1945. She wore a gown made out of a parachute.Mr. Jagoda returned to the United States before her; she arrived in April 1946, on a ship with 300 Italian war brides.Over the next 27 years, Mr. Jagoda built a real estate development business in Northern Virginia. Mrs. Jagoda raised their four children, gave private guitar and piano lessons, and performed traditional Yugoslav folk music with the Washington Balalaika Society and other groups.But she did not sing the Ladino songs her grandmother had taught her. Her mother, who had emigrated with her husband to the United States in 1948, was haunted by the wartime massacre of 42 family members, including her mother, Flory’s nona, and felt that the Ladino language had died when they did.Her stepfather’s death in 1978, five years after her mother’s, let Mrs. Jagoda reset her musical course.With her parents gone, she began writing down the songs she knew from her childhood; she also started to write new ones in the Sephardic tradition. One of them, “Ocho Kandelikas” (“Eight Candles”), a Hanukkah song, has been performed by the United States Army Band and covered by many artists, including Idina Menzel, the band Pink Martini and the Chopped Liver River Band.Mrs. Jagoda sang at synagogues, folk festivals, community centers and universities, sometimes in various combinations with her daughters, Betty and Lori Jagoda Lowell; her son, Elliot; and two of her grandchildren. In 1985, the family gave concerts at several cities in the former Yugoslavia.“In Novi Sad, we gave a concert in a synagogue with no windows and birds flying in,” Ms. Jagoda Murphy said in a phone interview.Mrs. Jagoda taught her Sephardic oeuvre to Susan Gaeta, who became the older woman’s apprentice in 2003 through a program run by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. They performed as a duo and as the Flory Jagoda Trio, with Howard Bass.“Flory embodied her culture,” Ms. Gaeta said by phone. “Singing Sephardic music and talking about her family was like oxygen to her.”In 2003, Mrs. Jagoda sang at Auschwitz at the unveiling of a plaque to honor Sephardic Jews murdered by the Nazis. She sang a Ladino song, “Arvoles Yoran por Luvias” (“Trees Cry for Rain”), which Sephardic inmates had sung there.The words, translated into English, include the lines “I turn and say, what will become of me,/I will die in a strange land.”In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Jagoda is survived by a son, Andy; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Her husband and son Elliot both died in 2014.For Mrs. Jagoda, her grandmother’s influence never waned.“It was her mission,” she said during a concert in 2013 at the Smithsonian Institution, “to carry and to teach her young ones this language of her heritage — and never forget it.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Carmel Quinn, Irish Singer and Storyteller, Dies at 95

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCarmel Quinn, Irish Singer and Storyteller, Dies at 95A hit on the television variety-show circuit of the 1950s and ’60s, she also sang to packed crowds for many years at Carnegie Hall for St. Patrick’s DayMarch 14, 2021Updated 1:52 p.m. ETThe Irish-born singer Carmel Quinn gave an annual St. Patrick’s Day benefit concert at Carnegie Hall for a quarter-century.Credit…Carnegie Hall Susan W. Rose ArchivesCarmel Quinn, a blue-eyed, flame-haired Irish singer and storyteller who packed Carnegie Hall on St. Patrick’s Day for a quarter-century and regaled her audiences with tunes and tales from the Old Country, died on March 6 at her home in Leonia, N.J. She was 95. The cause was pneumonia, her family said.Ms. Quinn, who was born and raised in Dublin, came to the United States in 1954 and won an audition on “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” the next year. Those auditions were famous for their rigor: Others who passed them included Pat Boone, Tony Bennett and Connie Francis; those who flunked included Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.Ms. Quinn became a regular on another Godfrey television show, “Arthur Godfrey and His Friends,” for six years while rotating through other popular variety shows of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, including “The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Mike Douglas Show” and many more. Much later, she showed up on “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.”With the gift of gab and a voice that some compared to Judy Garland’s, she performed at the White House, first for John F. Kennedy and then for Lyndon B. Johnson.Ms. Quinn performed at the White House for President John F. Kennedy, right, and for President Lyndon B. Johnson.Credit…UPIThe standard Irish songs in her repertoire included “The Whistling Gypsy,” “Galway Bay” and “Isle of Innisfree.” In later years she filled out her act with a patter of anecdotes about life in general and amusing relatives in particular. One was her Aunt Julia.As Ms. Quinn told the story, Aunt Julia always wore her hat in the house so that if someone came to the door whom she didn’t want to see, she could say, “I was just on me way out.”Ms. Quinn disapproved of bachelors. “Make you sick, they would,” she would say, “out there sowing their wild oats and praying for a crop failure.”And her way of bringing people back down to earth if they got too big for their britches was to call out loudly: “Sorry to hear about the fire in your bathroom. Thank God it didn’t reach the house!”But holding pride of place for Ms. Quinn were her concerts at Carnegie Hall. They began in 1955, when she was approached by a group that wanted to raise money for a hospital in Ireland. Mr. Godfrey built an audience for her that first year, instructing his radio listeners, “Now, you get out there and go to Carmel’s concert.” But after that, she was draw enough on her own. She gave benefit performances each St. Patrick’s Day for more than two decades, and they all sold out.“The night of the concert, you couldn’t get in the place,” she told The New York Times in 1975 on the eve of the 20th anniversary of her first St. Patrick’s Day show. Hers was initially a solo act, but she later included groups like the Clancy Brothers and the Chieftains, their spirited performances turning Manhattan’s prestige concert stage into an old-fashioned Irish music hall.Writing after her St. Patrick’s Day show in 1969, Robert Sherman of The Times called her “a breezy hostess and a totally engaging singer.” Her music, he said, would “warm the cockles of any son, daughter or passing acquaintance of the auld sod.”Carmel Quinn was born on July 31, 1925, and grew up in Phibsborough, a now trendy neighborhood on the north side of Dublin. Her father, Michael, was a violinist and a bookie. Her mother, Elizabeth (McPartlin) Quinn, a homemaker, died when Carmel, the youngest of four siblings, was 7.Carmel sang with local bands and studied for a while at a teachers’ college, but she dropped out when she started winning singing engagements. Then she left for America.She married Bill Fuller, a colorful Irish music impresario, in 1955. As more Irish were coming to America, Mr. Fuller opened ballrooms in New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, and she sang in many of those venues.The couple initially lived in the Bronx, but they would take Sunday strolls over the George Washington Bridge and soon found a small brick house in Leonia, just across the Hudson River. They separated in the early 1970s, and she lived in the same house for the rest of her life.Ms. Quinn is survived by two daughters, Jane and Terry Fuller, and a son, Sean Fuller; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Her son Michael died of a heart problem in 1988.Ms. Quinn, second from left, with, from left, the actor Niall Toibin, the cabaret performer Julie Wilson and William Warnock, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States, in 1970 at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway, where Mr. Toibin was appearing in Brendan Behan’s “Borstal Boy.”Credit…Solters-SabinsonHer love of being onstage took her to cabarets, clubs and Off Broadway. She starred in several musicals, on the road and in summer stock, including “The Sound of Music,” “Finian’s Rainbow” and “The Boy Friend.”She also presented revues of her own work at the Irish Repertory Theater in Manhattan: “Wait ’Til I Tell You” in 1997 and “That and a Cup of Tea” in 2001, in which, Neil Genzlinger of The Times said, she demonstrated “a Jack Benny-like gift for comic timing.”She continued to perform until she was 88. But it wasn’t all laughter and song. One of her final performances was in November 2013, after the death of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Ms. Quinn took the stage at the Irish Rep and recited his “Aye” and “Old Smoothing Iron,” evoking the working women she knew so well. She received standing ovations.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Ruben Studdard Celebrates John Lewis With Tribute Song on Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

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      YouTube

      The ‘American Idol’ alum marks the anniversary of the historic Bloody Sunday march by releasing a song to pay tribute to the late civil rights icon John Lewis.

      Mar 14, 2021
      AceShowbiz – American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has recorded a tribute to John Lewis to mark the anniversary of the day the late civil rights icon led the Bloody Sunday march in Alabama.
      Lewis protested the rights of African-Americans to vote on 7 March, 1965, by joining fellow activists and crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where they were attacked by police officials.
      [embedded content]

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      Music producer Alan Scott launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording of his song “John Lewis Lives” and he asked Alabama native Studdard to join him in the studio.
      “John Lewis meant a lot of different things to me, but the one thing that he meant to me the most was his courage in the face of imminent danger, his willingness to sacrifice for equality and for humanity,” the singer says. “It fills me with pride to know that John Lewis fought for me and made sure that I was able to have all of the rights and privileges that I am so thankful to have right now. He changed this country by being steadfast and unmovable.”
      Lewis, who became one of America’s most beloved politicians, died in July (20).
      “I was just 5 days old when John Lewis marched past our D.C. apartment,” said Alan Scott. “My mom held me in her arms as she watched. All of my life John Lewis has fought for me and people like me. This is my way of saying his legacy and example lives on wherever people fight for justice.”

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      Grammys 2021: How to Watch, Time and Streaming

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Grammy AwardsWhat to ExpectHow to WatchWho is PerformingWho Will WinList of NomineesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyGrammys 2021: How to Watch, Time and StreamingA guide to everything you need to know for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night.The 63rd annual Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday night, with Trevor Noah as the host.Credit…Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse via, Getty ImagesMarch 13, 2021It’s pandemic awards-show season, which, thus far, has meant a lot of technological glitches and acceptance speeches given from the couch. But the executive producer of the Grammys on Sunday promises that this one won’t give you “Zoom fatigue.”We’ll see about that.The 63rd annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah from “The Daily Show,” comes during a challenging time for the music industry — after a year of canceled tours, shuttered music venues and uncertainty around the short-term future of live music. The show was originally planned for January but was postponed for six weeks over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in California.The performances have been engineered to appear like a continuous broadcast, even though some are pretaped. They will occur on five stages, arranged facing each other in the round, near the awards’ usual home of the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.On top of pandemic-related concerns, the industry is rife with behind-the-scenes controversy: For years, there have been complaints of bias against women and Black artists, in addition to grievances over an opaque Grammys voting system that critics say is unfair and out of touch. The Weeknd, who received no nominations this year despite releasing a commercially and critically successful album, said that he would boycott the awards from now on because of the secret committees that oversee nominations in 61 of the show’s 84 categories.But on Sunday, the Recording Academy is planning a program that shows a happier, more unified side of the music industry.What time do the festivities start?The ceremony begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific. You can tune in on CBS or stream the show on Paramount+, a new streaming platform that recently replaced CBS All Access.There is an earlier Grammys ceremony starting at 3 p.m. Eastern time, noon Pacific. Hosted by the singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko (a Grammy nominee herself), the show features performances by several nominees, including the Nigerian singer-songwriter Burna Boy, the blues musician Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and the German pianist Igor Levit. There are also more than 70 Grammys awarded at this ceremony, which is streamed on Grammy.com and on the Grammys YouTube channel. More

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      Biggest Controversies Plaguing Grammy Awards Over the Years

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      https://www.grammy.com/

      Over time, the reputation of the prestigious award ceremony has been tarnished by a number of scandals that sometimes arose with the rise of social awareness in this modern society.

      Mar 14, 2021
      AceShowbiz – First presented in 1959, the Grammys are the first and widely considered as the biggest of the major music awards held annually. For this reason, talented musicians from all over the world often set their eyes on the awards as their highest goal. From U2 and Quincy Jones to Beyonce Knowles and Billie Eilish, the gilded gramophone trophies have been awarded to artists for their accomplishments for the year.
      That, however, doesn’t mean that the Grammys escape critical minds of industry experts and workers as well as music fans. Over time, the reputation of what is supposed to be a prestigious award ceremony has been tarnished by a number of scandals that sometimes arose with the rise of social awareness in this modern society.
      While the Grammys still survive the tribulations and public’s persecutions to this day, ahead of the 63rd ceremony to be held on Sunday, March 14, let’s take a look at the biggest controversies that have been plaguing Grammy Awards over the years.

      1. Commercialization of the Awards

      With her highly-popular new arrangement of Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U” and her critically-acclaimed album “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got”, Sinead O’Connor more than deserved the Grammy. However, after she received several nominations for the song as well as the album for the 1991 show, she wanted no part of it because she felt the Grammys promoted ” ‘false and destructive materialistic values’ of the music industry.”
      As she described in a statement to the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the Irish singer-songwriter said, “I believe that our purpose [as artists] is to inspire and, in some way, guide and heal the human race, of which we are all equal members. They acknowledge mostly the commercial side of art. They respect mostly material gain since that is the main reason for their existence. And they have created a great respect among artists for material gain–by honoring us and exalting us when we achieve it, ignoring, for the most part, those of us who have not.” Despite her refusal to attend the ceremony, O’Connor still won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.

      2. Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s Boycott
      WENN/Nicky Nelson/C.Smith

      Sinead O’Connor set her name in history as the only artist who turned down the Grammy, but she’s certainly not the first who refused to attend the ceremony. Back in 1989, Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff boycotted the show despite being nominated for Best Rap Performance, a category that was newly added for that year’s ceremony, after learning that presentation of the award for the said category wouldn’t be televised.
      “We don’t have the problem with the Grammy as an award or the Grammys as an institution, we just had a problem with the 1989 design of the awards show,” Smith told Entertainment Tonight. “We chose to boycott. We feel that it’s a slap in the face.” Jeff added, “They televised 16 categories and, from record sales, from the Billboard charts, from the overall public’s view, there’s no way you can tell me that out of 16 categories, that rap isn’t in the top 16.” Supporting the duo, Salt-N-Pepa, Russell Simmons and LL Cool J joined to boycott the show, with Salt-N-Pepa saying, “If they don’t want us, we don’t want them.”

      3. The ‘Boys’ Club’ Nature of the Academy
      https://www.grammy.com/

      Women have fought for their equal rights to men since decades ago, but sexism is still found to this day in society and workplace, one of which was the Recording Academy, so former chief executive of the organization Deborah Dugan claimed. After being placed on administrative leave 10 days before the 2020 ceremony, she spoke against the academy, describing it as an “old boys’ club” where misogyny runs rampant.
      She filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing the organization of unlawful gender discrimination and unequal pay among other claims. “I was so shocked when I got there of the level of sexism and corruption that I found at the Recording Academy,” she told NBC News in January 2020. “There’s a layer of corruption, self-dealing and sexism that must go.”

      4. Racial Bias
      WENN/FayesVision

      Any award show must have had its part in presenting controversial win and the Grammys are not innocent in this case. In 2015, the show shocked viewers by handing out Album of the Year to Beck instead of Beyonce and later in 2017, the “Formation” singer suffered another loss in the category to Adele. But the biggest upset was perhaps when Kendrick Lamar lost to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for the Best Rap Album in 2013. While Macklemore admitted that Lamar “got robbed” and the latter accepted the loss with a big heart, saying that “not everyone gets that shot,” many attributed such controversial wins to racial bias.
      Analyzing this issue, Anne Powers of NPR accused the 2017 Grammys of systematic racism because Chance the Rapper and Beyonce were the only black artists who won televised awards. Tyler, the Creator raised the issue again after picking up the Best Rap Album trophy for “IGOR” in 2019. “It sucks that whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending or that’s anything they always put it in a rap or urban category,” he spoke frankly backstage when asked about the voting process for the awards. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word – it’s just a politically correct way to say the n-word to me.”

      5. Rape Cover-Up Claims
      WENN/Avalon

      When Deborah Dugan filed a complaint against the Academy, she also accused the organization of sexual harassment and covering up rape allegations against her predecessor Neil Portnow. She additionally claimed she was sexually harassed by general counsel Joel Katz, a powerful lawyer in the music industry who served as the academy’s general counsel, during a one-on-one dinner at a Ritz Carlton hotel in the city of Laguna Niguel, which Katz later denied.
      Dugan, who was the first female president of the organization, likened the Academy to people who defend disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who have been accused of sexual abuse by multiple women. This led to several artists supporting Dugan, with Taylor Swift canceling her supposed surprise performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Public Enemy’s Chuck D also blasted the Academy, claiming that Dugan was punished for attempting to bring change to the organization.

      6. Rigged Voting and Nominations
      Instagram

      The upcoming 63rd Annual Grammy Awards isn’t free of controversy either. As soon as the nominations were announced in November 2020, many spoke of their disappointment over the major snub of several artists whom they believed deserved the recognition. Not hiding his feeling, The Weeknd, who got zero nomination despite the success of his critically-acclaimed hit “Blinding Lights”, tweeted after the nominations announcement, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans, and the industry transparency….”
      Also upset at the Academy was Zayn Malik, who suggested that the awards were rigged. “My tweet was not personal or about eligibility but was about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process and the space that creates and allows favoritism, racism and [networking] politics to influence the voting process,” he explained his displease. Drake and Halsey were among other artists who have also made similar complaints to the Academy.

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      Beyonce Not Performing at Grammys Despite Leading Nominations

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      Beyonce Not Performing at Grammys Despite Leading Nominations

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      Instagram

      The Recording Academy confirms the ‘Formation’ hitmaker is not among the musical guests at the upcoming Grammy Awards, calling her absence ‘unfortunate.’

      Mar 14, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Beyonce will not perform at the 2021 Grammy Awards despite receiving nine nominations.
      Although the 39-year-old star has been nominated for nine awards at the ceremony – which will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday (14Mar21), Beyonce will not be among the performers, Recording Academy interim chief executive Harvey Mason Jr has confirmed.
      He told The Los Angeles Times, “It’s unfortunate, because she’s such a big part of the Recording Academy. We absolutely wish we had her onstage.”
      Asked whether viewers might find it strange that Beyonce will not perform, producer Ben Winston admitted, “They might.”
      Meanwhile, Ben also revealed that the In Memoriam segment will be extended to 12 minutes and feature several artists paying tribute to musicians including John Prine, who died last April from COVID-19.

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      Meanwhile, The Weeknd recently revealed that he won’t have anything to do with The Grammys in the future, after previously calling the awards “corrupt.”
      He said, “Because of the secret committees I will no longer allow my label to submit my music to the Grammys.”
      And he previously said, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency…”
      The Grammy Awards this coming weekend is expected to be opened by Harry Styles.
      The announcement came after former One Direction Bandmate Zayn Malik cursed out the Recording Academy. “F**k the grammys and everyone associated,” he vented his anger on Twitter in a surprise post. “Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary.”

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