This is BEYOND fucked up.
ICYMI, during Sunday’s Grammys, only one woman walked away the victor in a major category — it was Alessia Cara for Best New Artist. To make matters worse, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow has since uttered the most backwards statement on the #GrammysSoMale controversy.
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On how the status quo could change at the major music event, Portnow told Variety:
“I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on the executive level ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ to step up.”
We’re sorry, WHAT???? This is offensive to every songstress out there.
He continued:
“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. Us as an industry making the welcome mat very obvious, creating mentorships, creating opportunities not only for women but 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, they can say anything.”
You can tell Neil realized he shot himself in the foot there. Smh.
His chat with the trade mag only worsened when he was asked to comment on Lorde‘s beef with the Grammys. As we previously reported, Lorde was the only woman nominated for Album of the Year, but was not offered a solo performance at the award show. Rather, the hitmaker was invited to participate in the Tom Petty tribute.
On any criticism regarding the performance lineup, the president noted:
“We have a wealth of riches every year, and it’s hard to have a balanced show and have everybody involved. We can’t have a performance from every nominee ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ we have over 80 categories ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ so we have to realize that we have to create something that has balance.”
Oh, please. You can’t have most of the male artists in the category perform and NOT Lorde. It was a blatant snub.
Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich weighed in on the drama too, as he was asked if it was a mistake to not include the Melodrama singer. He added:
“I don’t know if it was a mistake. These shows are always a matter of choices, and we know we have a box and the box gets full. She had a great album, but there’s no way we can really deal with everybody. Overall, we did the best we can to make sure it’s representative of our show.”
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
Regardless, Portnow indicated that next year’s show may be more female driven as Taylor Swift‘s Reputation will be eligible. In regards to Taylor, Neil shared:
“It wasn’t her year. She was kind of off cycle. Hopefully we’ll see her next year.”
Yes, hopefully. *Sigh*
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN.]
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