Grammys
All Eyes on Him: Why Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’ Could Be a Big Four Grammys Contender
Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside (The Songs)’ aims for where few comedians have gone before: the Big Four. This story is part of Billboard’s 2022 Grammy Preview issue, highlighting the artists, issues and trends that will define awards season. Read our cover story on Halsey, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross here. Tyler Arnold was only 20 minutes into Bo Burnham’s latest musical comedy special, Bo Burnham: Inside, released on Netflix in May, when he started searching for the songs online. When he couldn’t find them, the Republic Records A&R executive immediately reached out to the comedian’s team to change that. The album Inside (The Songs) arrived on streaming platforms on June 10, and it has remained on the Billboard 200 for 19 weeks, including five in the top 10...
Expect a Crowded Stage Following Grammy Rule Change for Album of the Year
You may be surprised to learn that, in the Grammys’ first seven years (1958-64), only artists were nominated for album of the year. So Judy Garland was the sole winner when Judy at Carnegie Hall won the 1961 award, and Barbra Streisand was the only winner when her debut, The Barbra Streisand Album, won the 1963 prize. The Academy gradually extended nominations to other pros who worked on album of the year contenders: producers in 1965, engineers/mixers in 1998, mastering engineers in 2001, featured artists in 2007, and songwriters in 2017. But in 2017, they also instituted the 33% rule, saying that nominations would be extended only to people who worked on at least one-third of the album’s playing time. Now, they’re back to saying anyone who worked on an album in these capacities, even if ...
Harvey Mason Jr. on Recording Academy’s Future: ‘We Needed to Improve and We Needed to Evolve’
Still, he’s the first to admit there is plenty more progress to be made in his efforts to “modernize everything about the Academy,” including looking at new areas of revenue, making sure the Grammy voting process is as transparent as possible, and leading industry standards on diversity. Mason started his tenure forged by fire, as chairman of the board of trustees he stepped into the interim president/CEO position in January 2020 after the Academy suspended his predecessor, Deborah Dugan, for alleged misconduct only five months after she’d been hired. Dugan, who was officially fired in March 2020, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just days after being put on leave alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and improper business dealings by the Academy...
Iranian Composer Who Risks Jail For Releasing Music Has Submitted Album For Grammy Consideration
“I ask all the artists in the world to help me bring the voice of music freedom to the world,” Rajabian told Billboard in an email interview. “I experienced years of imprisonment and bans, solitary confinement, hunger strikes, and so on — solely for music.” Rajabian was arrested, along with his filmmaker brother Hossein and another musician Yousef Emadi in 2013 while recording an album titled The History of Iran Narrated By Setar (a lute-like instrument used in traditional Persian music). According to a 2016 Amnesty International report, after a three-minute trial in April 2015, they were convicted of “insulting Islamic sanctities”, “spreading propaganda against the system” and “illegal audio-visual activities.” Hosssein had ...
Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Takes Swipes at Recording Academy’s Diversity Efforts
The Recording Academy’s Women in the Mix initiative was launched in 2019 whereby 650 music professionals pledged to consider at least two women in the selection process every time a producer or engineer is hired. The goal was to increase abysmal representation by women in studios. The tweet would seem to reference a survey, open until Sept. 20, which is part of a broader partnership between the academy, Berklee College of Music Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and Arizona State University, that launched in March with an analysis of gender representation within the 63rd Grammy Awards. The goal of the study is to help guide diversity, equity and inclusion objectives within the Recording Academy and the industry at large. The Annenberg Inclusive Initiative’s tweet appears to...
Recording Academy’s Bill Freimuth, Lourdes Lopez and Lisa Farris Depart Following Restructuring: Exclusive
Lopez had worked at the Academy since 2002 in communications and marketing, and was promoted to VP, communications in July 2019. Farris joined in 2019 as chief digital officer, before moving to chief marketing and innovation officer last August. Mason has made other changes over the past 20 months since being named interim president/CEO in January 2020, after the Academy placed new president/CEO Deborah Dugan on leave. She was subsequently terminated in March 2020. After becoming permanent CEO/president in May (and resigning as board of trustees chair), Mason quickly relinquished the president’s title weeks later, naming Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as co-presidents in early June. Butterfield Jones was initially hired as the Academy’s first chief dive...
11 Times Aretha Franklin Made Awards Show History
Feb. 29, 1968 – Won the first Grammy ever awarded for best rhythm & blues solo vocal performance, female for the immortal “Respect.” The classic hit brought Franklin a second award that year: best rhythm & blues recording. March 16, 1971 – Performed her gospel-imbued cover version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” on the first live Grammy telecast. Franklin’s single, newly released at the time, would go on to win best R&B vocal performance, female the following year. (The Temptations presented her with the award.) March 1, 1975 – Won the Grammy for best R&B vocal performance, female for the eighth consecutive year for her cover version of the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell hit “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” That eight-year stre...
Pharrell Williams, Rick Rubin & More of the Most Awarded Producers of the 2000s
Williams won multiple Grammys in all three of these years. He also took the 2003 award for best pop vocal album for co-producing Justin Timberlake’s solo debut Justified; the 2013 award for album of the year for co-producing Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (and two other awards for its breakout hit “Get Lucky”); and the 2018 award for best pop vocal album for co-producing Ariana Grande’s Sweetener. Rick Rubin and Greg Kurstin are runners-up, with two wins each for producer of the year, non-classical since 2000. Rubin won the 2006 and 2008 awards. Kurstin won the 2016 and 2017 awards. Kurstin was the first producer to win back-to-back awards in this category since Babyface won three years running — 1995-97. Remarkably, Rubin produced or co-produced three of the 2006 album of ...
The Grammys Have Never Won a Top Program Emmy: Could This Be the Year?
1977The 19th annual Grammy Awards was nominated for outstanding achievement in coverage of special events. The nod went to the show’s producer, Marty Pasetta. This was the first nomination (in any category) for a Grammy telecast. About the show: This was the seventh and final show hosted by Andy Williams, whose TV star power in the early ’70s helped get the Grammys on the air in 1971. Stevie Wonder won album of the year for Songs in the Key of Life and performed via satellite from Africa. (The satellite transmission was glitchy, to say the least.) George Benson took record of the year for “This Masquerade.” Barry Manilow’s signature hit “I Write the Songs” won song of the year for songwriter Bruce Johnston. Starland Vocal Band won best new artist on the back of their wimpy smash “Afternoon...
Niniola Joins Grammy Recording Academy’s Class of 2021
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Wizkid receives Grammy plaque
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, Nigerian superstar popularly known as Wizkid, has finally received his Grammy award plaque. The famous Singer won the best Music video award at the 63rd Grammy award for his collaboration with Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy, in “Brown skin girl”. Wizkid had his first Nomination in 2015, when he collaborated with Drake in his Album Views. He also brought the trophy home back then. Critics of Star boy as he is fondly called have argued that he is not worthy to be called a Grammy winner because he got both plaques through collaboration but his fans rose in his defence. The Starboy became the only contemporary Nigerian musician besides Burna Boy to shine at the 2020 Grammys. Wizkid took to his Insta story to showcase his trophy. Get more stories like this on Twitte...
Deborah Dugan’s Arbitration Could Be Delayed If Recording Academy Successfully Opposes Open Hearing
“We acknowledge your request for ‘transparency and accountability’ as set forth in your January 29, 2020 letter to the Executive Committee, and we wholeheartedly agree with your proposal to have the dispute between you and the Academy heard publicly — so that the ‘public and the music industry’ can hear what happened between you and the Academy,” wrote Mason to Dugan. “In short, we welcome a full public airing of your allegations against the Academy as well as the Academy’s many claims and defenses against you,” Mason was named the official president/CEO of the academy on May 13, following a protracted search. Now, the academy’s attorney, Anthony Oncidi of Proskauer Rose, has written the arbitrator, Sara Adler, asking that the hearing be private, according to the New York Times,...
