The path to a Grammy has long been opaque, even to the music industry — but since former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan alleged rampant voter corruption, everyone’s been more confused. H…
, Dugan, who was removed from her post after only five months on the job, claimed that these review committees — which she refers to as “secret committees” because the members’ identities are kept hidden from the public — bypass a democratic voting structure and that she was fired, in part, for attempting to raise these issues with the organization’s board.
frustrated and confused, unsure of which side to believe. While a number of industry figures are criticizing the organization for alleged misconduct, the Academy contends that its voting process is purposely opaque in order tofraud.
The music industry has long raised questions of misconduct in the voting process for years — if not about the so-called secret committees, then about flaws in the process elsewhere. “I saw how the whole thing works: It’s kind of based on the honor system of who wants to vote for whatever categories,” says Rob Kenner, a former Academy member who says he sat on a screening committee for Best Reggae Album, published a, and was not invited back into the committee the following year.
Artists have largely stayed silent on the Dugan-Academy dispute. But many are angry about the lack of transparency. “There’s something I need to say to the Grammys. Y’all be killing us, man,” Diddy said onstage at, where he received the Grammys’ Salute to Industry Icons Award. “I’m talking about the pain, speaking for the artists, producers, executives. The amount of time it takes to make these records, pour your heart into it — and we just want an even playing field.
Freimuth says he finds it “heartbreaking” that the Grammy voting process, developed over 60 years, is being “trampled” by an “individual in the service of a personal agenda.” Dugan likely didn’t fully understand the complexities of voting rules in her “brief tenure” helming the Academy, he says. He denies that it’s possible for a committee member to pluck a submission from the bottom of a ranked Top 20 and move it up.
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