Winners of this year’s Grammy Awards will be announced Sunday, Feb. 10. It’s been a year since outrage erupted in the music business after Neil Portnow, president and CEO of the Recording Academy, the organization which gives out the Grammys, said in an interview that women should “step up” if they wanted to be recognized in the music industry.
In the days and weeks that followed, there was a volley of calls for Portnow’s resignation, and for changes in the Grammy process. But gender inequality issues in the music business go far beyond one awards show.
The road to this year’s Grammy Awards show has been bumpy. On Thursday, pop star Ariana Grande, who’s up for two awards — announced on Twitter that she won’t even attend the ceremony. She’d been slated to perform — but the show’s producers reportedly insisted that they would choose her set list. She wanted to make the decision. The show’s producer, Ken Ehrlich, reportedly told the AP on Thursday that the singer “felt it was too late for her to pull something together.”
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