As the Deborah Dugan controversy continues to swirl around the Recording Academy ahead of Music’s Biggest Night this weekend, the group’s Chief Awards Officer is defending its Grammy Awards nomination process.
“It is the goal of the Recording Academy to ensure the Grammy Awards process is led in a fair and ethical manner and that voting members make their choices based solely on the artistic excellence and technical merits of eligible recordings,” Bill Freimuth said in a statement today.
He added: “Spurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong.”
Read the statement in full below.
His remarks come on the heels of fired former Recording Academy President and CEO’s recent comments that the Grammy Awards voting process is “ripe with corruption.” The ousted former exec went on a pair of network morning shows today to continue her attack on the Recording Academy and its voting process, calling the latter “tainted” during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Dugan also made bombshell allegations in an EEOC complaint of being sexually harassed by Recording Academy general counsel Joel Katz, which he has denied, and that her predecessor at the Academy, Neil Portnow, raped a female recording artist. Portnow also has denied the charge.
Here is Freimuth’s full statement:
It is the goal of the Recording Academy to ensure the GRAMMY Awards process is led in a fair and ethical manner and that voting members make their choices based solely on the artistic excellence and technical merits of eligible recordings.
Spurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong. This process is strictly enforced with everyone involved and has no exceptions. A detailed overview of the full voting process can be found on our website.
The Nomination Review Committees are made up of a diverse group of current and relevant music creators with a high level of expertise in their respective genres. These committee members are all Voting Members. Committees are built by the Chair in consultation with the President/CEO and Chief Awards Officer using names submitted by all Academy Chapters. Many are Trustees. They are chosen weeks before the 1st round entry list is created so it is unknown whether any of the approved members will have been involved in a potential nomination. Because these committee members are at the top of their craft, and many members work with multiple artists, it is not unusual that some of the people in each room will end up with nominations from the first round. There are strict rules in place to address any conflict of interest. Should a committee member qualify for a GRAMMY, they are required to leave the room for the entire listening session and are NOT allowed to vote in that category. Committee members do not know the ranking of any entry and the voting is by secret ballot. The committees are not confidential, but the committee members’ names are for the obvious reason of preventing lobbying from outside parties, therefore further protecting the integrity of the voting process. Everything relating to the nomination and voting processes is set up with the intention of protecting the integrity of the awards in order to recognize and celebrate artists’ excellence.
We remain fully committed to the integrity, transparency and robustness of the awards and look forward with excitement to celebrating the artists who deservingly receive them. We are acutely aware that many artists have worked a lifetime for this moment at music’s biggest night and it is them we want to focus on when we celebrate this weekend.
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