The 2021 Grammy Award nominations arrived yesterday with good news for artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, and Dua Lipa. It also stoked an outpouring of backlash about one artist who didn’t get nominated: The Weeknd’s album and singles went unrecognized by the Recording Academy, prompting a day where Recording Academy Chair and Interim President/CEO Harvey Mason jr. fielded questions about the omission to reporters amid a flurry of social media outrage from the singer’s fans and peers.
While Mason spoke with Pitchfork on Tuesday night, the Weeknd tweeted that the Grammys were “corrupt” and demanded answers. After hearing the tweet, Mason declined to comment, but soon released a statement expressing three central points: He was surprised that the Weeknd wasn’t nominated, that the decision rested on the Academy’s voters, and that the Recording Academy did not impose a rumored Super Bowl–related ultimatum, as initially reported by TMZ.
In a way, the stormy reaction to the nominations announcement is a natural addition to Mason’s chaotic year at the Recording Academy. He became interim CEO in January of this year, just days before the 2020 Grammy Awards, as Deborah Dugan was ousted from the role and ultimately fired. Mason, who is unable to discuss the Recording Academy’s ongoing arbitration with Dugan, is in the role on a volunteer basis. The search for a new CEO was slowed, he says, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday night, he fielded questions from Pitchfork about the rationale behind renaming the World Music category, the future of his position, and Justin Bieber’s argument that he should’ve been nominated for R&B awards. When asked about whether the Recording Academy has any reservations about Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald’s nomination for Record of the Year for producing Doja Cat’s “Say So” (under the pseudonym Tyson Trax), Mason declined to answer at that moment and promised to send a statement on the matter. “I want to get it right and really give it some thought as to how I feel and how the Academy feels about this,” he said.
Pitchfork: This year, the Grammy formerly Best World Music Album is now Best Global Music Album. Could you speak to why the term “Global Music” is preferable to “World Music”?
Harvey Mason jr.: We met specifically with people from what was formerly known as the World Music community, and they felt that terminology did not properly describe their community and they felt it was slightly offensive and was not inclusive enough for the different types of music they made and wanted to submit in that category. We worked with them for over a month to really go back and forth about what would really encompass that category accurately. They suggested that terminology. We felt good about it coming from the experts we gathered to talk about it and socialize it.
For us at the Academy, in the past we haven’t always moved quickly and as swiftly as some people would’ve liked, so this is a step in our effort to make sure we’re listening and learning from our music families and constituents and giving it attention and being respectful to people, so when they feel something’s not being done correctly or they’re being misrepresented or they’re offended in a way, we want to be quick to change and quick to pivot, so that’s what that is a result of.
Pitchfork: Burna Boy is nominated in that category again this year, and, obviously, West African pop music is becoming more popular each year. Has the Recording Academy considered opening up more categories for genres like Afrobeats or K-pop?