With the Grammy Awards now done and dusted, organiser the Recording Academy can turn its attention fully to dealing with the fallout from the last two weeks – a boss on administrative leave; allegations from both sides that need to be investigated; and calls from outside for the organisation to speed up its promised reforms.
The latest updates came yesterday, ahead of the Grammys, with a memo sent to members of the Recording Academy by its interim chief Harvey Mason Jr. Responding to a previous statement by the Academy’s diversity task force, he promised to hire a dedicated diversity and inclusion officer within 90 days; to establish a fellowship “responsible for independent review and reporting of the progress of the Academy’s Diversity & Inclusion efforts” within 120 days; to create a fund that will back ‘women in music’ organisations; to recommit to meeting all 18 of the task force’s recommendations from its recent report including “a deeper exploration, along with the Task Force into voting processes for the Grammys”; and a meeting in 45 days with the task force to review all this.
“We can all be proud that we are recommitting ourselves to transparency, to independent investigations, and to following the facts wherever they lead,” he claimed.
On-leave boss Deborah Dugan’s attorneys were swift to respond, calling the promises “smoke and mirrors” because they “had already been agreed to under the direction of Ms. Dugan”, and calling for Dugan to be immediately reinstated as CEO to implement them.
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