Grammys 2020: Can nominees trust the voting system? Even some winners are conflicted

LOS ANGELES – There was a fog over Sunday’s Grammy Awards carpet.

Literal clouds hung low in L.A.’s typically-sunny sky as award show attendees learned that Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had tragically died. The pre-show mood was also muted at Staples Center in the wake of recent Recording Academy allegations. Among them: That the Grammy voting process is corrupt.

In the two weeks leading up to the big show, Deborah Dugan, the CEO of the Recording Academy (which presents the Grammys), was put on leave and then filed an explosive 44-page discrimination complaint in which she alleged that the Grammys voting process is inconsistent. Dugan alleged that in 2019’s voting, for example, an artist who had a low-ranking song that shouldn’t have been a contender unfairly ended up with a nomination because of academy politics.

The academy has stated Dugan’s allegations about the voting procedures are “utterly untrue,” adding they have “rigorous and well-publicized” protocols for ensuring fair voting.

But not all Grammy attendees and academy voters have faith in that system, and some admitted such doubts on Sunday.

‘I absolutely believe Dugan’ about the unfair voting

India.Arie, the legendary singer/songwriter who in 2002 who was nominated for seven awards (and took home zero), felt an emotion you might not expect on Sunday’s red carpet: “Relieved.”

Though the artist says she’s long tried to call out the academy’s unfairly “political” voting system, no one took her protests seriously, because she just sounded like an artist who couldn’t lose quietly (though she did go on to win four Grammys in later years). 

“I knew it wasn’t just that I didn’t get any (votes), I knew that it was political. We all knew,” she said, calling in to question the Recording Academy’s confusing “voting blocks” that she says allow people who “don’t understand the culture of the category” to pick winners. 

India.Arie continued: “I absolutely believe” Dugan.

Highlights from the Grammys: Kobe Bryant tributes, Demi Lovato’s teary return

Feeling conflicted about the Grammys

Tyler, the Creator won his first Grammy, but he's "half and half" on whether he's excited about it. (Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Tyler, the Creator, who spoke backstage after winning for best rap album, admitted that he hasn’t quite figured out how to feel about his first Grammy win.

Though his mother cried with him as he accepted the award for his album “Igor” onstage, he couldn’t fully embrace the victory. He responded to a question about alleged misconduct at the academy by pivoting to a critique of the institution, saying when “guys that look like me do anything that’s genre-bending, they put it in a rap or urban category.”

“On one side, I’m grateful what I can make can be acknowledged in a world like this,” he said. But on the other hand,  he continued, “urban’ is a politically correct way to say the ‘N’ word to me,” suggesting his work could have been considered in the pop category.

Jessie Reyez, a first-time nominee in the “urban contemporary” category, said she was simultaneously in giddy “disbelief” about her nomination for album “Being Human in Public,” but also couldn’t ignore the academy allegations.

“It impacts me as a woman, as a female, as a feminist, as a woman of color, as a Latina,” she said on the carpet. “There’s two sides to every coin. The good side is I’m happy to be here because I feel like I’m representing, because my skin is brown and I fought to be here. But I also think that there needs to be more valid change.”

Reyez advocated for including more women in the voting committees, and also making the voting process more transparent.

But she also sees things moving in that direction, starting with a personal change: “I’m a (voting) member” of the academy now.”

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