Grammy Awards boss Neil Portnow has hit back at claims by fans and artists alike that the awards has a “race problem“.
Among those to express their dissent at Beyoncé losing out on Album of the Year to Adele – instead receiving an award for Best Contemporary Urban Album – were Bey’s sister Solange, Sufjan Stevens, Frank Ocean, and St. Vincent. Solange noted that “there have only been two black [Grammy] winners in the last 20 years for Album of the Year. There have been over 200 black artists who have performed.”
Portnow responded, speaking to Pitchfork: “I don’t think there’s a race problem at all… It’s always hard to create objectivity out of something that’s inherently subjective, which is what art and music is about. We do the best we can.”
Describing the voting process, he continued: “It’s a matter of what you react to and what in your mind as a professional really rises to the highest level of excellence in any given year. And that is going to be very subjective… We stand 100% behind the process: it’s a democratic vote by majority.”
Portnow also offered his view on Frank Ocean‘s recent slamming of the awards: “He made a conscious decision not to enter his music in the process… I respect that… What I’ll say about Frank is he did have his earlier album out at an early stage of his career, we were delighted that he was a Grammy winner, we were delighted to have him on our stage, which gave him a platform very early in his career. That’s something we’re proud of.“
