(MOUNT VERNON, NY / The Journal) — The 62nd annual Grammy Awards made history last Sunday night, January 26, 2020, just like every other edition of the ceremony honoring the best of the recording industry in the past year (for reasons both good and bad). However, another reason why is that the significance of the day and location as well as internal conflicts surrounding the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science (also known as NARAS or the Recording Academy).
10 days before NARAS' main night to honor musicians and others in the recording industry, there was a dispute between the Academy's first female President and Chief Executive Officer, Deborah Dugan, and the rest of the Academy on some back-and-forth accusations. Ms. Dugan was put on administrative leave (and got kicked out of her job in practice) because of misconduct harassment allegations against her by "a senior female member of the Recording Academy team", according to Ms. Dugan's successor, Mr. Harvey Mason, Jr. (the Academy's Interim President and CEO as well as Chair of the Academy's Board of Trustees) in an official statement on behalf of NARAS. Ms. Dugan and her lawyers at Wigdor, LLP, before the release of Mr. Mason, Jr.'s statement but after NARAS put her on administrative leave, filed a complaint to the Los Angeles District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is a U.S. federal government agency, in which she noted that there were major conflicts of interest between the members of the Academy's Board of Trustees and the artists when it comes time to select who will be nominated for which awards. (That complaint has also been forwarded to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.)
"Rather than promoting a transparent nomination process, the Board has decided to shroud the process in secrecy, and ultimately controls, in large part, who is nominated for Grammy Awards. [...] Moreover, in an outrageous conflict of interest, the Board has selected artists who are under consideration for a nomination to sit on the committee that is voting for the category for which that have been nominated. As a result, one artist who initially ranked 18 out of 20 in the 2019 “Song of the Year” category ended up with a nomination. This artist was actually permitted to sit on the “Song of the Year” nomination committee. Incredibly, this artist is also represented by a member of the Board."
— Deborah Dugan, former President and Chief Executive Officer of NARAS, in an excerpt from the EEOC complaint filed by her lawyers at Wigdor, LLP on her behalf
This year's host, Alicia Keys, recently discussed the controversy and the preparations for the famed awards show with Ryan Seacrest on his radio show and gave her opinions on what she thinks about the political shake-up.
Moving on, while Staples Center recently has always been the home of the Grammys, awards ceremonies are only an annual event. There are also professional sports teams that play there. Specifically, the Los Angeles Lakers. Earlier on Sunday morning, at about 10:00am Pacific Time (1:00pm Eastern) heartbreaking news of NBA legend Kobe Bryant (who spent all of his 20-year NBA career with the Lakers) and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, as well as the other seven people onboard: Gianna's basketball teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, Alyssa's parents Keri and John (a baseball coach at Orange Coast College), Payton's mother Sara Chester, and Christina Mauser, who coached the girls basketball team with Kobe Bryant. They were heading to Kobe's own Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks for the team's game. Kobe was also a staunch supporter of women's basketball and the WNBA in particular. He attended multiple UConn Huskies games, was friends with head coach Geno Auriemma, and said his daughter wanted to play for the team when she was in college, according to NBC's TODAY show.
During the 62nd Grammy Awards, those on stage honored Kobe Bryant and his "Mamba mentality" of never giving up and persevering; his nickname of the Black Mamba came from "the powerful snake with precise venomous strikes", according to NBC Connecticut. A planned tribute for Los Angeles-based rapper and activist Nipsey Hussle, who was killed by gunshot wounds in March, of the song "Higher" with his co-collaborators DJ Khaled and John Legend also paid tribute to Kobe with his image next to Hussle on the background screen. Alicia Keys' opening monologue with Boys II Men included an acapella rendition of "It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday", Lizzo's set (as the first of the night) shouted-out Kobe alongside her songs "Cuz I Love You" and "Truth Hurts" with some orchestral flair, and Kobe's jersey number 24 was seen with both Lil Nas X's perfomance of "Old Town Road" with Billy Ray Cyrus, Diplo, 13-year-old "Yodeling Kid" Mason Ramsey, and K-pop group BTS as well as with hip-hop pioneers Run-D.M.C. with their reunion with rock band Aerosmith (NARAS' 2020 MusiCares Person of the Year, in honor of their charitable wing for musicians in need) in a live version of "Walk This Way". The Staples Center lit up Kobe's framed jerseys above the audience, number 8 and number 24, during the ceremony.
Aside from the somber times, there were many other memorable happenings during this year's ceremony. Billie Eilish swept all four major awards (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist), something that never happened since 1981. According to Billboard, Christopher Cross (of "Sailing" fame) was the only other person to ever achieve such a feat. Demi Lovato, who is singing the National Anthem at Super Bowl LIV this coming weekend, sang "Anyone", a song she wrote four days before almost dying from a drug overdose. Camilla Cabello also had another heartfelt ballad, this one titled "First Man", about her father's love for her and vice versa. They both finished teary-eyed in a hug with applause. Finally, one of the many "Grammy moments" from this year, a shared tribute to music and arts education from Ken Ehrlich, the ceremony's executive producer for 40 years. As he officially retired, music and dance students as well as arts legends Misty Copeland, Cyndi Lauper, Ben Platt, Gary Clark, Jr., Common, and Camilla Cabello sang "I Sing The Body Electric" from the 1980 film "Fame". The movie shows the experiences of students at New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. At 77 years old, Ehrlich's song choice connects old and new and beginnings and endings in a cycle that is summed up in the chorus, a quote we can all take to heart: "And I’ll look back on Venus / I’ll look back on Mars / And I’ll burn with the fire / Of ten million stars / And in time and in time / We will all be stars."
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