{"id":803392,"date":"2020-01-23T14:55:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T21:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=942137"},"modified":"2020-01-23T14:55:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T21:55:59","slug":"grammys-defend-fair-and-ethical-voting-after-accusations-of-rigging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/grammys-defend-fair-and-ethical-voting-after-accusations-of-rigging\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammys Defend \u2018Fair and Ethical\u2019 Voting After Accusations of Rigging"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Following accusations from ousted CEO Deborah Dugan that Grammy voting is \u201crigged,\u201d the Recording Academy defended their \u201cfair and ethical\u201d voting process in a statement Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSpurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong,\u201d the Recording Academy\u2019s chief awards officer Bill Freimuth said in a statement. \u201cThis process is strictly enforced with everyone involved and has no exceptions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a pair of television interviews<\/a> Thursday, as well as in her EEOC complaint<\/a> against the Recording Academy, Dugan alleged that \u201ca blatant conflict of interest\u201d occurred in the Song of the Year category, where a song that was initially ranked 18th out of 20 became a nominee in the category because the artist was present when the voting occurred. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn that room not only are there trustees that have conflicts of interest on particular artists that are nominated, but more importantly there are even artists that are nominated that are in the room,\u201d Dugan told CBS This Morning<\/em>, adding that vote rigging was also rampant in lesser profile jazz categories. Dugan also claimed to have evidence of the rigged voting process but not disclose what that proof is, nor who the alleged undeserving Song of the Year nominee is.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, Freimuth fired back at Dugan\u2019s claims in a statement that detailed the entire Recording Academy voting process<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are strict rules in place to address any conflict of interest. Should a committee member qualify for a Grammy, they are required to leave the room for the entire listening session and are NOT allowed to vote in that category,\u201d Freimuth said. \u201cCommittee members do not know the ranking of any entry and the voting is by secret ballot. The committees are not confidential, but the committee members\u2019 names are for the obvious reason of preventing lobbying from outside parties, therefore further protecting the integrity of the voting process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Freimuth concluded, \u201cWe remain fully committed to the integrity, transparency and robustness of the awards and look forward with excitement to celebrating the artists who deservingly receive them. We are acutely aware that many artists have worked a lifetime for this moment at music\u2019s biggest night and it is them we want to focus on when we celebrate this weekend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read the Recording Academy\u2019s full statement below:<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the goal of the Recording Academy to ensure the GRAMMY Awards process is led in a fair and ethical manner and that voting members make their choices based solely on the artistic excellence and technical merits of eligible recordings. <\/i><\/span> <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Spurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong. This process is strictly enforced with everyone involved and has no exceptions. A detailed overview of the full voting process can be found on our website here: <\/i>https:\/\/www.grammy.com\/grammys<\/a>\/awards\/voting-process<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/i><\/span>The Nomination Review Committees are made up of a diverse group of current and relevant music creators with a high level of expertise in their respective genres. These committee members are all Voting Members. Committees are built by the Chair in consultation with the President\/CEO and Chief Awards Officer using names submitted by all Academy Chapters. Many are Trustees. They are chosen weeks before the 1st round entry list is created so it is unknown whether any of the approved members will have been involved in a potential nomination. Because these committee members are at the top of their craft, and many members work with multiple artists, it is not unusual that some of the people in each room will end up with nominations from the first round. There are strict rules in place to address any conflict of interest. Should a committee member qualify for a GRAMMY, they are required to leave the room for the entire listening session and are NOT allowed to vote in that category. Committee members do not know the ranking of any entry and the voting is by secret ballot. The committees are not confidential, but the committee members\u2019 names are for the obvious reason of preventing lobbying from outside parties, therefore further protecting the integrity of the voting process. Everything relating to the nomination and voting processes is set up with the intention of protecting the integrity of the awards in order to recognize and celebrate artists\u2019 excellence.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/i><\/span>We remain fully committed to the integrity, transparency and robustness of the awards and look forward with excitement to celebrating the artists who deservingly receive them. We are acutely aware that many artists have worked a lifetime for this moment at music\u2019s biggest night and it is them we want to focus on when we celebrate this weekend.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following accusations from ousted CEO Deborah Dugan that Grammy voting is \u201crigged,\u201d the Recording Academy defended their \u201cfair and ethical\u201d voting process in a statement Thursday. \u201cSpurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong,\u201d the Recording Academy\u2019s chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 20:53:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}