Over the past year, The Recording Academy has been doing work from the inside out to make the music industry more representative of the talent within it.
Under the leadership of Copresident Valeisha Butterfield Jones and CEO Harvey Mason Jr., alongside VP of Member and Industry Relations Kelley Purcell and LA Chapter Executive Director Qiana Conley, the academy has diversified it’s voting membership, instituted its first inclusion rider, and created the first ever Black Music Collective celebration — the brainchild of music exec Riggs Morales– held the night before the 64th Annual Grammy Awards.
Witnessing these efforts from the outside, we wanted to know whether Black artists across gender and genres are feeling the effects of these changes from within. On the red carpet for this year’s Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, we asked the likes of Jidenna, Cynthia Erivo, HER, Baby Keem and more how they feel about the work the academy is doing and what they hope to see more of, particularly when it comes to Black women. Check out their responses in the video above.