Ex-Recording Academy Chief Neil Portnow Calls Rape Claims "Ludicrous and Untrue"

In response to ousted Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan’s request last week to be released from the arbitration agreement she signed when she took the job, the Academy has agreed to have the dispute heard publicly — however, that agreement is not as liberating as it at first sounds.

It’s been one week since the Grammy Awards, and for many people it’s taken a week even to begin to process all the things that happened in the deranged ten days leading up to the show, let alone try to figure out where things currently stand.

The 2020 Grammy Awards are over, but the turmoil between the Recording Academy and its embattled president/CEO, Deborah Dugan, rages on. And Dugan wants it to happen in plain sight. In a letter sent to the academy's executive committee of the board Wednesday (Jan. 29), Dugan asks to be rele

Rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs took aim at the beleaguered Recording Academy bosses for their treatment of hip-hop acts as he accepted one of the organisation’s top prizes on Saturday (25Jan20).

The Recording Academy's interim CEO and board chair, Harvey Mason Jr., asked for a moment of silence in honor of Kobe Bryant at the 2020 Grammy Awards' Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday (Jan. 26).

The Recording Academy Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion, which issued a blistering statement Friday criticizing the Academy for failing to act on the recommendations put forward in its report last month, on Sunday morning issued a statement saying that it will “continue to work with the leadership at the Academy to urgently enact reforms that will last, including those outlined this morning by Board Chair Harvey Mason, Jr., which are a first step toward this renewed effort.”

The morning after Sean “Diddy” Combs admonished the Recording Academy to “get this shit together” at Saturday night’s (Jan. 25) Clive Davis and Recording Academy’s Pre-Grammy Gala, the 25,000 members of the organization woke to a missive from interim CEO and board chair Harvey Mason Jr.

Sean “Diddy” Combs slammed the Recording Academy before a star-studded crowd at the annual Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala on Saturday night, saying that hip-hop and black music have “never been respected by the Grammys,” ironically as he accepted his award as the 2020 Grammy Salute to Industry Icons honoree at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles.

In the wake of the bombshell allegations included in the legal complaint from ousted Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan — which includes allegations of sexual misconduct among many other improper practices — there’s more than a little sense of “Wasn’t all this supposed to be fixed two years ago?” After former Grammy chief Neil Portnow’s ill-spoken 2018 comment to a Variety reporter that female musicians and executives need to “step up” in order to advance in the industry, the Academy launched a

Days before the biggest music night commences, the Grammys 2020 is already surrounded by a set of controversies. For the unversed, the Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan was sacked just a few weeks ago before the annual awards show.

In the wake of former Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow’s ill-spoken 2018 comment that female musicians and executives needed to “step up” in order to advance in the music industry, the organization formed a Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion, headed by Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff Tina Tchen, to identify and execute those objectives. Last month, it released a strongly-worded 47-page report identifying multiple areas for improvement at the Academy. (Read the full report here.)

By Erik Pedersen

By Dade Hayes

Deborah Dugan’s ouster from the top job at the Recording Academy, just ten days before the Grammy Awards, was a shock to nearly everyone not directly involved in the decision. But according to multiple sources and the bombshell complaint her attorneys filed on Tuesday, she and the Academy establishment were working at cross purposes almost from the outset, and tensions had been escalating dramatically for months.

Neil Portnow, the former president and CEO of the Recording Academy, has strenuously denied an allegation of rape included in a complaint filed by his successor, Deborah Dugan. In a wide-ranging document filed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this week, Dugan alleged that Portnow was fired from his role for raping a female musician.

Yesterday (January 21), Deborah Dugan, the outgoing Recording Academy president and CEO, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination complaint against her former employers. Along with allegations of abuse of power and corruption in the Recording Academy, the complaint included allegations of rape against Dugan’s predecessor Neil Portnow.

Neil Portnow, the former chief of the Recording Academy, has been accused of raping a female artist by his successor, Grammys CEO Deborah Dugan, who was placed on an administrative leave days ago.

Neil Portnow, the former CEO/president of the Recording Academy has responded to the allegations made against him by current Recording Academy CEO/president Deborah Dugan in her explosive Equal Opportunity Employment Commission(EEOC) complaint Tuesday (Jan. 21) against the organization.The Recording Academy placed Dugan on adminstrative leave on Jan.

By Erik Pedersen