Former Recording Academy President Neil Portnow Responds to Rape and Other Allegations, Calling Them '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.

Dugan was placed on administrative leave earlier this month

Fresh off his win at the2020 GRAMMY Awards, DJ Khaled shared his reaction to Sean «Diddy» Combs calling out the Recording Academy’s lack of diversity. 

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 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.”

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.)

Following ousted Recording Academy president/CEO Deborah Dugan’s accusations the organization’s voting procedures are “corrupt,” the organization's board chair and acting CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and chief awards office Bill Freimuth have released a statement ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards.

Neil Lennon insists he’ll back Leigh Griffiths to the hilt after the Celtic striker was involved in a flare up with Killie fans.

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.

Former Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow has responded to the explosive complaint filed by his ousted successor Deborah Dugan.Dugan, who was placed on administrative leave amid allegations of workplace bullying just ahead of Sunday's Grammy Awards, filed a sexual harassment and discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences on Tuesday.Among the claims in the complaint, Dugan says the reason former CEO

By Erik Pedersen

She was dismissed for apparent "misconduct" last week