Recording Academy Paid Millions Annually to Outside Law Firms

Did you know only 2% of popular music is produced by women? The disconcerting statistic from a 2019 Annenberg Initiative study is the focus of a powerful new video from the Recording Academy and She Is the Music, in conjunction with the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force, and it's premiering exclusively on Billboard above.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has received several complaints about the Recording Academy’s governance structure and his office is now taking a closer look at the Grammys organization, multiple sources tell Billboard.

The Recording Academy has denied embattled president/CEO Deborah Dugan’s request for release from the arbitration agreement she signed before joining the nonprofit organization in August 2019, but says it is willing to waive its confidentiality provision -- meaning the process can play out publicly. As part of her employment contract, Dugan had agreed to arbitrate any future disputes between herself and the academy confidentially and in private.

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

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

On Sunday, the biggest of the biggest stars from the music industry descended to attend the popular Grammys. The 71st edition of the award show was attended by many celebs to celebrate the year's achievements in music.

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).

Many who tuned into Sunday's Grammy Awards did so with anticipation to see how music's biggest night would handle the scandal that has embroiled the Recording Academy in the week leading up to its annual telecast.With the awards show kicking off only hours after the tragic news that NBA legend Kobe Bryant — along with his 13-yeard-old daughter Gianna, and seven others — had died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, Alicia Keys opened the ceremony with an emotional tribute to the

By Bruce Haring

Even before Grammy Salute to Icons Award honoree Sean “Diddy” Combs took the troubled Recording Academy to task at the Pre-Grammy Gala Saturday night (Jan. 25), the evening had made its mark as one of the most memorable in the history of the prestigious Clive Davis and Academy-hosted event.

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.)

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 CEO of the Recording Academy, stepped down after being accused of raping an unnamed recording artist, according to a blockbuster claim filed on Tuesday by his successor.