Grammys President Responds to Backlash After Saying Women Need to “Step Up”

According to THR, Recording Academy president and CEO Neil Portnow has issued a statement about controversial comments he made to Variety, in which he said women need “to step up” after Sunday’s male-dominated Grammy Award winners.

Portnow told THR:

Last night, I was asked a question about the lack of female artist representation in certain categories of this year’s Grammy Awards. Regrettably, I used two words, ‘step up,’ that, when taken out of context, do not convey my beliefs and the point I was trying to make. Our industry must recognize that women who dream of careers in music face barriers that men have never faced. We must actively work to eliminate these barriers and encourage women to live their dreams and express their passion and creativity through music. We must welcome, mentor and empower them. Our community will be richer for it. I regret that I wasn’t as articulate as I should have been in conveying this thought. I remain committed to doing everything I can to make our music community a better, safer, and more representative place for everyone.

All of the televised awards on Sunday went to men, except Alessia Cara, who won Best New Artist, and only 11 of the total 84 awards went to women. There was also notable backlash after Lorde was the only Album Of The Year nominee who was not asked to perform at the awards show and SZA, one of the year’s most critically acclaimed artists, was shut out from all five awards she was nominated for.

Read Paste’s take on this year’s Grammy Awards here and for some light-hearted relief, check out the funniest tweets about this year’s Grammys here.