Harvey Mason Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the Recording Academy, which oversees the renowned Grammy Award, disclosed how winners are chosen in an online video.
The 66th Grammy Awards were held on Sunday night, February 4th, 2024, at Crypto.com Arena in Downtown Los Angeles, United States.
However, Nigerians fared poorly as none of the country’s nominees, including Davido, Burna Boy, Olamide, Asake, Ayra Starr, and Tems, received any honours.
In an interview circulating online, the CEO of Grammy dished out how winners are selected for the awards.
Harvey underlined that having a vast global audience and selling millions of albums does not guarantee winning the prestigious award.
He asserted that residency in the United States of America and membership in the GRAMMY Academy are requirements for being eligible for an award.
He highlighted that after nominations are received, other members of the Recording Academy vote for their peers.
In his words,
“First you have to understand, that the only way to win a Grammy is to have the Membership of the Academy vote for you,”
“In order to be a member of the Academy you have to be a music professional working in the United States, for now. For now, it’s only in the United States of America, hopefully, we grow then. Right now, if you are a working professional in the USA you can become a member of the Recording Academy
“Once you are a member of the Academy, all the music is submitted the members listen to it and they evaluate it based on the quality of the art not the sales, not the streams not on the followers or how many fans… it is purely on the art.
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“It’s purely on the opinion and as you all know it is very hard because it is subjective. There is no best song, best record it is just the opinion of the Membership in that particular year. That is how you win a Grammy and that is it.
“The voters vote, there is no committee, there is no journalist, no labels just music professionals voting for their peers, period,”
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