The National Football League sponsored a great prelude to the GRAMMY Awards this year. Yeah, there was the game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. But for us music lovers, it was all about seven-time GRAMMY winner Madonna's halftime performance with LMFAO, M.I.A. and Best New Artist GRAMMY nominee Nicki Minaj (oh, and the commercials, too). Is there a better way to warm up for the 54th GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 12?

Well, we can think of one other: warm-up following all the star-studded events in the week leading up to the GRAMMYs here at GRAMMY.com. We'll have video, photos and play-by-play after each event, and you can join the action each day and night by following @TheGRAMMYs on Twitter, liking "The GRAMMYs" on Facebook, and joining the GRAMMYs' social communities on YouTube, Tumblr, Foursquare, GetGlue, and Instagram. You never know what one of your favorite music stars may say or do.

For now, we'll simply give you a taste of what's to come.

Arguably the highest-profile event this side of the GRAMMY Awards, the Pre-GRAMMY Gala is a private VIP party held in conjunction with music mogul Clive Davis. It hosts the biggest names in entertainment the night before the GRAMMYs. This red carpet rivals the GRAMMYs and the Oscars.

Next on the "how do I get a ticket to that?" list is the MusiCares Foundation's Person of the Year gala, which both raises money for MusiCares, and features a list of stars honoring a music industry giant. This year legendary Beatle Paul McCartney will be honored.

If that's not exactly the tip of the iceberg, there's still plenty of iceberg left.

The GRAMMY Foundation will host several events that will be especially noteworthy this year. The Entertainment Law Initiative Luncheon is an annual event that brings together legal professionals with aspiring law students to discuss hot-button topics in the entertainment law field. This year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek will deliver the keynote address. You can also read our exclusive interview with Ek here.

Similarly, the Foundation's 14th Annual Music Preservation Project, "One Night Only — A Celebration Of The Live Music Experience," will bring in the star power to celebrate the impact of live music performance. Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Bret Michaels, Mavis Staples, Tyrese and others will join co-hosts Sharon Osbourne and Steve Vai, so get your glow sticks and lighter apps eady.

The Foundation also hosts GRAMMY Camp — Basic Training, a one-day educational event that is tailored to give students and aspiring young musicians a taste of what the music industry feels like from the inside. Participants will include GRAMMY-winning producer Warryn Campbell, artists BC Jean and Sarah Darling, and radio personality DJ Skee.

The Academy will also again host the Social Media Rock Stars Summit, a panel discussion featuring some of the prime architects in the field, including Spotify artist-in-residence and Recording Academy member D.A. Wallach as well as GetGlue founder/CEO Alex Iskold, Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher and Turntable.fm CEO Seth Goldstein, among others.

As The Academy continues to focus on minimizing the ecological impact of the GRAMMY Awards, GRAMMY Week will once again feature a greening summit, The Sound Of Social Change, designed to look at how the music industry is taking similar steps.

The Producers & Engineers Wing will present "Moving The Needle," highlighting the career of music producer and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine. Iovine co-founded Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre and has produced artists ranging from Stevie Nicks to U2.

This year, The Academy will also celebrate music's impact on style and fashion with GRAMMY Glam, which will feature a DJ set by GRAMMY winner Erykah Badu. Looking to take your glam game to the next level? Be sure to visit www.grammy.com/glam.

And The Recording Academy also honors legendary music acts and industry figures with its annual Special Merit Awards Ceremony & Nominees Reception, where groundbreaking artists are honored with the Lifetime Achievement, Trustees and Technical GRAMMY Awards. This year's honorees include such luminary artists as the Allman Brothers Band, Glen Campbell and Diana Ross.

It's all capped off by the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, Feb. 12. While tuning in to CBS for the telecast, be sure to log on to GRAMMY.com to follow our liveblog, your ticket to follow the show online and join the conversation. After the show, The Academy celebrates in style with its stunning after-party, the GRAMMY Celebration.

How can you experience GRAMMY Week? By checking in at GRAMMY.com. We'll provide blog coverage, photos, and video. And beginning Friday, Feb. 10, you can get an insider's view into the three days of VIP events leading up to the show with GRAMMY Live, including real-time coverage and highlights and a complete stream of the GRAMMY Pre-Telecast Ceremony.

Come back to GRAMMY.com and experience GRAMMY Week, and don't forget to tune in to the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m. ET/PT.

As expected, much buzz followed the release of Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19. Fans and critics alike have devoured the sprawling double album’s 31 tracks, unpacking her reflections from "a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time" in search of Easter eggs, their new favorite lyrics and references to famous faces (both within the pop supernova’s closely guarded orbit and the historical record). 

Shoutouts abound in The Tortured Poets Department: Charlie Puth gets his much-deserved (and Taylor-approved) flowers on the title track, while 1920s screen siren Clara Bow, the ancient Greek prophetess Cassandra and Peter Pan each get a song titled after them. Post Malone and  Florence + the Machine’s Florence Welch each tap in for memorable duets. Relationships old (Joe Alwyn), new (Travis Kelce) and somewhere in between (1975’s Matty Healy) are alluded to without naming names, as is, possibly, the singer’s reputation-era feud with Kim Kardashian. 

Swift casts a wide net on The Tortured Poets Department, encompassing popular music, literature, mythology and beyond, but it's far from the first time the 14-time GRAMMY winner has worn her influences on her sleeve. While you digest TTPD, consider these 10 figures who have influenced the poet of the hour — from Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith to Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Arya Stark and more.

Stevie Nicks

If Taylor Swift is the chairman of The Tortured Poets Department, Stevie Nicks may as well be considered its poet laureate emeritus. The mystical Fleetwood Mac frontwoman earns an important mention on side A closer "Clara Bow," in which Swift ties an invisible string from herself to a pre-Rumours Nicks ("In ‘75, the hair and lips/ Crowd goes wild at her fingertips"), and all the way back to the 1920s It Girl of the song’s title.

For her part, Nicks seems to approve of her place in Swift’s cultural lineage, considering she penned the poem found inside physical copies of The Tortured Poets Department. "He was in love with her/ Or at least she thought so," the Priestess of Rock and Roll wrote in part, before signing off, "For T — and me…"

Swift’s relationship with Nicks dates back to the 2010 GRAMMYs, when the pair performed a medley of "Rhiannon" and "You Belong With Me" before the then-country upstart took home her first Album Of The Year win for 2009’s Fearless. More recently, the "Edge of Seventeen" singer publicly credited Swift’s Midnights cut "You’re On Your Own, Kid" for helping her through the 2022 death of Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.

Patti Smith

Swift may see herself as more "modern idiot" than modern-day Patti Smith, but that didn’t stop the superstar from name-dropping the icon synonymous with the Hotel Chelsea and punk scene of ‘70s New York on a key track on The Tortured Poets Department. Swift rather self-deprecatingly compares herself to the celebrated Just Kids memoirist (and 2023 Songwriters Hall of Fame nominee) on the double album’s synth-drenched title track, and it’s easy to see how Smith’s lifelong fusion of rock and poetry influenced the younger singer’s dactylic approach to her new album. 

Smith seemed to appreciate the shout-out on "The Tortured Poets Department" as well. "This is saying I was moved to be mentioned in the company of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Thank you Taylor," she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of herself reading Thomas’ 1940 poetry collection Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.

Emily Dickinson

When it comes to iconic poets, Swift has also taken a page or two over her career from Emily Dickinson. While the great 19th century poet hasn’t come up explicitly in Swift’s work, she did reference her poetic forebear (and actual sixth cousin, three times removed!) in her speech while accepting the award for Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the 2022 Nashville Songwriter Awards.

"I’ve never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genre categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics," Swift told the audience before going on to explain, "If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre," she went on to explain.

Even before this glimpse into Swift’s writing process, Easter eggs had been laid pointing to her familial connection to Dickinson. For example, she announced her ninth album evermore on December 10, 2020, which would have been the late poet’s 190th birthday. Another clue that has Swifties convinced? Dickinson’s use of the word "forevermore" in her 1858 poem "One Sister Have I in Our House," which Swift also cleverly breaks apart in Evermore’s Bon Iver-assisted title track ("And I couldn’t be sure/ I had a feeling so peculiar/ That this pain would be for/ Evermore").

The Lake Poets

Swift first put her growing affinity for poetry on display during her folklore era with "the lakes." On the elegiac bonus track, the singer draws a parallel with the Lake Poets of the 19th century, wishing she could escape to "the lakes where all the poets went to die" with her beloved muse in tow. In between fantasizing about "those Windermere peaks" and pining for "auroras and sad prose," she even manages to land a not-so-subtle jab at nemesis Scooter Braun ("I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze/ Tell me what are my words worth") that doubles as clever wordplay on the last name of Lake Poet School members William and Dorothy Wordsworth.

Swift revealed more about why she connected to the Lake Poets in her 2020 Disney+ documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions. "There was a poet district, these artists that moved there. And they were kind of heckled for it and made fun of for it as being these eccentrics and these kind of odd artists who decided that they just wanted to live there," she explained to her trusted producer Jack Antonoff. "So ‘the lakes,’ it kind of is the overarching theme of the whole album: of trying to escape, having something you wanna protect, trying to protect your own sanity and saying, ‘Look, they did this hundreds of years ago. I’m not the first person who’s felt this way.’"

Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney and Swift have publicly praised one another’s work for years, leading to the 2020 Rolling Stone cover they posed for together for the special Musicians on Musicians issue. The younger singer even counts Sir Paul’s daughter Stella McCartney as a close friend and collaborator (Stella designed a capsule collection for Swift’s 2019 studio set Lover and earned a shout-out of her own on album cut "London Boy").

However, Swift took her relationship with the Beatles founder and his family a step further when it was rumored she based Midnights deep cut "Sweet Nothing" on McCartney’s decades-long romance with late wife Linda. While the speculation has never been outright confirmed, it appears Swift’s lyrics in the lilting love song ("On the way home, I wrote a poem/ You say, ‘What a mind’/ This happens all the time") were partially inspired by a strikingly similar quote McCartney once gave about his relationship with Linda, who passed away in 1998. To add to the mystique, the Midnights singer even reportedly liked a tweet from 2022 espousing the theory.  

The admiration between the duo seems to go both ways as well, with the former Beatle admitting in a 2018 BBC profile that the track "Who Cares" from his album Egypt Station was inspired by Swift’s close relationship with her fans.

The Chicks

From her days as a country music ingénue to her ascendance as the reigning mastermind of pop, Swift has credited the Chicks as a seminal influence in her songwriting and career trajectory. (Need examples? Look anywhere from early singles like "Picture to Burn" and "Should’ve Said No" to Evermore’s Haim-assisted murder ballad "no body, no crime" and her own Lover-era collab with the band, "Soon You’ll Get Better.") 

In a 2020 Billboard cover story tied to the Chicks’ eighth album Gaslighter, Swift acknowledged just how much impact the trio made on her growing up. "Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show," she said at the time. "They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness and kitsch can all go together authentically. Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE.’"

"Game of Thrones"

When reputation dropped in 2017, Swift was on a self-imposed media blackout, which meant no cover stories or dishy sit-down interviews on late-night TV during the album’s roll-out. Instead, the singer let reputation speak for itself, and fans were largely left to draw their own conclusions about their queen’s wildly anticipated comeback album. Two years later, though, Swift revealed the dark, vengeful, romantic body of work was largely inspired by "Game of Thrones."

"These songs were half based on what I was going through, but seeing them through a 'Game of Thrones' filter," she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. "My entire outlook on storytelling has been shaped by ["GoT"] — the ability to foreshadow stories, to meticulously craft cryptic story lines. So, I found ways to get more cryptic with information and still be able to share messages with the fans. I aspire to be one one-millionth of the kind of hint dropper the makers of 'Game of Thrones' have been."

Joni Mitchell

Swift has long made her admiration of Joni Mitchell known, dating back to her 2012 album Red, which took a cue from the folk pioneer’s landmark 1971 LP Blue for its chromatic title. In an interview around the time of Red’s release, the country-pop titan gushed over Blue’s impact on her, telling Rhapsody, "[Mitchell] wrote it about her deepest pains and most haunting demons. Songs like ‘River,’ which is just about her regrets and doubts of herself — I think this album is my favorite because it explores somebody’s soul so deeply."

Back in 2015, TIME declared the "Blank Space" singer a "disciple of Mitchell in ways both obvious and subtle" — from her reflective songwriting to the complete ownership over her creative process, and nearly 10 years later, Swift was still showing her appreciation for Mitchell after the latter’s triumphant and emotional appearance on the GRAMMY stage to perform "Both Sides Now" on the very same night Taylor took home her historic fourth GRAMMY for Album Of The Year for Midnights.

Fall Out Boy & Paramore

When releasing the re-recording of her third album Speak Now in 2023, Swift cited two unexpectedly emo acts as inspirations to her early songwriting: Fall Out Boy and Paramore. 

"Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album," she wrote in an Instagram post revealing the back cover and complete tracklist for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which included Fall Out Boy collaboration "Electric Touch" and "Castles Crumbling" featuring Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams.

Tim McGraw

For one of Swift’s original career inspirations, we have to go all the way back to the very first single she ever released. "Tim McGraw" was not only as the lead single off the 16-year-old self-titled 2006 debut album, but it also paid reverent homage to one of the greatest living legends in the history of country music. 

In retrospect, it was an incredibly gutsy risk for a then-unknown Swift to come raring out of the gate with a song named after a country superstar. But the gamble clearly paid off in spades, considering that now, when an entire generation of music fans hear "Tim McGraw," they think of Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' Is A Post-Mortem Autopsy In Song: 5 Takeaways From Her New Album

While in a studio, Andrew Watt bounces off the walls. Just ask Mick Jagger, who once had to gently tell the 33-year-old, "Look, I can deal with this, but when you meet Ronnie and Keith, you have to dial it down a little bit."

Or ask Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard. "He really got the best out of [drummer] Matt [Cameron] just by being excited — literally jumping up and down and pumping his fist and running around," he tells GRAMMY.com.

As Watt's hot streak has burned on, reams have rightly been written about his ability to take a legacy act, reconnect them with their essence, and put a battery in their back. His efficacy can be seen at Music's Biggest Night: Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number 9 won Best Rock Album at the 2023 GRAMMYs. At the last ceremony, the Rolling Stones were nominated for Best Rock Song, for Hackney Diamonds' opener "Angry."

On Pearl Jam's return to form, Dark Matter, due out April 19. Who was behind the desk? Take a wild guess.

"You want to see them live more than you want to listen to their albums, and they have the ability to look at each other and play and follow each other. I don't like my rock music any other way, as a listener," Watt tells GRAMMY.com. "All my favorite records are made like that — of people speeding up, slowing down, playing longer than they should."

As such, Watt had a lightbulb moment: to not record any demos, and have them write together in the room. "They're all playing different stuff, and it makes up what Pearl Jam is, and singer Eddie [Vedder] rides it like a wave."

If you're more of a pop listener, there's tons of Watt for you — he's worked with Justin Bieber ("Hit the Ground" from Purpose), Lana Del Rey ("Doin' Time" from Norman F—ing Rockwell) and much more. Read on for a breakdown of big name rockers who have worked with Andrew Watt.

Pearl Jam / Eddie Vedder

Watt didn't just produce Dark Matter; he also helmed Vedder's well-received third solo album, Earthling, from 2022. Watt plays guitar in Vedder's live backing band, known as the Earthlings — which also includes Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante in the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a stint.

The Rolling Stones

Dark Matter was a comeback for Pearl Jam, but Hackney Diamonds was really a comeback for the Stones. While it had a hater or two, the overwhelming consensus was that it was the Stones' best album in decades — maybe even since 1978's Some Girls.

"I hope what makes it fresh and modern comes down to the way it's mixed, with focus on low end and making sure the drums are big," Watt, who wore a different Stones shirt every day in the studio, has said about Hackney Diamonds. "But the record is recorded like a Stones album."

Where there are modern rock flourishes on Hackney Diamonds, "There's no click tracks. There's no gridding. There's no computer editing," he continued. "This s— is performed live and it speeds up and slows down. It's made to the f—ing heartbeat connection of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Steve Jordan.

"And Charlie," Watt added, tipping a hat to Watts, who played on Hackney Diamonds but died before it came out. "When Charlie's on it."

Iggy Pop

Ever since he first picked up a mic and removed his shirt, the snapping junkyard dog of the Stooges has stayed relevant — as far as indie, alternative and punk music has been concerned.

But aside from bright spots like 2016's Josh Homme-produced Post Pop Depression, his late-career output has felt occasionally indulgent and enervated. The 11 songs on 2023's eclectic Watt-produced Every Loser, on the other hand, slap you in the face in 11 different ways.

"We would jam and make tracks and send them to Iggy, and he would like 'em and write to them or wouldn't like them and we'd do something else," Watt told Billboard. "It was very low pressure. We just kept making music until we felt like we had an album." (And as with Pearl Jam and Vedder's Earthlings band, Watt has rocked out onstage with Pop.

Ozzy Osbourne

You dropped your crown, O Prince of Darkness. When he hooked up with Watt, the original Black Sabbath frontman hadn't released any solo music since 2010's Scream; in 2017, Sabbath finally said goodbye after 49 years and 10 (!) singers.

On 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9, Watt reenergized Ozzy; even when he sounds his age, Ozz sounds resolute, defiant, spitting in the face of the Reaper. (A bittersweet aside: the late Taylor Hawkins appears on Patient Number 9, which was written and recorded in just four days.)

Maroon 5

Yeah, yeah, they're more of a pop-rock band, but they have guitars, bass and drums. (And if you're the type of rock fan who's neutral or hostile to the 5, you shouldn't be; Songs About Jane slaps.)

At any rate, Watt co-produced "Can't Leave You Alone," featuring Juice WRLD, from 2021's Jordi. Critics disparaged the album, but showed Watt's facility straddling the pop and rock worlds.

5 Seconds of Summer

When it comes to Andrew Watt, the Sydney pop-rockers — slightly more on the rock end than Maroon 5 and their ilk — are repeat customers. He produced a number of tracks for 5 Seconds of Summer, which spanned 2018's Youngblood, 2020's Calm and 2022's 5SOS5.

Regarding the former: Watt has cited Youngblood as one of the defining recording experiences of his life.

"I had started working with 5 Seconds of Summer, and a lot of people looked at them as a boy band, but they're not," Watt told Guitar Player. "They're all incredible musicians. They can all play every instrument. They love rock music. They can harmonize like skyrockets in flight. They just were making the wrong kind of music."

So Watt showed 5 Seconds of Summer a number of mainstays of the rock era, like Tears for Fears and the Police. The rest, as they say, is history.

Elton John

A year after Britney Spears was unshackled from her highly controversial conservatorship, it was time for a victory lap with the God of Glitter. What resulted was a curious little bauble, which became a megahit: "Hold Me Closer," a spin on "Tiny Dancer," "The One" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that briefly launched Spears back into the stratosphere.

"Britney came in and she knew what she wanted to do," Watt recalled to The L.A. Times. "We sped up the song a little bit and she sang the verses in her falsetto, which harkens back to 'Toxic.' She was having a blast."

Blink-182

Watt has also worked with pop/punk heroes Blink-182 — but not after Tom DeLonge made his grand return. He produced "I Really Wish I Hated You" from 2019's Nine, back when Matt Skiba was in the band.

Where in the rock world will this tender-aged superproducer strike next? Watt knows.

Songbook: The Rolling Stones' Seven-Decade Journey To Hackney Diamonds

Artists on the rise got their metaphorical flowers on Feb. 1, when GRAMMY House played host to the Beats & Blooms Emerging Artist Showcase. The performance-heavy event was produced in conjunction with PEOPLE and Sephora and hosted by comedian Matt Friend.

Some took the floral theme quite literally — like Texas rapper and singer Teezo Touchdown, who took to the stage clasping a giant flower bouquet, his microphone tucked somewhere inside. With his crisp white leather jacket and white gloves, Teezo looked fresh as he performed tracks from his recently released debut album, How Do You Sleep at Night? It wasn't hard to see how late legends like Prince and Rick James have influenced his artistry, and the audience appreciated his fly sartorial style.

Another dynamic performance came from Cocoa Sarai, a Jamaican-American singer/songwriter who has worked with artists such as Dr. Dre and Anderson .Paak (the latter of whom helped Sarai earn a GRAMMY in 2020 for her work on his Best R&B Album-winning project, Ventura). The Brooklyn-born artist — who is part of the new Music Artist Accelerator initiative presented by MasterCard, GRAMMY House’s primary sponsor — delivered an impactful set that included her bird-flipping anthem "Bigger Person" and was assisted by a great beatboxer named Fahz.

As many attendees got glammed up at Sephora's makeup station, the event co-sponsor also presented one of the night's performers. Sephora Sounds highlighted twin sisters Inah and Yahzi of the viral group Ain't Afraid, whose energetic performance hit home. During their charismatic set, which featured the sisters both singing and rapping, the pair told the crowd that their lighthearted stage presence is a way to turn some of their trauma into positive art.

Inah and Yahzi weren't the only sibling duo to take the stage at Beats & Blooms. Brandon and Savannah Hudson — aka BETWEEN FRIENDS — first got national attention as quarter-finalists on "America's Got Talent" in 2013, and have since racked up millions of monthly plays on Spotify for what they like to call "laptop dream pop". BETWEEN FRIENDS performed songs from their 2023 album, I Love My Girl, She's My Boy.

Tiana Major9 closed out the event with an exciting performance that featured a song debut and a sing-along. After premiering a new track called "Braids," the Motown artist got everyone to join together for an exquisite cover of Faith Evans' smoldering "Soon As I Get Home". 

GRAMMY House's three days of events are a place for a diverse array of music industry professionals, musicians and social creators to immerse in the pulse of culture, take the torch and carry it forward — and Beats & Blooms was a powerful example of just that.

The Rise Of Ice Spice: How The "Barbie World" Rapper Turned Viral Moments Into A Full-On Franchise

It was at a rollicking Guns N Roses concert in Philadelphia in the late 1980s when Michelle Jubelirer, the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Capitol Music Group, first knew she wanted to forge her life in music. 

"They were my first real concert and I can still remember and feel that excitement and energy emanating from the stage and absolutely ripping through the crowd," Jubelirer, the keynote speaker at Friday's Entertainment Law Initiative, said. "20,000 people and five performers, all together as one. That visceral feeling is difficult to convey into words, but the rush never left me and I’m always looking for even a glimmer of that feeling."

Jubelirer was speaking to a like-minded group of superstars of their craft, who had gathered in a lush ballroom at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel days before the 2024 GRAMMYs. Affectionately referred to by one attendee as "lawyer prom," the Entertainment Law Initiative was a chance for the bold-faced names of the industry from a disparate array of labels and companies, to toast each other and their essential craft, an all-important and sometimes unsung cog in the music industry machine. 

At the event, Jubelierer, who has helped guide the careers of artists ranging from Best New Artist GRAMMY nominees Ice Spice and Troye Sivan to Sam Smith, reflected on her long path to chasing that "Guns N Roses feeling." And while her current position has her at the helm of Capitol Records, she built her career on a foundation of law. 

Raised by a single mother in rural Pennsylvania, she followed in the footsteps of her late father and entered law school. "I had zero connections in music or entertainment," she explained.  "I cold-called (the entertainment law giant) Alan Grubman to ask for advice, he said to get a job at the best law firm I could."

Eventually, Jubelirer spoke of becoming an attorney for SONY Music and later, the first woman to run Capitol Records in its nearly century-long history. "I only wish such a gender-based fact was not worth mentioning, our business would be in a much better place," she said to applause. "I want to lift the next generation of female artists, executives and attorneys." 

2024 ELI Writing Contest winner Olivia Fortunato (center) receives her scholarship award from ELI Executive Committee member Stephanie Yu and 2023 winner Aron Lichtschein┃Alberto Rodriguez

Being a fierce advocate for the people one believes in was a recurring theme.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. who opened up the proceedings by noting, "Just before I got here, I was testifying to the House Judiciary committee to pass legislation to protect artists' name, likeness and voice," he said. "We ask everyone to engage with your clients and push them to understand why this issue affects them, and to use their voices to make change happen."

Julie Greenwald, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Music Group, also feted Michale Kushner, the EVP of Business and Legal Affairs and General Council, this year’s recipient of the Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award. 

"It has not only been a pleasure but an honor, you have been our moral compass," Greenwald said before a video rolled of some of the music industry’s most important names, from Atlantic Co-Chairperson Craig Kallman to executive Jason Flom, musing about the impact Kushner made on all of their lives and careers. "There is not a fairer human being and no bigger advocate for artists than Michael Kushner."

"The record company lawyers who entered the music business in the 80s and survived into the today are truly fortunate," said Kushner in his acceptance speech. "We were witness to the joys of CD boom, file sharing and then industry’s return to growth with the arrival of streaming. We had to think about new ways to approach the business, but it didn't change the fundamental reason why we want to be in the business: we still believe in the magic and power of music."

It’s that power of music that Jubelirer was referring to. "But for the artists in the music business, it’s not a coincidence that the ones who are adept at the business side of things [are the ones who have the most success]," she noted. "And giving them Don Passman’s book is not enough," Jubelirer stated, alluding to the author’s legendary tome All You Need to Know About the Music Business.

"Career-wise, we are nothing without artists and anyone who thinks otherwise is either delusional, egomaniacal or both," said Jubelirer. "I hope it's clear, every moment of every day is all about artists and fulfilling my promises to them."

Jubelirer also shared with attendees a promise she made with herself upon joining Capitol: "The day I stop changing the record company more than it was changing me, would be the day I’d walk away," she said, adding that she regularly evaluates her purpose.   

"I am keenly aware that the role I play in an artist's career can have impactful and long lasting  effects. I feel immense responsibility and gratitude to the talented human beings who have trusted me to such a degree," she continued.

But for Jubelirer, it naturally always goes back to that aforementioned Guns N Roses feeling. "No matter where I find myself in this business, I will always approach my relationships with artists as an advocate, protector and fan."

2024 GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominees List