As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes how music is created, distributed, and consumed, the stakes for artists have never been higher. That urgency is at the heart of the 2026 GRAMMYS On The Hill, the Recording Academy's signature music advocacy and policy event in Washington, D.C., which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month.
At the GRAMMYS On The Hill Awards, one of the key initiatives of the three-day event, on Tuesday, the Recording Academy will honor congressional honorees Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Rep. María Salazar (R-FL), two lawmakers who have fought tirelessly to advance the music community and the broader creative ecosystem.
At GRAMMYS On The Hill 2026, the Recording Academy will address one of the most pressing issues facing creators today: the impact of artificial intelligence on the music community, an issue both Coons and Salazar have tackled head-on through their leadership and bipartisan work on Capitol Hill.
Ahead of GRAMMYS On The Hill 2026 this week, learn how Sen. Coons and Rep. Salazar are fighting to protect music creators' rights in the AI era.
@grammys AI is reshaping music. The rules need to catch up. As artificial intelligence transforms the music landscape, the Recording Academy is advocating for policies at GRAMMYS On The Hill to ensure human creators are protected, credited, and fairly compensated. It’s critical that effective guardrails are in place to preserve the essence of human creativity.
Rep. María Salazar (R-FL)
Representing Florida's 27th Congressional District, Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar has worked extensively in the AI legislative space, where she's fought for legislation that would create safeguards against AI-generated fakes for U.S. citizens.
In 2024, she introduced the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications (No AI FRAUD) Act, alongside Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA). The bill establishes a federal framework to protect Americans' individual right to their likeness and voice against AI-generated fakes and forgeries. The introduction of the No AI FRAUD Act helped lead the way for the NO FAKES Act.
She was also the original sponsor of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, introduced in 2025, which "prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of individuals, both authentic and computer-generated, and requires certain online platforms to promptly remove such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence."
Salazar was also one of the leaders to reintroduce the NO FAKES Act during GRAMMYS On The Hill Advocacy Day 2025. If passed, the NO FAKES Act would establish the first-ever federal protections for creators' image, voice and likeness and create safeguards to ensure artists' works are not used to train artificial intelligence systems without consent, transparency and appropriate compensation.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE)
A U.S. Senator for more than a decade, Chris Coons is a leading voice on intellectual property and artificial intelligence policy within the Senate. His work has focused on ensuring fair compensation and safety for U.S. citizens.
In 2018, Coons introduced the Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, and Important Contributions to Society (CLASSICS) Act. The CLASSICS Act fixed a loophole in the law and gave copyright protection to sound recordings created before 1972. It became a cornerstone of the Music Modernization Act and was signed into law in 2018.
On the AI front, in 2023, Coons, alongside Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine), introduced the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, which would ban the use of AI to "generate deceptive content falsely depicting federal candidates in political ads with the intent of influencing federal elections.
Coons has also partnered with the Recording Academy to champion and protect the rights of music creators. After introducing the NO FAKES Act in the Senate in 2024, he partnered with Recording Academy leaders and congressional advocates, including fellow 2026 GRAMMYS On The Hill honoree Rep. María Salazar, to reintroduce the NO FAKES Act during GRAMMYS On The Hill Advocacy Day 2025.
@grammys What IS the NO FAKES Act and WHY should you care? Because human creativity isn’t optional. It’s essential, and we need to protect music creators from AI exploitation.
Celebrating Two Music Champions
At its core, the bipartisan advocacy work of both Coons and Salazar is about a simple yet increasingly fragile idea: creators should control their own identity. Their support of the NO FAKES Act, as well as that of the broader coalition behind the bill, would draw a clear boundary by prioritizing:
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Consent: Ensuring creators have the right to approve or reject the use of their voice or likeness
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Compensation: Creating pathways for artists to be paid if their identity is used
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Accountability: Holding bad actors responsible for unauthorized digital replicas
Now, they're tapping into the reach and influence of GRAMMYS On The Hill to drive further change and advance protections for music creators. During GRAMMYS On The Hill Advocacy Day 2026, artists, songwriters, producers, and industry professionals will meet face-to-face with members of Congress to share how policy decisions impact their careers and creative lives.
For Coons and Salazar, that direct connection is essential. It transforms abstract policy into human stories of artists discovering their voice cloned online or creators navigating a legal gray area with little recourse.
It also reinforces something increasingly rare in today's political climate: bipartisan alignment. Protecting creators' rights, particularly in the face of emerging technology, is one of the few areas where lawmakers across the aisle, such as Coons and Salazar, are finding common ground.
That's why the Recording Academy continues to build GRAMMYS On The Hill as more than an event — it's a platform for action. By honoring leaders like Sen. Chris Coons and Rep. María Salazar, who are pushing for meaningful protections, the Academy is reinforcing its role as a leading voice for protecting music creators and their rights in the age of AI.
How To Get Involved
As GRAMMYS On The Hill 2026 gets underway, now is the time to stand with music creators. Reach out to your elected officials and encourage them to support the TRAIN Act, the NO FAKES Act and the CLEAR Act.
Join the conversation: Use our 2026 GRAMMYS On The Hill social media toolkit and post on social media to make your voice heard.
Learn how you can join the effort to support creators throughout the year by visiting our Advocacy page and following our Facebook page.
