This morning, many of the world's best music creators woke up to some life-changing news: a GRAMMY nomination. For Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow, the results were equally exciting.
"I was very pleased," Portnow told Billboard, calling the nominations "a wonderful reflection on our organization and how relevant and in touch and savvy our voting members are."
Indeed, the nominations for the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards represent the wide range of today's musical landscape, partially as a result of the Recording Academy's continued efforts to diversify its membership.
"We have taken a concerted effort to making sure that the voting membership of the Academy is representative of the creative community," Portnow says. "We've got 84 categories. Are we well-represented with membership from all of them? Are we engaging them? Are they participating? We look at that regularly and to the extent that we find there are areas that need more attention, we'll do that."
One clear example of the multicultural and genre-diverse nature of this year's noms is the first-ever dual Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year nomination going towards a predominantly Spanish-language song; namely, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber.
"It's a reflection of the times, something we're very proud of," says Portnow. "I would say that we have to be careful in the sense that [the nominations] didn't happen solely because of its enormous popularity and acceptance. That's undeniable, but through the lens of our folks who listen to that record as a musician or a producer and listen to all those elements that got fused together and the production elements, the instrumentation and the diversity there, from a craft standpoint, it's an extraordinary record."
Be sure to tune in to the 60th GRAMMY Awards on Jan. 28, 2018, broadcast live on CBS from Madison Square Garden in New York. The 60th GRAMMY Awards telecast will air from 7:30–11 p.m. ET/4:30–8 p.m. PT.
