LOS ANGELES (TND) — Boygenius singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers rebuked ex-Recording Academy CEO Neil Portnow following the group’s Best Rock Performance Grammy win.
“I have something to say about women,” Bridgers offered, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “The ex-president of The Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, said that if women want to be nominated and win Grammys that they should step up. He’s also being accused of sexual violence. And to him, I’d like to say, ‘I know you’re not dead yet, but when you are, rot in p---.’”
Following the 2018 Grammys, when women took home 17 of the 86 awards, Portnow proposed women who want to work on an executive level for the music industry should make themselves known.
“I think it has to begin with women who have the creativity in their hearts and their souls who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, who want to be producers, who want to be part of the industry on an executive level, to step up,” he told Variety.
Portnow recommended artists take advantage of new platforms allowing them to share their work independent of labels.
“The other thing that’s interesting today in terms of technology is nobody is beholden or stuck in a system where you’ve got just the label as a way to get your music heard. There’s so many opportunities today,” he noted, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “So, if someone’s passionate about it, doesn’t matter what your gender, genre, geography — do it yourself, take it from your heart and put it out there.”
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Portnow's comments drew the ire of industry leaders. Singer Pink argued women have stepped up and aside for men since “the beginning of time.”
“Women in music don’t need to ‘step up,’” Pink said. “When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women and how much women step up every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal and what it looks like to be fair.”
Singer Katy Perry championed Pink’s assessment, noting she was “another powerful woman” leading by example.
“We ALL have a responsibility to call out the absurd lack of equality everywhere we see it,” Perry replied on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I'm proud of ALL the women making incredible art in the face of continual resistance.”
Women earned approximately 14% of Grammy nominations from 2013 to 2023, while men made up 86%, according to Statista.
The 2024 Grammys saw Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and Victoria Monét claim the top four awards.
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