Awards
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The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has approved new requirements for Oscar eligibility in the best picture category. The new requirements, announced Wednesday (June 21), are designed to to broaden the public theatrical exhibition criteria. They take effect with the 97th Academy Awards, which will be presented in […]
From an NCAA women’s national championship, to a Cardi B lyrical shout-out and Latto music video cameo, and now a 2023 ESPY Award nomination — LSU’s Angel Reese is having an unstoppable year.
Reese is among the newly announced 2023 nominees for ESPN’s ESPY Awards, nabbing a best breakthrough athlete nod for her starmaking turn leading the Louisiana State University women’s basketball team to the college title this past spring. And the championship was just the beginning: Reese recently made a cameo in Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor Again” music video, in which featured act Cardi B raps, “I been ballin’ so damn hard could’ve went to LSU.”
Reese will once again face off against Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark, her NCAA finals foe, in the best breakthrough athlete category, as well as the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy and the Seattle Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez. (In addition to the individual nom, Reese’s Louisiana State Tigers are also up for best team at the awards show.)
In the top two fields, Nikola Jokić of reigning NBA champs the Denver Nuggets will compete against New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Argentinean soccer superstar Lionel Messi for the best athlete, men’s sports prize; while the best athlete, women’s sports category is between Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin, Portland Thorns soccer star Sophia Smith, Polish tennis champ Iga Świątek, and Las Vegas Aces WNBA player A’ja Wilson.
The 2023 ESPYs will broadcast live on Wednesday, July 12, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC from Los Angeles. Recipients of the ESPYs’ three pillar awards — the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, and the Pat Tillman Award for Service — will be announced next week.
BEST ATHLETE, MEN’S SPORTSNikola Jokić, Denver NuggetsAaron Judge, New York YankeesPatrick Mahomes, Kansas City ChiefsLionel Messi, Argentina
BEST ATHLETE, WOMEN’S SPORTSMikaela Shiffrin, SkiSophia Smith, Portland ThornsIga Świątek, TennisA’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
BEST BREAKTHROUGH ATHLETECaitlin Clark, Iowa Women’s BasketballBrock Purdy, San Francisco 49ersAngel Reese, LSU Women’s BasketballJulio Rodríguez, Seattle Mariners
BEST RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCE–Novak Djokovic wins his 23rd Grand Slam title, defeating Casper Ruud in the French Open final. Breaking a tie with rival Rafael Nadal for the most major singles trophies in the history of men’s tennis, which dates to the 1800s–LeBron James surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for NBA career scoring record–Mikaela Shiffrin breaks the record for the most World Cup victories with her 87th win–Max Verstappen wins the Mexican Grand Prix, breaking the record for most wins in a season
BEST CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCE–Leon Edwards, UFC – defeats Kamaru Usman by 5th-round KO to win UFC welterweight title, handing Usman his first UFC loss–Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets – 2023 NBA Finals MVP–Lionel Messi, Argentina – 2022 World Cup Final – scored 2 goals and scored in the penalty shootout to win Man of the Match and he won the Golden Ball as FIFA’s best player of the tournament–Rose Zhang, LPGA – defeated Jennifer Kupcho in a two-hole sudden death playoff, making history by winning by becoming the first woman in 72 years to win her first professional start.
BEST COMEBACK ATHLETE–Jon Jones, UFC – Jones’ first fight in the UFC since 2020. He was last seen in action against Dominick Reyes, where he defended his light-heavyweight championship at UFC 247. While Jon Jones was plotting a move to the heavyweight division, he and the UFC president did not see eye-to-eye over fighter pay. Jones felt that he needed to be paid more for a move up to the heavyweight division, which resulted in him delaying his return.–Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets – Murray missed the entirety of last season due to a torn ACL in his left knee. He suffered the injury in a game against the Golden State Warriors on April 12, 2021, and didn’t play in the 18 months since then.–Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Sun – 2022 WNBA Comeback Player of the Year. Thomas missed all but six games last season while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. The eight-year veteran has started all 36 of Connecticut’s games in 2022, and was an All- Star earlier this season. She leads the team in assists (6.1), steals (1.7) and minutes played (32.1).–Justin Verlander, Current New York Mets / Houston Astros – 2022 NL Comeback Player of the Year, after being limited to only six innings in 2020 and missing the entire ’21 season due to Tommy John surgery, the Astros’ ace returned this season to go 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA — the lowest by any AL pitcher since Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 ERA in 2000.
BEST PLAYMichael Block Hole-in-One! GOLFJustin Jefferson with the Catch of the Century NFLAlly Lemos with the perfect corner to tie the National Championship game NCAATrinity Thomas Perfect 10 Tying the All-Time NCAA Record NCAA
BEST TEAMDenver Nuggets, NBAGeorgia Bulldogs, NCAA FootballKansas City Chiefs, NFLLas Vegas Aces, WNBALouisiana State Tigers, NCAA Women’s BasketballOklahoma Sooners, NCAA SoftballVegas Golden Knights, NHL
BEST COLLEGE ATHLETE, MEN’S SPORTSZach Edey, Purdue Men’s BasketballDuncan McGuire, Creighton SoccerBrennan O’Neill, Duke LacrosseCaleb Williams, USC Football
BEST COLLEGE ATHLETE, WOMEN’S SPORTSJordy Bahl, Oklahoma SoftballCaitlin Clark, Iowa Women’s BasketballIzzy Scane, Northwestern LacrosseTrinity Thomas, Florida Gators Gymnastics
BEST ATHLETE WITH A DISABILITYErica McKee, Sled Hockey TeamZach Miller, SnowboardingAaron Pike, Wheelchair Racing & Cross-Country SkiingSusannah Scaroni, Wheelchair Racing
BEST NFL PLAYERNick Bosa, San Francisco 49ersJalen Hurts, Philadelphia EaglesJustin Jefferson, Minnesota VikingsPatrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
BEST MLB PLAYERPaul Goldschmidt, St. Louis CardinalsAaron Judge, New York YankeesShohei Ohtani, Los Angeles AngelsJustin Verlander, Houston Astros
BEST NHL PLAYERJonathan Marchessault, Vegas Golden KnightsConnor McDavid, Edmonton OilersDavid Pastrňák, Boston BruinsLinus Ullmark, Boston Bruins
BEST NBA PLAYERJimmy Butler, Miami HeatJoel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ersNikola Jokić, Denver NuggetsJayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
BEST WNBA PLAYERSkylar Diggins-Smith, Phoenix MercuryCandace Parker, Chicago Sky (Current Las Vegas Aces)Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm (Current New York Liberty)A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
BEST DRIVERBrittany Force, NHRAKyle Larson, NASCARJosef Newgarden, IndyCarMax Verstappen, F1
BEST UFC FIGHTERLeon EdwardsJon JonesIslam MakhachevAmanda Nunes
BEST BOXERGervonta DavisDevin HaneyClaressa ShieldsShakur Stevenson
BEST SOCCER PLAYERAitana Bonmatí, Spain/BarcelonaErling Haaland, Norway/Manchester CityLionel Messi, Argentina/PSGSophia Smith, USWNT/Portland Thorns
BEST GOLFERWyndham ClarkNelly KordaJon RahmScottie Scheffler
BEST TENNIS PLAYERCarlos AlcarazNovak DjokovicAryna SabalenkaIga Świątek
The Recording Academy sent invitations to more than 2,800 new voting members on Wednesday (June 21). That’s more than the 2,000 invitations to new voting members it sent out last year. Of those, nearly 1,300 invitees accepted, according to the Academy. This is having a major impact on the composition of the Academy, which has more than 11,000 total voting members.
To participate in the entire 66th Annual Grammy Awards process, invitees must accept their invitations by July 14.
In addition, the Academy sent invitations to more than 850 professional (non-voting) members today. This is also more than last year, when it sent invitations to more than 600 professional members, of whom more than 500 accepted, according to the Academy.
The Academy currently has more than 2,700 professional members.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. today sent an email to all members of the Academy saying: “Members are the foundation of the Recording Academy. And today, we’re privileged to extend invitations to a remarkable group of close to 3,700 creators and professionals spanning various genres, crafts, backgrounds, and regions to join our mission to cultivate a more enriching world for creators.”
Today at 11 a.m. PT, the Academy is hosting an Instagram Live with selected members of this year’s new class. They include Tony winner and Grammy nominee Myles Frost (MJ: The Musical), Emmy nominee Chrissy Metz (This Is Us) and rapper Rap-Unzel, who got her big break in 2017 when she competed on Jermaine Dupri’s reality TV series The Rap Game. The session will be moderated by Ashley Thomas, the Academy’s senior director of member outreach & systems.
In a recent video which was posted in the Academy’s site, Mason shed light on the fairly recent practice of actively reaching out to prospective new members rather than waiting for them to approach the Academy, which was the way it used to work.
“As of three years ago, we started going out into genres, into communities and saying ‘We need more banjo players, we need more rap artists, we need more women, we need more people of this genre’ and we started inviting people in. That’s how we started to change our membership. We’ve still got a long way to go. That’s how we’re going to get better results.”
The Academy will release data about the demographic breakdown of this year’s class of new inductees after the enrollment period ends on July 14.
It’s a gloriously sunny afternoon in June, and Elton John, sharply dressed in a salmon-pink pinstripe suit bedazzled with his name, is hobnobbing with his longtime band, his crew and his tour promoters in the garden of his elegant, expansive estate in Windsor, just 15 shows away from the end of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour that began five years ago.
But this isn’t just another pre-show soiree: it’s a special gathering organized by AEG’s chairman/CEO Jay Marciano to celebrate some historic chart milestones that Elton and his band have recently set.
The first is that the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed more than $887 million and sold 5.7 million tickets, with over 300 shows in 20 countries, becoming the top-grossing tour of all time, according to Billboard Boxscore.
The second is that Elton John has become the highest-grossing solo artist and top ticket-selling solo artist ever, grossing nearly $2 billion and selling over 20 million tickets since Billboard Boxscore started tracking data 40 years ago.
“When I started out, I just wanted to play music…I didn’t set out to have the highest-grossing tour of all time,” John told the crowd as he accepted the two awards from Billboard’s editorial director, Hannah Karp, and Billboard’s evp of charts and data partnerships, Silvio Pietroluongo. “Ed Sheeran will be very upset,” the Rocketman added drily, tipping to the fact that his tour surpassed the previous Billboard Boxscore record set by his pal and mentee’s Divide Tour.
John’s generosity extends well beyond inviting everyone to a garden gathering at his home with husband and manager David Furnish. He lauds the many behind-the-scenes players who made the record-setting trek possible, from Marciano to tour director Keith Bradley to longtime agent Howard Rose. And he insists on a standing ovation for head chef Tony Liddell, declaring that the “food on this tour has been the best food ever” in his half century-plus of globetrotting. The audience, which includes tattooed guitar techs, chic designers and some neatly dressed business folk, seems to heartily agree, at least judging by the thunderous clapping.
And, of course, his band – Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Matt Bissonette, John Mahon, Kim Bullard and Ray Cooper – get their fair share of props, in addition to receiving their own sleek, individualized awards for being part of the top-grossing tour in Billboard Boxscore history. His longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin, is also given an award for his contributions to John’s achievements.
“It’s quite a wonderful thing to see people rewarded and to see the band get the plaques as well. I couldn’t have done it without the band. They so deserve this,” John says. “I have the best crew and the best band in the world – and that means you, Bruce Springsteen,” he adds with a wink.
Silvio Pietroluongo, Elton John and Hannah Karp
Ben Gibson
The rock icon also had kind words for Billboard, of which he’s remained an avid reader for decades. “Billboard, you know you’re my bible,” he says to Karp and Pietroluongo, also hailing Billboard’s executive editor Melinda Newman – whom he’s been interviewed by numerous times over the years – as a “great person.”
When Sir Elton takes his seat, Marciano assumes the role of emcee with relish (earlier in the show, he quipped, “you never give the concert promoter the mic – now it’s too late”). Marciano surprises John with a lush commemorative tour book that everyone who worked on the trek will receive (“no eBay!” John jokes to his band and crew) before Marciano announces, “And there’s more.” Sir Elton cuts in: “Are you gonna tell them I’m gay now? Sh-t.”
After hailing Furnish as the man with the “master plan of the tour” who overdelivered on his commitments (“I wish there were more like you”), Marciano announces he’s holding a $1 million check for the Elton John AIDS Foundation from Phil Anschutz, Jay Marciano and AEG Presents.
Ben Gibson
Following that, prizes are doled out – because what is a garden party if there aren’t prizes? And these ones were worth their weight in gold, quite literally. In the vein of the famed yellow brick road, gold bricks — custom designed by Dominic Jones, whose jewelry has been worn by everyone from Amy Winehouse to Beyoncé — were handed out as trivia rewards (each one was made of sustainable gold and minted by the Royal Mint). Earlier in the afternoon, while noshing and mingling, crew members were invited to answer a variety of EJ-related questions on digital kiosks. “How many shows has Elton John played in London over the years?”; “How many notes does Elton play on the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour?”; “What does the DC stand for in DC Parmet?” [Parmet is John’s longtime tour manager]. The answers: 177, 82,500 and… well, perhaps it stands for “Deeply Confidential.” While someone got a prize for the most creative answer, Parmet teased that maybe, just maybe, the truth of that mystery will be unveiled on July 8, when the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour rolls into Sweden for its final show.
“Most remarkable of all to us at Billboard, even as [Elton John] moves such massive, record-setting audiences from the stage, is the support and mentorship and love that he’s given so many people in his life on the most personal of levels,” said Billboard’s Karp. “Billboard doesn’t have a chart to track such data, yet. But if we did, we’re pretty certain he’d be at the top of that one, too.”
When Nicki Minaj first took home the BET Award for best female hip-hop artist, the 2010s had just begun, Barack Obama was enjoying the halfway point of his presidential term, and the Queens rapper was mere months away from unleashing Pink Friday, her much-anticipated debut studio album, upon the world.
The 2010 race was Minaj’s to lose; her fellow nominees — while all talented in their own rights — simply could not match the “Bedrock” breakout star’s momentum. Ester Dean, an instrumental collaborator on Minaj’s 2011 hit “Super Bass,” could only boast the Chris Brown-featuring “Drop It Low” as her sole single as a lead artist going into the June 2010 ceremony. Lil’ Kim, who picked up three prior nominations in this category between 2001 and 2006, had not released a studio album in five years, due to her finishing out her prison sentence. Rasheeda was coming off her first Billboard 200-charting album, Certified Hot Chick (No. 89), but she was nowhere near the burgeoning crossover sensation that Minaj was at the time. Finally, Trina headed into the race off the strength of her No. 13-peaking Amazin’ album, and she had not placed a single as a lead artist on the Hot 100 in half a decade. Minaj, who was riding high on massively successful singles like Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” and her own “Your Love,” was the inevitable victor.
Nicki Minaj’s 2010 best female hip-hop artist victory was the beginning of seven consecutive years of domination. While she faced formidable opponents in some of those years (Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea, Young M.A., and DeJ Loaf among them), Minaj just as often faced competitors that were laughably out of her league in terms of commercial and cultural impact. Take her 2011 victory against “B.B. (Boss Bitch)” rapper LoLa Monroe, or her triumph the following year over “Shake It to the Ground” rapper Rye Rye. Nicki’s victories became so predictable that her “fake surprised” reactions to her wins became a running jokeon social media.
Even before Nicki’s streak began, however, the best female hip-hop artist category was in something of a drought. The category was suspended for the 2007 ceremony, and the 2009 ceremony boasted just three nominees in the category. In the years following her streak, Minaj remained a fixture in the category, but faced heartier competition from the likes of Remy Ma (who won in 2017), Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion (both of whom have bested Minaj twice in the past five years).
This year’s lineup, which features seven of the most successful and defining women in contemporary hip-hop — the largest number of nominees the category has seen in its 22-year existence — is a far cry from the uneven playing field of 2010. In fact, it is a lineup where, for the first time in some years, every nominee is a genuinely plausible winner. Comprised of Minaj, Cardi B, Coi Leray, Ice Spice, GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion and Latto, this year’s best female hip-hop artist lineup boasts a rising generation of female rap talent, as well as the two now-iconic artists who helped paved the way for them.
The bulk of this year’s nominees are the progeny of a combination of Minaj’s Top 40 navigation skills and Cardi B’s social media savvy, making them worthy competitors to the two previous victors. Moreover, this year’s lineup reveals the ways in which hip-hop’s emphasis on regionality has helped bolster the simultaneous sustained mainstream success of multiple female rappers, after so many years where a single artist towered over the conversation, for better or for worse.
Ahead of this Sunday’s BET Awards, Billboard breaks down the resumes of this historic group of best female hip-hop artist nominees and their respective cases for taking home this award.
GloRilla
Image Credit: Aviva Klein
Dr. Dre, the trailblazing hip-hop hitmaker, will blaze a new trail at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, where he will receive the very first ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award.
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Announced today (June 20), Dre will be honored at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards Celebration of 50 Years of Hip-Hop, set to take place in his hometown, Los Angeles on Thursday, June 22.
“Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking early work laid a foundation for hip-hop as we know it today. As a champion for some of today’s biggest artists and a successful entrepreneur, he changed the culture around hip-hop,” comments ASCAP chairman of the board and president Paul Williams.
The award is presented to ASCAP members whose musical contributions have made an indelible impact on the art and culture of hip-hop. Currently, ASCAP’s membership includes 920,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.
Dre “continues to be a pivotal figure in the music industry,” adds Williams, “and we are thrilled to recognize him with the inaugural ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon Award as we mark 50 years of hip-hop.”
In the electrifying world of hip-hop, which this year celebrates its half-century and is now recognized as the U.S. market share leader, Dre has done it all.
A founding member of Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees N.W.A, Dre is recognized as one of the genre’s pre-eminent producers, as well as a rapper and songwriter who has worked with some of the most iconic R&B and hip-hop artists of all time, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 2Pac, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.
After changing the game with seminal gangsta rap outfit N.W.A in the 1980s, Dre released his first solo album, The Chronic, in 1992, a classic that’s regarded as one of hip-hop’s finest and a beacon for the West Coast G-Funk movement.
His three studio albums, which include 2001 and Compton, have amassed some 20 million album consumption units.
Dre also established Aftermath Entertainment, his own imprint through Interscope, through which he would sign Eminem, 50 Cent, Lamar and Anderson .Paak, among others.
In 2006, Dre co-founded Beats Electronics alongside Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine. Later, in 2014, the business evolved with a streaming service, Beats Audio, and was subsequently acquired by Apple for upwards of $3 billion, turning Dre into hip-hop’s first billionaire.
N.W.A was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2016, a year after the Straight Outta Compton biopic hit theaters around the globe. In February 2022, another career highlight when Dre teamed up with Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent for the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.
Grammy Award-winner DJ Kid Capri will provide the music on ASCAP’s big night, organizers say. Visit ASCAP for more.
These six radio mainstays have all earned iHeartRadio Titanium Awards for their songs that reached 1 billion spins across iHeart stations in 2022, Billboard can exclusively reveal. iHeartMedia revealed the Titanium Award-winning songs on Tuesday (June 20), including Doja Cat‘s “Woman,” Ed Sheeran‘s “Shivers,” Jack Harlow‘s “First Class,” Latto‘s “Big Energy” and Wizkid and Tems‘ “Essence.” Sheeran was honored with his award while visiting iHeartRadio in New York recently. “Wowzas,” the 32-year-old […]
Two years ago, the Recording Academy made headlines when it disbanded its controversial “nominations review committees.” So, you may be surprised to learn that in 16 of the 94 categories on the 2024 ballot, committees will still determine the final nominees.
What’s going on here? These are “craft committees,” not “nominations review committees” – though they function in the same way. Typically, these committees are presented with a list of the top 30 choices by rank-and-file voting members. They may choose any five entries they wish from that list. Those become the nominees.
In fact, the Academy is moving two more categories – best music film and best music video – under the umbrella of “craft committees” for the upcoming 66th Annual Grammy Awards. Previously, the nominees in these two categories were determined by rank-and-file voters.
In a Recording Academy-sponsored video released last week, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. explained to rapper Cordae how and why the Academy disbanded its nominations review committees. But in so doing, he left the impression that all committees were a thing of the past, which is not the case.
Here’s what Mason told Cordae: “But as of two years ago, we removed all committees so there are no committees making any decisions. The Academy and the Grammy body is not making any decisions. The voters – 13,000 – vote. The top five-eight-10 vote getters, depending on the category, are considered the nominees. That short list goes back to the same voters. They vote and the top vote-getter wins. Period. Point blank. No other interference. No other effects taking place.”
Mason was likely drawing a distinction in his own mind between “nominations review committees” and “craft committees.” But few outside of the Academy grasp the difference.
(Another point: There are no more categories with 10 nominees. The Academy dropped the number of nominees in each of its Big Four categories to eight. This video may have been taped before that rule tweak took place.)
Earlier this week, Mason shared with Billboard the reason for having craft committees determine the nominees for producer of the year, non-classical and songwriter of the year, non-classical. “The reason craft committees are still employed here is because these nominations are really based on large bodies of work. Anything else in the process is really about a song or a record or a performance and we feel the voters can spend the time to listen to that song/performance and evaluate it. [But here] in order to make sure we’re getting this right, the idea of the craft committee spending the hours and hours it takes to listen to just one potential nominee’s material is worth it to make sure we get it right.”
According to the Academy, all members of craft committees must be voting members of the Academy in the membership class which corresponds to the craft they are being submitted to judge. All must have filled out a documentation form listing six tracks or albums for which they have a credit corresponding to the craft they are being submitted to judge. The credits must be for recordings released in the previous five years.
Committee members may serve a maximum of eight consecutive years. At least 25% of each committee must turn over from the previous year’s committee.
Here are the 16 categories on the 2024 Grammy ballot where the nominees will be determined by craft committees. The first frame lists categories where the committee draws from lists of the voters’ top 30 choices. The second frame lists categories where the committee chooses the nominees without any voter involvement. In both cases, the categories are listed in the order they appear on the Grammy ballot.
Committees Choose the Final Nominees Drawn from Voters’ Top 30 Picks in These 10 Categories:
The Recording Academy is dropping the number of fields on the Grammy ballot from 26 to 11 in an effort to give voters more flexibility in their voting. All Grammy voters can vote in the General Field, which has long consisted of record, album and song of the year, plus best new artist. As of […]
A track and singles category that includes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent. Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro fusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres.
Previously, such performances competed for best global music performance, a category that will continue, albeit without African music performances.
Told that some critics have said that one category isn’t enough for an entire continent, Mason responds, “I don’t disagree. It’s a starting point, though. It’s a way for us to celebrate music that’s coming from that continent which is really impressive.”
The larger significance of this new award is that it shows that the Academy, which was founded and long known as the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, is taking a more international view.
“It’s an acknowledgment that music is coming from many different places and that we as an Academy are going to have to make some changes to what we’re doing to make sure we’re honoring it,” Mason says. “It’s not just about Western music. It’s not just about what happens in the U.S. at this point. It’s beyond that. It’s what’s happening around the world. You’ll see us in the future listening and going to different countries. I went to Africa three times in the last year, traveling the world to understand what’s happening, what’s next in music, where are music pockets bubbling, where is the next scene that’s going to explode globally. What does it mean to have borderless music? This is a step in that direction.”