grammy museum
Republic Records will be the label honoree at the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame Gala, which will take place on Friday, May 16 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. John Mellencamp and Conan Gray are set to perform at the event to lead the tribute. Atlantic Records was the initial label honoree […]
Country Music Foundation, Inc., Soulsville Foundation, International Bluegrass Music Association, Louisiana Folk Roots and the Memphis Listening Lab are among 15 organizations or individuals that were chosen to receive grants by the Grammy Museum Grant Program. A total of $200,000 in grants will be awarded this year. This year marks the 37th year of the program.
“Generously funded by the Recording Academy,” to use the Grammy Museum’s phrase, the Grammy Museum Grant Program provides funding annually to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations, in addition to research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition.
“The Grammy Museum and Recording Academy have continued their partnership to provide fundamental funding for music research and preservation projects across the United States and Canada,” Michael Sticka, president/CEO of the Grammy Museum, said in a statement. “ … We are honored to support these remarkable projects that continue to shape the future of music, science and technology.”
Trending on Billboard
In 2008, the Grammy Museum Grant Program expanded its categories to include assistance grants for individuals and small to mid-sized organizations to aid collections held by individuals and organizations that may not have access to the expertise needed to create a preservation plan.
Here are the 2025 recipients:
Scientific Research Grantees
CERVO Brain Research Center — Quebec City, Quebec
Awarded: $20,000
Their goal is to uncover how choir singing impacts communication and auditory cognition in older adults, supporting healthy aging through a randomized training study. This project aims to inform community choirs and music-based interventions, aligning with the foundation’s mission to enhance quality of life through music.
Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital – CISSS Laval — Laval, Quebec
Awarded: $19,500
Stroke typically leads to persistent deficits in arm and hand function. This project will examine the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a six-week piano training intervention aimed at improving manual dexterity and the functional use of the arm and hand. For the first time, such intervention will be delivered as part of a home-based, early, and intensive rehabilitation program for individuals with stroke.
New York University — New York, N.Y.
Awarded: $9,000
Many people struggle with speech-language disorders due to developmental issues or brain injuries. Although music therapy can help these individuals regain speech functions, its effectiveness varies. By combining neuroimaging and machine learning, this study will explore how the brain can bypass damaged speech language networks by leveraging musical networks to enhance communication.
University of South Florida — Tampa, Fla.
Awarded: $9,000
This randomized trial will examine the effects of a novel woodwind program on neural responses and respiration function in adults 50+ with Long-term COVID (LTC). Adults will complete measures of cognitive processing (EEG) and respiration function (spirometer), pre- and post-10 weeks of either Nuvo jsax lessons or an attentional control task.
University of Toronto — Toronto
Awarded: $20,000
Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) uses rhythmic sound cues to help people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) start and maintain stable movement. This project is the first to examine how these cues impact brain chemistry in PD, revealing the brain’s response to these cues. Their findings could improve the use of RAS as part of PD care, refining clinical applications that work alongside standard medication to support movement and enhance quality of life in PD.
Preservation Assistance Grantees
Lex Gillespie — Washington, D.C.
Awarded: $5,000
The project will preserve 75 interviews from the 10-hour Peabody Award-winning public radio series, “Whole Lotta Shakin’.” It tells the story of rockabilly, the exciting 1950s mix of blues, gospel and country that is the cornerstone of rock and roll. This diverse collection features singers, musicians, producers, DJs, and record company owners. The goal: to digitize these decaying recordings for use by scholars, content providers and the public.
Memphis Listening Lab — Memphis, Tenn.
Awarded: $5,000
Grammy Museum Preservation Assistance funding will enable the Memphis Listening Lab (MLL) to hire an expert consultant to conduct a preservation assessment of MLL’s extensive collection of recorded music. The consultant will provide MLL with a written report detailing their observations and recommendations for preserving MLL’s collection, which is freely accessible to the public.
Preservation Implementation
Country Music Foundation, Inc. — Nashville, Tenn.
Awarded: $20,000
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum (CMHFM) sought funding to assess, catalog, re-house, and make accessible a collection of 18,000 12-inch radio transcription discs containing historically significant, non-commercial recordings. This collection features interviews and performances with various country artists. Building on a successful project with 16-inch discs, CMHFM aims to begin Phase 2 of cataloging this larger collection.
Forgotten Futures Fund Inc. — Brooklyn, N.Y.
Awarded: $20,000
Louis and Bebe Barron were American electronic music pioneers. This project digitizes nearly 800 magnetic tapes. It will make available to the public, for the first time, their sci-fi, experimental and commercial sounds. The Barrons, moving in parallel to European composers of musique concrète, were DIY artists who lacked institutional support.
International Bluegrass Music Association — Nashville, Tenn.
Awarded: $20,000
The “Preserving the Legacy of Bluegrass Music” project will digitize and make accessible audio and visual materials from the 40-year history of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Recordings include industry awards show performances and speeches, special performances, conference presentations, workshops, and other IBMA events, featuring first-, second- and third-generation bluegrass musicians from 1985 to the present day.
Louisiana Folk Roots — Lafayette, La.
Awarded: $15,000
Louisiana Folk Roots (LFR) will digitize and preserve at-risk audiovisual tape recordings of Cajun and Creole heritage folk music performances and presentations that occurred from 2001-15. This LFR archival collection of analog formats is not currently available online. Following digitization, this collection can become publicly accessible in partnership with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Library and Institutional Repository.
Matthew White — Columbia, S.C.
Awarded: $10,000
Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz stands as NPR’s longest-running cultural program, airing from 1978 to 2011. Currently, those programs exist on a server at SCETV (where the show was produced), along with more than 5,000 physical documents, including McPartland’s notes, photos, sheet music, and promotional materials. This proposal is to complete the digitization of these materials and create a free website where these materials can be accessed by the public.
Painted Bride Art Center, as fiscal sponsor for Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project — Philadelphia, Pa.
Awarded: $10,000
Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project, through its fiscal sponsor Painted Bride Art Center and in partnership with Temple University Libraries, sought a Grammy Museum Grant to digitize, preserve and make available several dozen interviews with Philadelphia jazz musicians. Conducted from the early 1980s to early 2020s, the interviews document the lives and careers of both world-famous and local Philadelphia jazz musicians.
Soulsville Foundation — Memphis, Tenn.
Awarded: $12,500
Acclaimed Memphis historians have donated interviews of Memphis music legends. These unstable digital tapes represent the richest collection of Black music history interviews ever received by the Stax Museum. The interviews will allow for enhanced storytelling in future exhibitions and online presentations.
T. Christopher Aplin — Pasadena, Calif.
Awarded: $5,000
American Indian Soundchiefs was a record label owned by Kiowa Linn D. Pauahty—the earliest, longest-running label launched with an ear toward Indigenous aesthetics. This project will help Pauahtyʼs granddaughter Mary Helen Deer, the Linn D. Pauahty Foundation, and Kiowa tribe digitize surviving American Indian Soundchiefs instantaneous discs, reel-to-reels, and cassettes featuring Kiowa-language songs for cultural revitalization purposes.
Emmylou Harris, R&B star Eddie Floyd and Jody Stephens, drummer of iconic power-pop band Big Star, are set to perform at the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame Gala, which will take place Friday, May 16, at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California – the site of the first Grammy Awards ceremony in 1959.
All three have recordings being inducted this year. Harris will be joined by producer Daniel Lanois and jazz drummer Brian Blade for a performance of a song from her 1995 album Wrecking Ball, which Lanois produced. Floyd is being honored for his 1966 classic “Knock on Wood”; Big Star for its 1972 album #1 Record.
Trending on Billboard
Percussionist Cindy Blackman, who is married to Carlos Santana, is also set to perform. The band Santana’s 1999 album Supernatural is being honored.
Also on the bill: R&B powerhouse Ledisi; actor and singer Leslie Odom Jr.; and guitar virtuoso Orianthi; as well as previously announced performer, composer and bandleader Jon Batiste. Each performance will celebrate one of this year’s Grammy Hall of Fame inductees. More performers will be announced soon.
The event will additionally honor this year’s label honoree, Republic Records. Atlantic Records was the initial label honoree at last year’s gala, which marked the first time there was a stand-alone event to honor the inducted recordings. Last year’s gala was held at the Novo Theatre at L.A. Live.
As previously announced, the event will also include the presentation of the inaugural Ray Charles Architect of Sound Award, created in partnership with The Ray Charles Foundation. This new annual honor recognizes an artist whose creative legacy reflects the visionary innovation of Ray Charles. The first recipient is seven-time Grammy Award winner Batiste, who will also perform during the gala.
Returning as host is CBS News journalist Anthony Mason. The show will again be produced by Ken Ehrlich, alongside Ron Basile, Lindsay Saunders Carl and Lynne Sheridan. Ehrlich produced or executive produced the annual Grammy Awards telecast for 40 years. Cheche Alara, a Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and conductor, will serve as musical director for the event.
The gala will celebrate the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings. In addition to the four already named, they are: J.D. Crowe & The New South’s J.D. Crowe & The New South; Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt; Fela Kuti & Afrika 70’s Zombie; Linda Martell’s “Color Him Father”; Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga”; Cat Stevens’s Tea for the Tillerman; Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much; Clara Ward’s “How I Got Over”; and Geeshie Wiley’s “Last Kind Words Blues.”
This year’s additions to the Grammy Hall of Fame meet the main requirements – they exhibit “qualitative or historical significance” and are at least 25 years old. Eligible artist(s), producer(s), engineer(s), and mixer(s) of these 13 recordings will receive a certificate from the Recording Academy.
The Grammy Hall of Fame was established by the Recording Academy’s national trustees in 1973. Inducted recordings are selected annually by a member committee drawn from all branches of the recording arts with final ratification by the academy’s national board of trustees. Counting these 13 new titles, the Grammy Hall of Fame totals 1,165 inducted recordings. The full list of past inducted recordings can be found here.
The Grammy Hall of Fame Gala serves as a fundraiser to support the Grammy Museum’s national education programs. It includes a cocktail reception, dinner, and concert program. Tickets are on sale now. Individual tickets are $1,250. For more information, visit this site.
Jon Batiste will receive the inaugural Ray Charles “Architect of Sound” Award at the annual Grammy Hall of Fame Gala, which is set for May 16 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. The award is to be presented annually at this event, which is presented jointly by the Grammy Museum and the Recording Academy.
The “Architect of Sound” Award recognizes an artist whose impact on music echoes Charles’ pioneering spirit. A 17-time Grammy winner, Charles is widely-regarded one of the most influential artists of all time. He was in the inaugural class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recipients in 1986 and also received the Kennedy Center Honors that year. He received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987 and has 10 recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for portraying Charles in the 2004 biopic Ray. The film remains one of the top 10 top-grossing musical biopics.
Trending on Billboard
“Ray Charles is a beacon for me, a blueprint,” Batiste said in a statement. “He is a singular example of musical genius, artistic freedom and craft of the highest level that will continue to inspire humanity for generations and stand the test of time. I am honored to receive this award. It is vitally important to me to carry on our cultural legacy of true artistic greatness and lead the way for generations to come.”
Michael Sticka, Grammy Museum president/CEO, said, “Ray Charles was a trailblazing artist whose influence knows no bounds, and Jon Batiste is a true reflection of that legacy. Beyond his immense talent, Jon has been a dedicated partner in advancing the Grammy Museum’s mission to make music education more accessible. Honoring him with the inaugural Ray Charles ‘Architect of Sound’ Award is not just fitting — it’s a celebration of two artists who have shaped the sound of generations.”
Valerie Ervin, president of The Ray Charles Foundation, added, “Ray Charles was always pushing music forward — blending genres, breaking barriers, and inspiring generations. He would be deeply honored to have his name attached to an award that celebrates artists who share his fearless creativity and dedication to their craft. Jon Batiste embodies that spirit.”
Batiste has won seven Grammys, including album of the year for We Are, and an Oscar for best original score for Soul (in tandem with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). His latest album, Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1), is the first in his solo piano series, reimagining classical works through a fresh lens.
Batiste will take the stage for two performances at the Gala, which will also feature musical moments from a lineup of artists to be announced soon. The event will additionally honor this year’s label honoree, Republic Records.
The show will be produced by former Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich, alongside Ron Basile, Lindsay Saunders Carl and Lynne Sheridan, with musical direction by Cheche Alara, a Grammy- and Latin Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and conductor. CBS News journalist Anthony Mason returns as host.
The Gala will celebrate the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings, which include iconic recordings such as JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman, Santana’s Supernatural, and recordings from Big Star, Clara Ward, Eddie Floyd, Emmylou Harris, Fela Kuti & Afrika 70, Geeshie Wiley, Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine, J.D. Crowe & The New South, Linda Martell, and Luther Vandross.
The Grammy Hall of Fame was established by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees in 1973. The inducted recordings are selected annually by a committee, with final ratification by the Recording Academy’s National Board of Trustees. With 13 new titles, the Grammy Hall of Fame currently totals 1,165 inducted recordings. Eligible recipients will receive an official certificate from the Recording Academy.
Tickets for the Grammy Hall of Fame Gala are on sale now. For more information, visit the Grammy Museum website.
Debut albums by Jay-Z, Luther Vandross and Big Star and breakthrough singles by Miami Sound Machine and Eddie Floyd are among the 13 recordings that were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame this year. This year’s additions (eight albums and five singles) meet the main requirements – they exhibit “qualitative or historical significance” and […]
The Grammy Museum announced today that on Jan. 25, it will begin offering free general admission for all visitors ages 17 and under. The new policy is expected to more than double the number of youths who visit the museum’s galleries each year.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The new free-admission policy was made possible by the Stengaard Gross Family Education Initiative through a donation made to the Campaign for Music Education, a fundraising campaign launched in 2022. The Campaign for Music Education has recently surpassed its fundraising goal of $5 million. With this initial milestone now achieved, the Grammy Museum has doubled its fundraising goal to $10 million, which it hopes to reach in 2026.
“The Grammy Museum has always been committed to increase access to music education by reaching underserved communities where access to our museum and programming could make a huge impact,” Michael Sticka, Grammy Museum president and CEO, said in a statement. “Waiving admission for kids 17 and under will go a long way towards achieving that goal.”
Trending on Billboard
(Sticka, who has been leading the Museum since 2018, just renewed his contract to serve in this role until 2029.)
Additional funds raised through the Campaign for Music Education will expand the museum’s education and community programs, which have served more than 550,000 students through programs such as Grammy Camp, Grammy in the Schools and the Quinn Coleman Scholarship Fund. The Campaign for Music Education is co-chaired by such stars as Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes, and Rosalía.
Additionally, as a result of the Campaign for Music Education, the Museum will unveil Sonic Playground, a new hands-on, permanent exhibit opening next month. Featuring 17 music-making interactives, Sonic Playground allows visitors to play different roles in the music industry, from rapper, singer, and producer to performer, music supervisor, and voice actor, and discover the myriad ways they could pursue a career in the music industry. Sonic Playground is made possible by a donation from Deborah DeBerry Long, dedicated to the legacy of Jim Long.
Additional donors to the Campaign for Music Education include the Ray Charles Foundation, Deborah DeBerry Long, the Living Legacy Foundation, the Natalie Cole Foundation, and BeatHeadz.
The Grammy Museum has announced the expansion of Grammy Camp, a week-long program for high school students interested in pursuing careers in the music industry. Starting in summer 2025, Grammy Camp will be held in New York and Miami, in addition to its flagship Los Angeles program. The 2025 Grammy Camp season will take place […]
Dolly Parton is the 2024 recipient of the PEACE Through Music Award, which honors an American music industry professional, artist or group who has played an invaluable role in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music works to advance peace and mutual understanding globally. The award is presented jointly by the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department.
Parton, a 10-time Grammy winner who also received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2011, will be celebrated on Friday (Oct. 25) at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. She will not be in attendance, but sent a video acceptance.
“To say that I was honored to accept the PEACE Through Music Award from the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department would be putting it mildly,” Parton said. “I was very touched and moved by that. If I have been an inspiration in any way through some act of kindness or through some music that I have written, well, that makes me feel like I have done my job properly. Thanks again for such a great honor.”
Trending on Billboard
Parton’s commitment to serving others is well-known. Parton’s Imagination Library, which provides underserved children the opportunity to learn through reading, stretches from the hills of Appalachia to the outback of Australia. In addition, she has been a champion of public health, most recently around the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Over the course of her career, Dolly Parton has been committed to enriching communities across the globe, and it’s a privilege to celebrate her dedication to service with the PEACE Through Music Award today,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “We are grateful to partner with the Department of State on the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which represents an important part of the Academy’s work to support music people across the globe.”
“Dolly Parton represents the best of America – her excellence in music, her servant’s heart in giving back to those in need, and her unique ability to always bring people together,” said Lee Satterfield, Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. “On behalf of the American people and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, we are honored to celebrate all of her contributions to people around the world with the PEACE Through Music Award in partnership with the Recording Academy.”
The PEACE Through Music Award is determined through a nomination process, with U.S. embassies around the globe submitting nominations to be considered by a selection committee created jointly by the State Department and Recording Academy. The committee includes Recording Academy members, U.S. Department of State leadership, music industry professionals, and academia. The recommended honorees are approved by the CEO of the Recording Academy, then presented to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, who makes the final selection.
The award is part of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which was announced by the Recording Academy and the State Department in 2023. The initiative is designed to elevate music as a global diplomatic platform that promotes peace, expands economic equity, elevates creative economies, ensures societal opportunity, and increases access to education worldwide. The initiative was developed pursuant to the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, which was championed by the Recording Academy and its members in 2022 at its annual Grammys on the Hill and Music Advocacy Day events, resulting in the legislation being passed into law in December 2022.
Tonight’s Grammy Museum event also recognizes the first-ever cohort of the American Music Mentorship Program, which took place in Los Angeles from Oct. 15-25.
Maren Morris is heading back to Grammy Camp. The versatile singer first attended the Grammy Museum‘s program for promising U.S. high school students in 2005 (its first year), when she was 15. She’s returning this year as a guest artist – and, no doubt, a source of inspiration to the assembled students.
“Grammy Camp will always be one of those formative memories in my career,” she said in a statement. “I was 15 years old when I went back in 2005 and remember it cementing my dreams of being a songwriter. Being involved with the organization still to this day is such a unique pleasure I have.”
Morris has had many career highlights since her initial Grammy Camp experience. She won a Grammy in 2017 (best country solo performance for “My Church”) and landed a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018 with “The Middle,” a collab with Zedd and Grey.
Trending on Billboard
New York City-born bass guitarist Blu DeTiger and New Jersey-born singer/songwriter Jeremy Zucker will also serve as guest artists this year. All three will discuss their career paths and endeavor to help students prepare for the music industry.
This year’s Grammy Camp will be held from Sunday, July 14 to Saturday July 20 at The Village Recording Studios in Los Angeles. A total of 83 high school students from 76 U.S. cities across 22 states have been selected as participants in the 20th annual Grammy Camp program.
“Over the last two decades, Grammy Camp has served as the heartbeat of the music world for high school students aspiring towards a career in music, offering an authentic immersion into the music industry and life itself,” Michael Sticka, president/CEO of the Grammy Museum, said in a statement.
Grammy Camp will focus on all aspects of commercial music and provide instruction by industry professionals in an immersive and creative environment. The program features seven music career tracks: audio engineering, electronic music production, music business, music and media, songwriting, vocal performance, and instrumental performance. All tracks culminate in virtual media projects, recordings and/or performances.
This Grammy In The Schools program is presented by the Hot Topic Foundation with support from the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation. Additional scholarship and program support is provided by the Aufmann Family, BeatHeadz, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Natalie Cole Foundation, Pacific Bridge Arts Foundation, and the Recording Academy.
Applications for GRAMMY Camp 2025 will be available online in September at www.grammycamp.com.
When the Recording Academy put the Grammy Hall of Fame on hiatus for one year, they said they were rethinking the entire process. They weren’t kidding. The first fruits of the retooling will be seen on Tuesday (May 21) when the inaugural Grammy Hall of Fame Induction Gala is held at the Novo Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
Michael Sticka, president/CEO of the Grammy Museum, says his hope for the induction event is to “build it to ultimately be the Museum’s version of MusiCares’ Person of the Year, to raise money for our programming.”
There are also plans to “build a permanent interactive exhibit to celebrate the Hall of Fame and educate our visitors. That will open early next year.”
Trending on Billboard
The first five inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame were announced on the Grammy telecast in March 1974, and the Grammy Museum opened in December 2008, but this is the first time the Museum has partnered with the Recording Academy in a major way to celebrate the Hall of Fame.
“The Hall of Fame and the Museum pretty much go hand-in-hand,” Sticka says. “When we first started talking about what this thing really could be, we talked about how the Hall of Fame should live in the Museum. It makes perfect sense.”
These changes are the result of Sticka’s meeting with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and Ruby Marchand, the Academy’s chief awards and industry officer, to brainstorm ways to build the Grammy Hall of Fame into a higher-profile entity. “The whole idea was ‘let’s get away from simply doing a press release,’” Sticka says of the upcoming gala.
They also made several major changes in the way the Grammy HOF operates. In recent decades, 25 or more inductees have been inducted each year. Starting this year, there will be just 10. “We wanted to whittle it down to a manageable number. If we had 25-30 recordings, it’s really hard to properly recognize each of them during an event.”
This year’s 10 new inductees bring the total number of recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame to 1,162.
There will be live performances to honor six of this year’s honorees at Tuesday’s event, and interstitial video presentations for the other four. R&B singer William Bell will perform his own inducted recording, “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” Andra Day will perform a song from Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, The War and Treaty will sing Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Morning,” Elle King will perform Wanda Jackson’s “Let’s Have a Party” and Hanson will take on the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.”
“We really focused on the tribute performance [format], but William wanted to do [his own song] and we weren’t going to say no to that opportunity,” Sticka says.
This year’s Induction Gala will be produced by Ken Ehrlich, who has amassed nine Primetime Emmy nominations across four decades, along with Chantel Sausedo and Ron Basile. Greg Phillinganes will serve as musical director.
This year’s gala will be filmed but not televised. The plan is to cut together this first induction gala and send it to the Academy’s partners, CBS, which has aired the Grammy telecast every year since 1973, and PBS, which aired the Academy’s Special Merit Awards under the title Grammy Salute to Music Legends for about five years under its Great Performances banner.
“It’s tough to pull off a first-time event,” Sticka says. “There’s no proof-of-concept. [We’re] filming it so we can show what it’s going to look like and show what’s possible and hopefully somebody picks it up in the future to televise.”
Clips from the show will be housed on COLLECTION:live, the Grammy Museum’s streaming site.
A second change in the Grammy Hall of Fame process is that the Academy no longer sets aside a certain number of spots for pre-1950 recordings. The one pre-1950 recording being inducted this year, Kid Ory’s Creole Orchestra’s “Ory’s Creole Trombone” (1922) impressively made the cut without a spot being set aside for very old recordings. Now, the only requirement is that all recordings must be at least 25 years old.
The choices were made by a special member committee of about 20 people who had several Zoom meetings. Sticka says he sat in with the committee but didn’t vote. “There was a lot of conversation around a lot of the recordings,” he reports.
A third change is that the Grammy Hall of Fame will honor a record company each year. Atlantic Records, which was celebrating its 75th anniversary when these discussions got underway, is the first label to be honored. (The label was founded in October 1947 and released its first recordings in January 1948.) Even though the 75th anniversary has passed, it will be honored. 76th anniversary just doesn’t have same ring.
Atlantic doesn’t have any recordings being inducted this year, but it has 38 past Hall of Fame inductions.
As part of the salute to Atlantic, two current Atlantic artists are performing Grammy Hall of Fame classics by legendary Atlantic artists. Shinedown is performing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Ravyn Lenae is singing Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Atlantic had a great deal of input into their segment. “They know themselves best, so we left it up to them,” Sticka says. “We had a lot of conversations with them.”
Starting this year, all artist(s), producer(s), songwriter(s) and engineer(s) who work on a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee will receive a certificate, provided they worked on 51% or more of the recording and had primary participation in those capacities. No statuettes, though. You have to win a Grammy in competition to get one of those.