A popular old school singer has just dropped a bombshell of a revelation in his open letter to the president of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow. Singer, Victor Willis, founder/member of the legendary group, The Village People, has just exposed a small ‘secret committee’ that overrides the votes of ALL 14,000 Grammy voters. Y’all gotta see this:
Via TMZ: A secret committee for the Grammys is in place to undermine the rank-and-file voters if they choose to give plum awards to black artists like Beyonce … so claims the original lead singer of Village People. Victor Willis sent a scathing letter to the President of the Recording Academy, demanding he “come clean” over the existence of a clandestine group that was supposedly formed after Lionel Richie beat Bruce Springsteen for the 1985 Album of the Year. According to Willis, the committee’s purpose is to “override the decision of Grammy voters in the event the select committee does not like who the Grammy voter has chosen” for the 4 top awards. He goes on to strongly suggest a racial element, saying, “The question is how many African Americans are on that committee?” […] “If certain people at the Grammys don’t like who the voters have chosen, a Grammy committee will simply override the voters and subsequently select who they think should win. Like Adele, maybe?” […]
THE ALTERNATIVE FACTS GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC
The Recording Academy has repeatedly attempted to clean up their racially discriminating reputation throughout the years, by claiming they have a “democracy” voting process in place among their 14,000 Grammy voting members. However it has now been proven by various research outlets and by Michael Greene (the former president of the Recording Academy from 1988- 2002 who confirmed this to the LA Times in 1996), that there is an approximately 25 member SECRET VOTING COMMITTEE that gets the final Grammy votes:
Via Buzzfeed: The secret [Grammy voting] group consists of music executives, performers, producers, songwriters and journalists, and meets every December in L.A. to go over the top 20 nominations submitted by the voters. The group is granted the final say over who makes the five slots for album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, and best new artist, as well as the country, R&B, gospel, jazz, classical, and music video categories.
After reading Willis’ letter, we too, dug a lil’ deeper into this “secret committee” info and realized just how much bullcrap has been deliberately pulled over on the public. Just two days ago (Tuesday, February 14, 2017), that same R.A. president that Victor Willis wrote to (shown above with Adele), did an interview with Pitchfork and gave “alternative facts” about the Grammy voting process, yet AGAIN:
Pitchfork: A stat has been going around since the show, about how a black artist hasn’t won Album of the Year since Herbie Hancock in 2008. Do you think the Grammys has a race problem?
R.A. president, Neil Portnow: “No, I don’t think there’s a race problem at all. Remember, this is a peer-voted award. So when we say the Grammys, it’s not a corporate entity—it’s the 14,000 members of the Academy. They have to qualify in order to be members, which means they have to have recorded and released music, and so they are sort of the experts and the highest level of professionals in the industry.”
We’ve counted 10 African American artists who have won ‘Album of The Year’ in the past 59 years since the Grammy Awards’ existence:
2008 Herbie Hancock
2005 Ray Charles
2004 Outkast
1999 Lauryn Hill
1994 Whitney Houston
1992 Natalie Cole
1991 Quincy Jones
1985 Lionel Richie*****
1984 Michael Jackson Thriller
1977 Stevie Wonder
1975 Stevie Wonder
1974 Stevie Wonder
Quite frankly, sure it’s jacked up what’s being done to African American artists and all other minorities in music…however, getting trophy is great, but artists winning the respect of their fans through their body of work is priceless. To hell with the trophy chasing!
