Music producer Pharrell Williams said the Grammys has a lot of "issues" and they had "better" finally give Beyoncé the album of the year award.
Williams is a prolific producer, rapper, singer and men's creative director for Louis Vuitton.
He has been on the press trail recently promoting a Lego biopic about his life and career called, Piece by Piece.
One of his promotional stops included an interview with The Hollywood Reporter magazine, which asked him: "How do you feel about the Grammys?"
"I think it's a good thing. I think it needs to continue to evolve. And it will," Williams replied.
The magazine then asked the "Happy" singer his thoughts on "Black artists famously losing in the top three categories at the Grammys." Those categories include album of the year, song of the year and record of the year. The Grammys are run by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the Recording Academy.
"They've definitely got a lot to work on, because they're a big organization, and they try to be too many things to all people, that's where a lot of nuanced things get skipped over and fall between the cracks, and that's a problem. But they know what their issues are, and they're working on them. There are some good people in position now," Williams said.
Newsweek contacted the Recording Academy and Williams' representatives by email for comment.
Williams was also asked if Beyoncé would finally have her moment at the 2024 Grammys by winning the album of the year with her country-themed album, Cowboy Carter.
"It better be. It better be. They know," Williams said.
Even though Beyoncé is the most-awarded Grammy artist of all time, with 32 wins, she has never won any of the major awards. Many had hoped her 2022 album Renaissance would finally get her album of the year at the ceremony in February, but she lost out to to Harry Styles for his album, Harry's House.
Williams himself has won 13 Grammys from 39 nominations. In 2023, he received the Grammys On The Hill's Creator Leadership Award at the U.S. Capitol for his work advancing the rights and protections of musicians.
"I've been incredibly lucky in my career as a musician," he said while accepting the award. "But there are a ton of my brothers and sisters that are just like starting out. And even some that have been in the game for a very long time that haven't had the same advantages.
"The worth of these musicians needs to be protected," Williams continued. "I think it's a very beautiful thing that our government is shining a light and giving visibility to the struggle [experienced by] us as musicians."
The Grammys has long been criticized for its apparent lack of gender and racial diversity when it comes to major award winners.
Only 11 Black artists have won album of the year since the Grammys first ceremony in 1959, and as Beyoncé's sister Solange pointed out in 2017, only two had been in the past 20 years.
Following the backlash, the Recording Academy expanded its efforts to improve diversity and inclusion (DEI), claiming its "365-day-per-year commitment to DEI paid off in a major way in 2023."
It cited a "record-breaking diverse group of 2,400+ music creators" joining the Recording Academy this year as part of the 2023 New Member class, supporting students of color and students from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), celebrating Asian and Pacific musicians, indigenous musicians and teaming up with the White House to combat anti-Semitism. The Recording Academy also elected 19 new leaders of diverse backgrounds to its 2024-2025 National Board of Trustees.
But its efforts did not seem to break through to the mainstream and the Recording Academy was called out live on stage at this year's ceremony by Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z.
"We want y'all to get it right—at least get it close to right," Jay-Z said in February while accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. "I don't want to embarrass this young lady [Beyoncé], but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year. So even by your own metrics that doesn't work."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
