Women dominated the 2024 Grammy Awards. Is the tide turning?

LOS ANGELES – When the 2024 Grammy nominees had been first introduced, girls dominated the main classes. And at Sunday’s display, those nominations translated into awards: Every televised aggressive Grammy went to a minimum of one girl.

Several girls earned their very first Grammys, together with Miley Cyrus, best new artist Victoria Monét, nation artist Lainey Wilson and Karol G — additionally the first girl to win in very best música urbana, a second that can mirror converting perceptions of reggaetón and Latin hip-hop as completely “men’s music.”

“You know, I feel a lot of responsibility about that. As a woman, I have to say, like in my experience, it was tough, like so many things, to be a girl in this industry, in the music that I do, in urban music,” the “Mañana Será Bonito” artist told The Associated Press behind the curtain, announcing she additionally mirrored “women in the world fighting to represent” themselves.

Paramore turned into the first rock band fronted by means of a lady to win very best rock album. And Taylor Swift, after all, not only made history by means of changing into the first artist to win album of the 12 months 4 instances — however she additionally continues to be the best girl to ever win greater than two times.

“First of all, I think it is just wonderful to see so many women at the top,” Dua Lipa told the AP on the pink carpet, moments earlier than she opened the display with a fiery pop medley.

“What we want is just an equal space in the industry and to be seen equally on equal levels — not just on the creative side but on the business side — so hopefully the equality in the industry will kind of level things out a little,” she added. “I think we’re still kind of figuring that part out. But we’re getting there, slowly.”

The proof issues to what Lipa is referencing: Only 19.5% of all songwriters throughout the Billboard Hot 100 songs in 2023 had been girls, in step with research from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Women nonetheless make up a fragment of manufacturers and engineers.

But at the Grammys, the place a lot of the center of attention is on performers, it gave the impression of girls had been ruling the business.

Phoebe Bridgers of boygenius gained her first Grammys closing night time, taking house greater than another performer closing night time, with 4.

In the week main as much as the Grammys, Bridgers told the AP there used to be some importance to the band’s reputation as a result of “it was only a couple of years ago now that that (expletive) who is now being accused of sexual violence said women need to step it up if they want to be nominated.”

She used to be relating to former Recording Academy President Neil Portnow, who, in 2018, said women need “to step up” in the event that they sought after to obtain Grammys after which issued an apology. He stepped down in 2019. In November 2023, Portnow was sued by means of a lady who stated he had drugged and raped her in 2018, an allegation his consultant has referred to as “completely false.”

Bridgers renewed her critique backstage at the Grammys, telling the media room, as she held one of her four trophies, that she hopes he’ll “rot.”

The Recording Academy has made considerable changes to their programming in the post-Portnow years, attempting to better reflect the current musical climate. Recently, more than 2,400 music creators joined the voting bloc — of those new additions, 50% are people of color, 46% are under the age of 40, and 37% are women.

In January, Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. theorized the number of women nominated was “a direct result of a lot of the changes that we’ve been making at the academy,” something echoed by Swift while accepting her first award of the night.

“I know that the way the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans,” she said.

The question then becomes: Was this year a fluke? The result of an all-star year of women who couldn’t be ignored? A correction? Symbolic of some systemic shift? Or something else entirely?

The only real televised criticism came from Jay-Z, the lone man awarded solo on the telecast (Finneas also won a televised Grammy, alongside his sister, Billie Eilish). His acceptance speech for the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award began by shouting out the rap legends that came before him — the ones who worked to bring hip-hop to the preeminent music award show, only to have rap categories not make the official broadcast Sunday.

“We want you all to get it right,” Jay Z said in his speech. “At least get it close to right.”

The he switched center of attention to Beyoncé, who closing 12 months turned into the most decorated artist in Grammy history, with 32 trophies.

“Most Grammys, never won album of the year. How does that work?” he said of his wife. “Even by your own metrics it doesn’t work.”

Emily Lordi, a Vanderbilt University professor whose focus is African American literature and Black popular music, says there is value in examining the intersections of race and feminism at the Grammys.

This 12 months, two girls — SZA, for her severely acclaimed and groundbreaking “SOS,” and Janelle Monae, for her innovate treatise on sensuality and freedom “The Age of Pleasure,” had been up for album of the 12 months. If one in all them had taken it house, the winner would have turn out to be the first Black girl to take action since Lauryn Hill with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1999.

Lordi says that file “suggests a residual and highly flawed view of Black women’s music as ‘niche,'” despite the fact that “Black women have foundationally influenced every genre of American music, so that Billie Eilish’s vocal style is a direct descendant of Billie Holiday’s aesthetic, just as Miley is made possible by Tina Turner, and Taylor by Tracy Chapman.”

Janelle Monae, who has 10 career nominations, did not win a Grammy — and never has. SZA, who led nominations with nine, took home three awards — but was completely shut out of the general field categories.

There’s much to celebrate about the 2024 Grammys, including its focus on female performers — something that wouldn’t have seemed possible as recently as 2011, when the Grammys still had gender-specific awards.

But, Lordi notes, “as we champion the representation of women, we also need to keep thinking intersectionally and critically about which women are being honored and for what?”

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Associated Press newshounds Leslie Ambriz and Gary Gerard Hamilton contributed reporting.

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