The Explosive Grammys 2020 CEO Scandal, Explained
Until last week, it looked from the outside like the Recording Academy might actually be headed toward a relatively smooth Grammy Awards this year. After drama in 2019, when Ariana Grande backed out of a planned performance over differences with the show’s producers, Grande was announced as part of a 2020 lineup that also includes Rosalía, Lizzo, Tyler, the Creator, and Billie Eilish. The Academy hired Deborah Dugan as its first female president and CEO, following backlash over a 2018 remark from then-head Neil Portnow that female artists should “step up” if they want equal representation as nominees. Dugan has pledged to make diversity a priority, and the share of female nominees in top categories has gotten at least slightly bigger under her leadership.
The rosy picture shattered just 10 days before the ceremony, when the Recording Academy announced that Dugan had been placed on administrative leave. Dugan has since responded with a discrimination complaint that alleges sexual harassment, corruption of the Grammy voting process, a sexual assault accusation against Portnow, and much more. The 62nd annual Grammys will unfold against this tumultuous backdrop this Sunday.
Here’s a summary of the events that led to the Grammys and the Recording Academy to their current point of crisis.
April 12, 2019
News surfaces that Dugan, then-CEO of the AIDS nonprofit (RED), has been chosen to succeed Portnow, who had previously declared his plans to leave at the end of his contract in 2019. According to Dugan’s later complaint, her experience of alleged corruption at the Academy began as early as this initial announcement of her new role as its leader. The fact that her selection was leaked to the press, she claims, shows “the inherent conflict of interest arising out of the fact that the same attorneys that represent the Recording Academy also represent news outlets that profit off of the disclosure of the Recording Academy’s confidential information.”
May 2019
On May 8, Dugan signs a contract with the Recording Academy, after weeks of negotiation, according to the discrimination complaint. Under the contract, her three-year term starts August 1. She is offered “significantly less compensation” than Portnow, she later alleges.
On May 18, Dugan has dinner with Joel Katz, the Recording Academy’s general counsel, who figures heavily in her discrimination complaint. According to Dugan, at the dinner, Katz “acted extremely inappropriately” despite Dugan’s expressed lack of interest in his advances, and even “attempted to kiss” her at the end of the meal. (Katz has issued a statement through his attorney “categorically” denying Dugan’s claims.)
Later in May, the Recording Academy holds its annual spring board meeting, and Dugan attends the three-day confab even though she technically hasn’t started work yet. According to her complaint, Dugan learns of a rape allegation against by Portnow by a “foreign recording artist” during the meeting.
Portnow later says that the rape allegation is “ludicrous and untrue,” but does not deny that a complaint about his conduct was made to the Academy board of directors. “An in-depth independent investigation by experienced and highly regarded lawyers was conducted and I was completely exonerated,” he writes in a public statement after the alleged claim became public this week.
At the May board meeting, Dugan also allegedly learns about millions of dollars in fees paid annually by the Recording Academy to law firms headed by Katz and Chuck Ortner, another Academy insider.
September 2019
One month after Portnow’s contract expires and Dugan formally takes over at the Academy, the new CEO publicly vows to make the Grammys more diverse and inclusive. According to the complaint, she also opens up “conversations with ‘dissenters’ to the Recording Academy’s status quo, including with representatives of recording artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Rihanna.”
October 2019
Dugan retains Claudine Little, former executive assistant to Portnow, as her own assistant during the transition period. Little goes on leave in late October, and will later allege that Dugan has been bullying and abusive as a manager. According to Dugan’s discrimination complaint, the Recording Academy’s executive committee begins “interrogating” Dugan about Little, seeming “hell-bent on blowing the ‘Little’ situation’ way out of proportion to use it as an excuse to grasp control over the management of the Recording Academy because they [are] unhappy with Ms. Dugan’s calls for more diversity and transparency.”
November 2019
The Recording Academy holds its fall board meeting, where Dugan presents her plan for overhauling the Recording Academy to increase diversity. Afterward, in a meeting without Dugan, the board reportedly rejects the plan, and votes to give Katz and Ortner each $100,000 raises.
On November 20, Dugan and Academy board chair Harvey Mason Jr. announce the 2020 Grammy nominees.
December 9-16, 2019
According to Dugan’s complaint, Mason informs her in an email on December 9 that she is “no longer permitted to hire or terminate staff members without board approval.” The board also allegedly bans Dugan from “assigning any new initiatives or special projects for at least two months,” and from hiring outside law firms to work with the Recording Academy.
Dugan responds a week later, writing that Mason’s directives seem intended to limit her potential for progress on “greater diversity among our staff, the board, and our membership” and the “empowerment of women, especially in the wake [of her] predecessor’s disturbing legacy.”
December 17, 2019
Claudine Little’s attorney sends a demand letter to the Recording Academy claiming that Dugan is a bully, according to the complaint.
December 22, 2019
According to the complaint, Dugan emails the Recording Academy’s head of human resources, Shonda Grant, outlining many of the allegations that eventually become part of the discrimination complaint, including the claims that Katz sexually harassed her, and that the Academy board inappropriately influences the Grammy nomination voting process.
December 24, 2019
Dugan’s attorney notifies the Recording Academy that she plans to file legal claims. According to the complaint, the two sides’ respective lawyers attempt and fail to reach a settlement, and the board subsequently places Dugan on administrative leave.
January 16, 2020
News surfaces that Dugan is on administrative leave. An internal Recording Academy memo cites “a formal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member of the Recording Academy team”—an apparent reference to Dugan’s alleged conflicts with Claudine Little—and adds that the board has hired “two independent third-party investigators to conduct independent investigations of the allegations.” According to Dugan’s complaint, “This explanation [is] completely false and defamatory.”
January 21, 2020
Dugan files her discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaint brings into public view Dugan’s allegations of sexual harassment and corruption, as well as the alleged rape claim against Portnow.
Among the allegations about the corruption of the voting process involves the 2019 Song of the Year category, in which an artist who is represented by a member of the Recording Academy’s board of trustees unfairly received a nomination over Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande, who both received more votes.
January 22, 2020
Portnow publicly denies the rape allegation. A lawyer for Joel Katz also denies Dugan’s claims about their dinner together. The women on the Recording Academy’s executive committee also share a statement, rejecting Dugan’s assertion that the organization is a “boy’s club.”
Dugan’s attorneys also respond to Portnow. “When read carefully, it is clear that Mr. Portnow does not even deny that an allegation of rape was made, although the statement appears wordsmithed to leave the false impression that there was no allegation,” they tell the Wrap. “We and Ms. Dugan stand behind her EEOC charge 100 percent.”
January 23, 2020
Bill Freimuth, the Recording Academy’s Chief Awards Officer, issues a statement in response to claims in Dugan’s complaint that board members manipulate the Grammy nominations process to benefit particular artists. “Spurious allegations claiming members or committees use our process to push forward nominations for artists they have relationships with are categorically false, misleading and wrong,” he writes in part. “This process is strictly enforced with everyone involved and has no exceptions.”
The Recording Academy Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion—a body formed in the wake of Portnow’s “step up” scandal, which counts artists like Common and Jimmy Jam as well as industry executives among its membership—issues its own statement, expressing its “shock and dismay” at the allegations that surfaced in Dugan’s complaint. It lays out a number of proposed reforms for the Academy, including ranked-choice voting for major awards, increased diversity and gender parity on nominating committees, and the hiring of a “Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the executive level to lead the deeper changes that are obviously needed.”
January 24, 2020
Variety publishes a report detailing the accounts of anonymous members of the Recording Academy Task Force. Two members in particular refer to the experience of working in the Task Force as “disheartening.” “It’s been a completely unproductive waste of time with zero results,” one member elaborates in the report. “Not one of our proposals has been [executed] and people eventually just stopped showing up.” One member tells Variety that a small percentage of the Task Force meetings were attended by top Academy officials, and the meetings themselves are described as “stifling” and “awkward.”
Variety also details accounts by an anonymous Recording Academy insider, who states that the Task Force had a significant internal impact early on. The insider claims that “the Task Force was running the show.” “They were totally suspicious of anyone from the Academy, and [staffers] needed to choose their words carefully,” the insider says. “Because they’d jump down their throats.” The insider also claims that the Academy staff was “intimidated” by the Task Force. Additionally, the insider tells Variety that the Academy was ready to go public with multiple items last spring, but “the Task Force said they weren’t ready,” therefore being an impediment to its own goals.
January 26, 2020
The morning of the Grammys, the Recording Academy’s interim CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announces new initiatives developed with the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion. They include the promise to hire a Diversity & Inclusion Officer, a new Academy-funded fellowship to independently review and report on the Academy’s efforts, a fund to help “women in music” organizations, a commitment to meet all of the Task Force’s recommendations (with the caveat that they plan a “deeper exploration” into those recommendations), and a meeting with the Task Force to discuss further progress.
Deborah Dugan’s attorneys responded in a statement calling Mason’s announcement “all smoke and mirrors,” claiming that each initiative was already agreed upon under Dugan’s direction before she was placed on administrative leave. Dugan’s legal team recommends that an “independent and qualified” chair and board be instated, that the Academy agree to suspend “conflict-rife nominating review committees,” that an independent investigation be conducted into the board of trustees, and that the board immediately reinstate Dugan as CEO.
This article was originally published on Friday, January 24 at 12:10 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on January 26 at 12:26 p.m. Eastern.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
