Grammys president hits out at racism accusations: 'We don’t have any kind of issue’

Neil Portnow insist that 'race issues' played no part in this year's ceremony 
Hitting back: Beyoncé with Grammys president Neil Portnow
Michael Kovac/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby15 February 2017
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

The president of the Grammy Awards has hit out at allegations of racism after Beyoncé lost out to Adele at this year’s ceremony.

Neil Portnow has denied that here is any kind of ‘race problem’ within the voting panel, insisting that ‘gender, race and ethnicity’ never come into it.

Speaking out following a backlash over the fact that 25 was named Album of the Year rather than Lemonade, he told Pitchfork:

“I don’t think there’s a race problem at all… It’s always hard to create objectivity out of something that’s inherently subjective, which is what art and music is about. We do the best we can.

“We don’t, as musicians, in my humble opinion, listen to music based on gender or race or ethnicity.

“When you go to vote on a piece of music—at least the way that I approach it—is you almost put a blindfold on and you listen.”

Grammys 2017: Red Carpet Fashion

1/30

Portnow went on to deny that there were similarities between the diversity crisis at last year’s Oscars, sparking the ‘#OscarsSoWhite’ campaign.

“Well, they may have had a problem. We don’t have that kind of an issue in that same fashion,” he said.

A number of upset Beyoncé fans took to social media to complain that the singer had been snubbed following Sunday’s ceremony.

The award sparked a race row on Twitter with users pointing out that the last black woman to win Album of the Year was Lauryn Hill in 1999.

“@CNNent @Adele Who cares about the words. NO black female winning Album of the Year since Lauryn Hill(1999) is the real crime here. #Grammys,” wrote one person.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in