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The Women of the 2020 Grammy Awards

Controversy over Grammy nominees have been swirling around since the situations involving the Recording Academy’s recently appointed CEO, Deborah Dugan, who had opened up conversation about misconduct, discrimination, and even voter rigging that could’ve potentially resulted in the rescheduling of the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards Show. As the day continued on, incidents following the tragic news of the passing of athlete, Kobe Bryant and other passengers during a fatal helicopter crash left the world somber and mournful. However, as the night was also for celebration of achievements, we wanted to recognize the winners that took home the trophy and also played a role as advocates for women in the music industry.

If you haven’t heard yet, Billie Eillish took home five Grammy awards in major categories from, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, to Best; Record, Song, Album of the Year awards, making her the youngest person ever to win in Grammy history. Even if you don’t listen to her music, at only eighteen years old, this is something that is incredibly impressive to accomplish for someone this young.

Artist and DJ Tracy Young had just made history being the first ever woman to be even nominated in this category for Best Remixed Recording for her remix of Madonna’s ‘‘I Rise.’’ Young, who had been working in the industry for over twenty five years reflected on her journey in the industry when she was awarded the Grammy in her speech, stated, ‘‘I proudly accept this on behalf of all female producers who have been overlooked.’’

For our folks in the audio world, we know the name Leslie Ann Jones. For those of you who do not, she holds her title as Director of Music Recording and Score at Skywalker Studios along with her previous work experiences at Capitol Records and ABC studios. Jones made a name for herself back then and still continues to be a role model and advocate for women engineers at sixty-nine years old. Jones holds an impressive list of accomplishments and firsts. From being the first woman as assistant engineer ever to be hired at ABC Studios to the first female national officer for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Her legacy continues as she took home her 5th Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical in Riley: Sun Rings.

Behind the scenes, Soundgirl member and fellow Women In Audio advocate Loreen Bohannon shared that she was the one mixing monitors for Lizzo during her opening performance at the awards show.

It is the victories like these that create opportunities for women everywhere. We continue to support those in the industry and hope to see more women winning at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards!

2020 GRAMMYs: Music Videos

The 62^nd Annual Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, January 26. While I’m most certainly excited for all of the other awards, as a visual artist I’m partial to the music video categories. Let’s go through the videos up for Best Music Video, Short Form.

Glad He’s Gone – Tove Lo

Entertaining the whole way through, Tove Lo takes us on a journey to show us how far she’d go to be there for a friend. Her casual walk and nonchalant expression contrast impeccably with the wild scenes behind her, and every expression on her date’s face at the diner is perfection. With scenes as short as a couple seconds, I’d be worried information would get lost, but the timing keeps everything interesting and brings a few chuckles along the way.

We’ve Got to Try – The Chemical Brothers

Starting off dark and moody, you think you’re in for a serious music video. But then it becomes humorous, then wacky, and then back to serious. And somehow it all works. I don’t know how we went from training the dog to drive a racecar to fly a rocket ship, but I’m ok with it. I loved the edits back and forth between the flight and the video game screen, the ride the story took my emotions through, how they used different people to sing the words, and, of course, that it stars a dog. A big round of applause to the credits at the end, too!

This Land – Gary Clark Jr

I loved the shots at the beginning of this video; the arrangement, lighting, and sound effects reeled me in. The use of children is powerful, made even more so by the matching outfits. The part that lost me a bit, though, is the scene with the window, hands, and the galaxy. I feel that section deterred too far from the style of the rest of the video, and the change in editing pace was much more effective at the end than it was there. But I’m so appreciative to see another video with some end credits!

Cellophane – FKA twigs

Well this video certainly did not feel like it was nearly four and a half minutes long. I highly enjoyed the sound effects of her shoes across the floor, and I give all the respect for anyone who can walk in those heels in the first place. Another bit I loved was the women crawling up in the masks and how that moment went from frightening to loving. But the things I did not appreciate include the sped-up motions while she was dancing and the sequence where she was falling. The too fast body movements threw me off and took away from the beauty of pole dance, and the falling scene was so chaotic that I thought it was slightly overdone. I will say I adored the quick second where you could see she was holding onto someone’s hand!

Old Town Road – Lil Nas X

Ok, what isn’t there to love about this? A country western, dance battle, street race, Bingo, and line dancing? What more can you ask for? A perfect balance of comedy and production quality, and with lovely cuts away from the music, this video was pure enjoyment.

So who is going to win? With each of these songs and videos being so different from each other, It’s hard to make a decision. And while I’m a dog lover and Tove Lo fan, my pick to take home the Grammy is Old Town Road.

What do you think? Vote in the poll below to let us know!