Pierce Freelon
After the Recording Academy produced an all-white ballot of nominees for the children’s music album category last year, Pierce Freelon and fellow Black and brown members of Family Music Forward rallied against the decision. Yet, their voices went unheard until three of their white peers asked to have their names withdrawn from the category. “It probably would have been invisible to most people had the white men not rescinded their nominations,” Freelon asserts.
Freelon strives to expand the complexion of children’s and family music. “[It] is a space that is in radical need for a transformation and healing,” he says.
Pierce Freelon
After the Recording Academy produced an all-white ballot of nominees for the children’s music album category last year, Pierce Freelon and fellow Black and brown members of Family Music Forward rallied against the decision. Yet, their voices went unheard until three of their white peers asked to have their names withdrawn from the category. “It probably would have been invisible to most people had the white men not rescinded their nominations,” Freelon asserts.
Freelon strives to expand the complexion of children’s and family music. “[It] is a space that is in radical need for a transformation and healing,” he says.
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The announcement in December that three of the five Grammy nominees for best children s album were asking to have their names withdrawn from the ballot reverberated through the industry, bringing attention not just to the Recording Academy s ongoing struggles with diversity, but also to music too often overlooked by anyone except for children and their parents. In a year marked by the most powerful social justice protests in nearly a half century a year that saw the Recording Academy pledge to create a more diverse and inclusive membership and voting process all of the nominees were white, and all but one of them were men. This even though there had been no lack of notable children s music releases from artists of color in 2020.
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Grammys Won’t Count Votes For Protesting Nominees in Kids Music Category
Remaining two nominees were informed that whomever gets most votes will win despite others still listed on ballotBrian Welk | January 8, 2021 @ 10:02 AM Last Updated: January 8, 2021 @ 10:44 AM
Grammy Awards
After three nominees for the Grammy Awards’ Best Children’s Music Album asked to be removed from the ballot due to a lack of diversity in the category, the Recording Academy will not count the votes for the three nominees who objected and will award the Grammy to whichever of the remaining two nominees receives the most votes, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.