The New York imbroglio is over. Now the 61st Grammy Awards are shifting back to LA, to the familiar Staples Center roost.
It’s been a really, really rough year for the Grammys and its guiding force, the Recording Academy. But maybe a return to Los Angeles will help to ground things.
Accordingly, the 61st annual Grammy Awards will arrive in 2019 at the familiar Staples Center. That’s instead of the ultra-pricey MSG, not to mention the extremely controversial Radio City Music Hall for a lead-up Musicares charity event.
Also in the rearview: existing NARAS president Neil Portnow, who lost his job over boomeranging internet-fueled outrage and a disgruntled ex-employee. Ultimately, Portnow was fired because he told women to ‘step up’ to win more awards, a slight that is now radically reshaping the age-old awards show.
Looking forward, the 61st edition of the Grammys will take place on Sunday, February 10th, 2019. CBS will handle this year’s telecast with other networks likely to show pre-show coverage including their red carpet specials.
Specifically, the 61st will consider recordings that were released between October 1st, 2017, and September 30th, 2018.
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There are a number of key deadlines when it comes to the annual Grammys voting process.
The first-round online entry process officially started on July 2nd and ended on July 16th. From August 8th to August 22nd, the final-round online entry process occurs.
On September 15th, individuals get their final day to become a member for the first round of voting.
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The first round of voting will officially begin on October 17th. From there, voting will continue for a full two weeks before ending on October 31st.
As of this report, the official announcement for nominations remains TBD. However, the final round of voting will take place from December 13th, 2018, to January 9th, 2019. Soon after that, the nominees will be announced and the speculation about who will win can start.
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There will be an interesting change for some of the categories in this year’s awards. The “General Field” contains a number of categories in it including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. But as first tipped on DMN. there are usually five nominees in each of the General Field categories, but the latest Grammy Awards will have eight nominees in each of the categories.
Ummm. Pretty sure Portnow is still CEO of the Grammys. He announced retirement in a year. You really gotta work on that fact checking part of the “news” since it is in the title of your operation here…
Please. Nothing pro/against Portnow, but he’s gone, regardless of the ‘transition’ or whatever.
I generally really enjoy your blog and your articles but I’m disappointed in your completely inaccurate explanation Neil’s employment at the academy. The actual facts are he is still the CEO and is retiring at the end of his current contract. He was never fired. In my opinion, you should issue a correction because that type of misinformation is really not fair to Neil or the academy, like them or not.
But, is it really misinformation? I’d call this an attempt at a graceful exit, with NARAS, Portnow, et. al. trying to make the most of a bad situation.
Portnow survived the first storm, which involved demands from thousands of people for his firing, including many, many high-wattage music celebrities.
Then there was the whole Musicares imbroglio.
THEN, Portnow’s departure was announced.
Seems like you’re arguing for semantics.
Since you traffic in words and they do matter, your words should be accurate. Consult a dictionary. Firing and resigning have different definitions.
You can have your opinion about how or why things happened but your facts are simply wrong.
He is stepping down, not being forcibly removed.
If you claim to be a news source, and usually you do an ok job at that, you should bother with facts.
Here’s the story you should really be trying to get: There is a secret membership purge going on that is holding people up for months at a time. You don’t find out until your usually automatic renewal doesn’t happen. Then you try to renew and get some temp on the phone who is clearly out of their element giving you a line of BS that they are “recertifying members” and that “they do it all the time” BULLSHIT! I’ve been a member 10 years, never heard of it. There was never a notice sent out to anyone. The email they send you after you call is so vague it’s ridiculous, a “tell us what you’ve done lately.” Me, smelling a rat sent them detailed info on what I’ve been “up to” but have seen others who trusted them and have been kicked out after 15 years because they were currently on a break. Are they going to going to kick Adele out because she’s on a break? Doubt it. I’ve had several new things come up in the few weeks since I sent my first response including being asked to be a part of their Grammy Next mentoring program. Clearly one hand is not speaking to the other – ya, know, cause they do this “review” all the time. In one of my notes I reminded them that I was actually a woman who wanted to remain a member even after the Portnow comment fiasco, with the hope that they really wanted to rectify this situation and grow. I don’t hold that hope any longer. They still have not made their decision and I’ve missed the ability to submit anything in the first round. I was more than willing to fight for my membership because it really meant something to me but the more ridiculous this situation becomes the more meaningless the membership becomes. Let’s face it, the only people they have fooled are the general public. They certainly aren’t staying open by my membership fees. They are supported by the majors and the commercial income from the worlds longest, boring, same faces year after year show. When one truly indie artist managed to get a nomination a few years ago they changed all the rules the next. The LA Chapter, which is most likely the largest, hasn’t done any kinds of events for it’s members in quite a while. Doesn’t sound to me like they want to grow and change with the times, instead this seems more like the old guard closing ranks and sticking their heads in the sand. Why the secrecy? That’s what I want to know. I know there are many members who have no idea they have been eliminated because their renewals where on automatic, just like mine. Really love for you to look into this one Paul. Happy to send you copies of what I have.
Oh, and the idea that Portnow is stepping down per you other reader is a joke. They just gave him a graceful way out. Nothing more.