Kanye West and Taylor Swift are Last-Minute Grammy Winners

The Recording Academy decided to expand the number of Grammy nominees just 24 hours before the list was announced on Tuesday — to the benefit of artists including Kanye West, Taylor Swift, ABBA and Lil Nas X — according to a report in the New York Times.

When Harvey Mason, jr. was asked about the move by The Times, he said that it was a natural progression. VarietyMonday “We saw it as an incredible opportunity for us to honor more artists and shine a light on more great music, and potentially offer a greater opportunity for more genres of music to be honored,”He said.

Concerning the suddenness of the move “It’s something that we’ve talked about for quite some time but it ended up happening fairly recently,”He said. “We looked at the voting and the amount of submissions [for the 2022 Grammys] and saw it as a great opportunity.”Media are normally served 24 hours in advance of an announcement. The advance lists of the nominees arrived on Monday, much later than normal. Sources inform VarietyThe delay was caused by the expansion of the top list.

Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and ABBA’s “I Still Have Faith in You” were added to record of the year; Swift’s “Evermore” and West’s “Donda” were the additional candidates for album of the year; Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” and Brandi Carlile’s “Right on Time” were put it at the last minute for song of the year (Carlile’s second nomination in the category); and Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab were added to the best new artist field, according to the report.

The Times was able to ascertain which artists benefitted from the shift from eight to 10 by comparing the final list with a list created prior to the Monday decision — a version that “had begun circulating outside the Recording Academy before the nominations were announced on Tuesday.”The Times stated that it had obtained a copy from the older list.

Mason told the Times that the artists added to the list were simply the ninth and tenth most voted by the Academy’s members, and were determined by Deloitte, its partner in collecting and tabulating votes. He was asked if ratings for the Grammy telecast, which is worth millions of dollars, were considered for Swift-West’s addition. “A thousand percent no. That was not a consideration.”

Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Academy co-president, added. “While it may seem rushed, it really was a thoughtful, well intentioned process that was also data-driven.”Reps from the Academy didn’t immediately respond. Variety‘s requests for further comment.

Linda Chorney, a recording artist, raised questions about the final nominations. She said that she woke up this week to Google alerts linking her to news stories that showed she was nominated best American roots performance for her song. “Bored.” Rolling Stone was among the publications that included Choney’s song in a list of nominees, screenshots and cached search results show. Yet when the official list was disseminated, Chorney’s song was not among the nominees, and a song by Rhiannon Giddens took the spot that seemingly had been hers. Chorney says she wrote to some of the reporters who published a story claiming a nomination for her and heard back apologetically from one that the information had been cut-and-pasted from an incorrect source, but she hasn’t gotten any feedback on what that source was.

Chorney believes that she is innocent, despite not being able to explain why incorrect news accounts may have given her credit with a nod. did earn a nomination — and that it somehow got axed. Chorney has been challenging the Grammys about the changes made in the voting process over the years that she received a nomination in the best Americana albums category in 2012. She believes they were meant to prevent self-releasing artists like herself from getting back in.Variety has reached out to Acedemy reps as well about Chorney’s questions.

The Times’ news about details of the last-minute expansion of top nominations sets an awkward tone for the next Grammy Awards, an institution that has been marred by an ongoing series of unsavory controversies over the past five years.

Despite having one of most popular singles and albums of the year, The Weeknd was not included in any nominations last year. “After Hours” “Blinding Lights.” Mason’s predecessor Deborah Dugan was dismissed as she alleged conflicts of interest and covering up allegations of sexual misconduct and even a rape allegation. In April, the Academy dissolved its Academy of Music. “secret”Nomination review committees had previously curated the final nominee lists for most categories. However, this was only after years-long complaints about insider deals that culminated in Weeknd’s snub. This list continues.

Mason has promised transparency in a new age, but there have been controversies.

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