Grammys CEO on Beyoncé’s Country Sweep, Controversial Best New Artist Category and How Quincy Jones Influenced Him
In July, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. sent a bold and striking letter to Grammy voters, reminding them that “there is no place in our organization for … bias, grudge-holding, or careless voting.”
Months later, as the 2025 Grammy nominations are revealed, he says he’s happy with the outcome.
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Beyoncé leads with 11 nominations — including sweeping all four country categories — while other women dominate with nominations, including Billie Eilish, Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. Alissia even makes history as the rare female nominated for non-classical producer of the year (a woman has never won the honor).
“The academy voters showed up, they did their thing. They produced an incredible list of nominees and I’m really proud and pleased with the way they turned out for this year,” Mason jr. tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I recollect back to the times when we didn’t have the same amount of voter participation. We didn’t have the type of voters we have now.”
In 2019, the academy launched a new, community-driven membership model to help diversify its voting body — and now 66 percent of that electorate are voters who have joined in the past five years. The academy has seen a 65 percent growth in voting members who are people of color and women voting members have increased by 27 percent.
“These are the things that make us all at the academy feel that we’re headed in the right direction. There’s more balance around gender, diversity and even genre diversity, so you’re going to get some different outcomes,” he says.
In an interview, Mason jr. talks about Beyoncé, the controversial best new artist category, how Quincy Jones influenced him as a producer and the Grammys switching from CBS to ABC in 2027.
What prompted the letter you sent to Grammy voters in July?
This today prompted that, and then February 2nd [2025 Grammys live show] prompted that. We know that the results of our nominations and the outcomes for our ultimate winners are entirely driven by our voters. There’s a perception that maybe there’s the academy giving this award away or people in the back room making these decisions or committees — it’s just not how it is anymore. We have 13,000 voters, and we wanted to make sure that the voters recognize the importance of them taking the time to listen, to be thoughtful and intentional in voting and get out and make sure they participate. Because without them, we don’t get the right outcomes. Without the right membership, we don’t get the right outcomes.
So making sure that we were able to have a good conversation today instead of a bad one, and making sure that we get the right outcomes on February 2nd is really ultimately what inspired all of us — from our membership department, our awards department, all throughout the management of the academy — to make sure we’re encouraging, inspiring, motivating our members to come out and do the work and vote.
Beyoncé was heavily snubbed at the CMA Awards but swept the Grammys country categories and even got an American Roots nomination. What’s it like to see her get that recognition?
It says a lot about our voters. With our 10-3 system of voting, [a] supporter of Beyoncé is not able to just follow her around the ballot; they only have three fields they can select, so when you see somebody like Beyoncé or another artist getting nominations across multiple fields, you are realizing that it’s not the same voters voting for her. It’s different voters in different fields. So to me, it’s really impressive. I’m pleased and proud that Beyoncé is breaking new records and continues to be the icon and legend that she is.
Is this the year that Beyoncé will finally win album of the year?
Wow. You never know. I believe she has a really good one-in-eight chance. That’s the best answer I can give, only because the voters, you don’t know what they’re going to gravitate to. It is tough. Beyoncé has definitely been in the category before, [and she has] some other great competition there. But at the end of the day, the albums in that category are flat out amazing to me. I love all of them, and I’m so happy about where we are. I know somebody’s going to be mad. I know seven people won’t win, and I look forward to seeing the result.
You’ve worked with Beyoncé as a producer — what do you remember about those sessions?
She is supremely talented and a consummate professional, has impeccable taste and knows what she wants. Obviously the voice speaks for itself, but I loved working with her. I did some early work when she was, I think 13 or 14 maybe, just at the beginning, Destiny Child’s first record, and then again on Dreamgirls; she was a little further into her career, so I saw a couple different sides of her. But every time, she was always amazing, always a pleasure to work with,and somebody that from the very beginning, you knew was going to do incredible things.
Obviously everyone can’t be nominated, so what do you say to those artists who feel snubbed?
I would say I’m disappointed for them as a creator and someone who I think has been snubbed myself (Mason jr has five career nominations and zero wins). I know that it can be a hard pill to swallow, but there are so many darn good records being made and more now than ever, so it’s getting more and more competitive. We only have a certain amount of nominees in each category. I wish we had more. I wish all the great creators could be nominated for all their work, but our voting membership of creators really, really does come from all the different genres and all the different disciplines, and they have a variety of expertise and experience. So I think we leave it in their hands and it’s never easy. We never get everything right. We never get all the amazing talented people nominated that deserve to be nominated, but it’s subjective. It’s difficult, and we leave it in the voters hands.
Does The Greatest Night in Pop’s nomination for best music film feel like a sweet tribute to Quincy Jones, who passed away this week?
It feels really important. It’s an incredible film. I’ve watched it multiple times, and it takes me back to a great place, and seeing legends and icons in the studio working together is something that I’ll never get tired of seeing. But I do believe it’s a fitting tribute to one of the most influential and impactful figures music has ever known, and absolutely somebody who impacted me more than almost anybody other than my own parents, who were musicians. If it weren’t for Quincy, I definitely wouldn’t be talking to you right now. If it weren’t for the work — like the work he did on “We Are the World” and other great iconic records and recordings — I wouldn’t have made any music. I wouldn’t have had the audacity to think maybe I could produce films or make film music or soundtracks or scores, and I definitely wouldn’t have thought I could be an executive. So I’m really happy and proud that it is being recognized this year with a nomination.
The Beatles’ final song has two nominations, including record of the year. What’s it like to see that song get this response?
It’s exciting. Obviously, one of the all-time great bands in the history of music, and I’m not as confident this will be their last song — I feel like they might have some more stuff in the vault somewhere that makes a run at some point. But it is absolutely exciting to have them involved in the process. I love seeing their name along with all the other cool nominees in that category. And in the general fields, for me, I really love where we’re going and what the voters did because there’s so much breadth and depth of genres in those fields. You’ve got the Beatles in rock, you got country, you got alternative jazz, you got some hip-hop stuff, you got dance-electronic. This is the cool part about music right now.
There are always debates about the best new artist category and who qualifies and who doesn’t. For instance, some people were surprised that Sabrina Carpenter was eligible with her sixth album. What’s your response to that?
It’s difficult, I’ll say that. I was going to say it’s pretty simple, but it’s actually not that simple. It’s difficult, and it’s challenging because it’s a little bit amorphous how you would evaluate best new artist. But for me, what it comes down to is when an artist rises to national or international prominence. It could be their first record, it could be their sixth record. To me, this feels like a time when our best new artists have broken through and become nationally prominent and are doing amazing work. So it is not an easy calculus to decide which artist fits that criteria and which doesn’t, but I trust our committees that do that work, and I trust the voters to vote for the right people and I’m really pleased with the outcome.
In 2027 the Grammys will move to ABC after airing on CBS since 1973. Is that a decision you were involved in and what can we expect?
Yes. I was part of that and been working on that for about the last, I don’t know, six months or so. It’s an exciting move. CBS has been an amazing partner, and we’re excited to do two more with them, but for us, Disney really aligned with our future vision and where we’re going.
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