It’s the busiest season in all of entertainment. In just a few days, the NFL will bring together advertising, music and sports for the biggest night in entertainment. A few weeks later, the biggest names in Hollywood will gather at the Dolby Theater for the 2023 Academy Awards. Before all of that can take place, the music industry will kick things off with the 65th Annual Grammy Awards.
Hosted by Trevor Noah, the annual awards ceremony will bring together the likes of Cardi B, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Lil’ Wayne, Lizzo and many others. Leading the way, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. will be at Crypto.com Arena making sure that everything runs smoothly. Before heading out to Los Angeles, he caught up with Yahoo! Finance to preview this year’s ceremony.
“We’re here to honor excellence in music, but we’re also here with a purpose. Our show allows us to bring in revenue so that we can then advocate for music people and figure out what is fair for ticketing, what is fair for streaming, what are the things that we can be doing to help serve music people,” Mason Jr. told Yahoo! Finance.
This year, history may be made by several acts. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter could surpass Kanye West as the most decorated Rap artist in the ceremony’s history. Also, Beyoncé has the ability to become the most decorated artist of any genre in the award ceremony’s history. Not to be forgotten, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti can become the first non-English LP to win “Album of the Year” honors. Overall, alf of this year’s leading nominees are women and more than half are people of color.
“Inclusion and equity make sense,” Mason Jr. explained.
“It’s not performative. It’s not because we think it sounds good or it’s a cool buzzword. It’s because greatness comes when different people from all different experiences and all different backgrounds come together, whether that’s to make decisions, to make music, or make a TV show. It makes sense when you reach out to other groups, invite people in and you listen, learn and collaborate.”
The 2023 Grammy Awards are set to take place on February 5, 2023 at 8 p.m. in Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena.
