Deborah Dugan on the Recording Academy's "Corrupt System"

Deborah Dugan (Shutterstock)

For the past few years, the behind-the-scenes of The Grammy Awards have been soaked in scandal, some issues being made immediately public and others attempting to remain behind closed doors. In 2020, everything seemed to be ok- until 10 days before the award show.

The Recording Academy, the non profit that puts on the Grammy Awards, announced that CEO Deborah Dugan had been placed on administrative leave after a “formal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member” of the organization.

Dugan, who is the academy’s first female chief executive, responded in a remarkable 44-page complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging “gender discrimination, sexual harassment and unequal pay on the part of the academy.”

The claim states that the suspension took place after Dugan raised concerns to a human resources executive that the academy was operating under “a boys’ club mentality.”

Dugan was hired last year following backlash over a 2018 remark from former executive Neil Portnow insensitively stating that female artists should “step up” if they want equal representation as nominees.

Neil Portnow (PC: Getty Images)

As Dugan stepped in, she publicly expressed that one of her top priorities as CEO was to create a more diverse and fair nominations list and workplace. She knew this would be difficult to do, as from day one she was offered “significantly less compensation” than Portnow, as claimed in her recent statement.

In May, 2019, when Dugan signed her contract, she had dinner with Joel Katz, a part of the Recording Academy’s general counsel, who is heavily accused in her recent complaint. According to Dugan, Katz “acted extremely inappropriately” at said dinner. Dugan expressed her lack of interest in his advances, but he “attempted to kiss” her at the end of the meal anyway.

Katz was not the only person addressed in her complaint regarding sexual harassment. The filing also stated that allegations of rape by a foreign female artist were “the real reason” the contract of Neil Portnow, Dugan’s predecessor, was not renewed.

Both Portnow and Katz have denied these allegations; Portnow claiming that the rape allegation was “ludicrous and untrue.”

An unfortunate month of May, evidently, Dugan also allegedly learns at a board meeting about millions of dollars in fees paid annually by the Recording Academy to law firms headed by Katz and another male partner, who are also known to have links with several large news publications.

Dugan formally takes over at the academy in September of 2019.

According to the law suite, Dugan’s HR complaint was submitted on Dec. 22, 2019. In an email response, the HR executive wrote, “these are serious issues that need to be investigated.” The academy placed her on administrative leave on Jan. 16, 2020, which her legal team says “was clearly made in retaliation” of her initial concerns.

Dugan claims to have never before filed an HR claim, or had a claim filed against her.

The Academy alleged Dugan of unspecified misconduct, after Portnow’s former executive assistant accused her of practicing a “bullying management style.” This assistant was also female.

When asked about this in a CBS interview, Dugan informs that usually when an executive leaves, their assistant will leave with them. Dugan claims to have told this assistant in particular, “you will always have a place at the recording academy...and if it’s not with me, let’s try to work it out.” The assistant, apparently, did not want to make it work.

In this same interview, Dugan said, “there are conflicts of interest that taint the [nominee voting] system,” especially in this year’s Song of the Year category. Dugan claimed that in the initial top-20 list of potential nominees for this category, an artist from the bottom of the list got bumped up to the top 5 fraudulently. “I don’t want to name who that is for the artist’s integrity,” said Dugan. “It’s not about that, it’s about the systems.”

Long-time Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich is another puzzle piece making up this corrupt system, known for cutting down female recognition in Grammy performance time, specifically in the cases of Lorde and Ariana Grande.

The Recording Academy Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion has put out a statement, telling the board of trustees that they must make “systematic changes.”

“The Academy's Board of Trustees and leadership must immediately commit themselves to real reform, take concrete steps to implement all of the Task Force reforms, and transparently and regularly report on their progress -- including transparently reporting on the pending investigations they have announced are underway,” it reads.

The Recording Academy Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion’s full list of members can be found here.

The statement closes strongly by stating, “...we are deeply disappointed at the level of commitment by some of the Academy's leadership in effecting the kind of real and constructive change presented in our report. We are confident that they can do better.

“Music has historically catalyzed and galvanized mass social change. And so it must again. Now.”

Several investigations are underway to get to the bottom line of the Academy and Dugan’s claims.

The Grammy Awards will air tonight on CBS at 8:00pm EST.