News

Aloe Blacc To Perform At Exclusive GRAMMY After-Party

Facebook Twitter Email
Thelma Houston, Arturo O'Farrill and DJ Michelle Pesce also slated to perform at 2016 GRAMMY Celebration, The Recording Academy's official after-party
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Feb 10, 2016 - 9:53 am

Past GRAMMY nominee Aloe Blacc, GRAMMY winner Thelma Houston and DJ Michelle Pesce are scheduled to perform at the exclusive 2016 GRAMMY Celebration — The Recording Academy's official after-party taking place on Monday, Feb. 15 immediately following the 58th GRAMMY Awards. Additionally, the Celebration's Jazz Lounge will feature performances by two-time GRAMMY winner and current nominee Arturo O'Farrill and members of GRAMMY Camp — Jazz Session.

After-party guests — including GRAMMY winners, nominees and celebrities — will experience "GRAMMY Land," designed to capture the spirit of the classic children's game "Candy Land." The theme will come to life with oversized candy displays, a dazzling water feature, larger-than-life design elements, all matched with entertainers, dancers, acrobats, aerialists, and elaborate visual projections.

"What better way to celebrate Music's Biggest Night than with an amazing GRAMMY after-party where our guests can continue to enjoy their evening surrounded by music, incredible food and a visually stunning party atmosphere culminating in not-to-be missed performances," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "This year's youthful GRAMMY Land theme is sure to provide a uniquely memorable experience for all."

"With more than 60 dancers and acrobats, four featured performances and hundreds of hours of planning, it is a daunting yet rewarding task to mount the largest and most complex awards show after-party annually," said Branden Chapman, Executive In Charge Of Production & Chief Business Development Officer of The Recording Academy. "Each year, we are honored to bring our Recording Academy members and annual GRAMMY nominees together to celebrate the year in music with one last event that highlights amazing performances, delectable cuisine and vibrant thematic design."

For the first time, Patina Restaurant Group and Chef and founder Joachim Splichal will cater the event with a menu that samples California classics such as taco truck bites, Napa-inspired cuisine, Santa Monica Farmers' Market seasonal favorites, gluten-free dishes from Beverly Hills, and desserts from Hollywood, including whimsical cotton candy trees. The menu was designed using sustainable, local California ingredients with flavors inspired by the music and the artists who create it. Leftover edible food from the GRAMMY Celebration is donated to local food banks and all cooking oil used for the event will be recycled. The evening will also feature fine spirits by Cîroc Ultra-Premium Vodka, Johnny Walker Black Label and Don Julio Tequila. 

Taking place at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be broadcast live in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS on Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

For updates and breaking news, visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

News

Toni Braxton, Aloe Blacc, Chuck D Set For Inaugural GRAMMY Park

Facebook Twitter Email
Taking place May 5–8 in Brooklyn, N.Y., GRAMMY-branded multiday live music experience to feature a variety of live concert performances celebrating genres such as R&B, hip-hop, gospel, pop, Latin, and jazz
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Apr 4, 2016 - 7:00 am

The Recording Academy has partnered with Upsilon Ventures and the New York City Mayor's Office to present GRAMMY Park, the first GRAMMY-branded multiday live music experience. Taking place May 5–8 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and featuring 10 live concert performances and more than 30 artists collectively honored with 40-plus GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Awards, GRAMMY Park will celebrate the rich musical diversity of various genres, including R&B, hip-hop, gospel, pop, Latin, and jazz.

View a full list of GRAMMY Park performances, events and locations

Live music performances and signature Artist Spotlights featuring seven-time GRAMMY winner Toni Braxton, three-time GRAMMY winner Ne-Yo with Jazmine Sullivan, and a special evening featuring GRAMMY nominees Robin Thicke and Aloe Blacc will take place in two of Brooklyn's most iconic locations, the Prospect Park Bandshell and Kings Theatre.

Other GRAMMY Park events include a Hip-Hop Groundbreakers Concert and panel on May 6 featuring GRAMMY nominees Chuck D, Just Blaze and MC Lyte, among others; and a Latin Mix concert on May 6 featuring Latin GRAMMY winners Alex Cuba, Natalia Lafourcade, and Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, among others.

Free events open to the public include a special concert featuring emerging artists and jazz ensembles on May 7 and a Mother's Day gospel concert on May 8, both at Prospect Park Bandshell. Each concert requires a ticket.

Ticket prices for GRAMMY Park range from $35 to $175 for VIP packages, and are on sale now at www.GRAMMYPark.com.

Miguel performs at the 2019 Latin GRAMMYs

Miguel performs at the 2019 Latin GRAMMYs

Photo: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for LARAS

News

"Black Power Live" To Feature Performances From Miguel, Dev Hynes, Ne-Yo, Kamasi Washington, Denzel Curry And More

Facebook Twitter Email
Hosted by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, the one-day event, happening Saturday, June 27, will also feature performances from Jessie Reyez, Vagabon and Twin Shadow as well as interviews and conversations with Emma González & Dream Hampton
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Jun 25, 2020 - 1:14 pm

Black Power Live, a music- and conversation-based online livestream benefit, has announced the lineup for its upcoming event. Miguel, Dev Hynes, Ne-Yo, Doja Cat, Jessie Reyez, Aloe Blacc, Vagabon, Twin Shadow and others are among the musical acts confirmed. The event, produced by FORM and Jammcard, will also include the debut of Terrace Martin's new composition, "Racism on Trial," featuring Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Denzel Curry, Alex Isley and other special guests. 

The event will also feature interviews and discussions with Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who's also hosting the event, alongside Democratic candidate for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón; activist and Parkland survivor Emma González; "Dear White People" creator Justin Simien; filmmaker and activist Dream Hampton; and others. 

Taking place Saturday, June 27, from 5 p.m.—midnight PST and streaming exclusively on Twitch, Black Power Live will raise funds for "organizations across the movement for Black lives," according to a press release announcing the event, including Crenshaw Dairy Mart, Trap Heals, Transgender Law Center, Sankofa and Black Men Build.

View the full music and conversation lineup below. 

Los Angeles funk band The Brandon Brown Collective will perform Black Power anthems as well as new songs alongside some of the event's confirmed guests, according to the Black Power Live event page. The event will also feature readings from poets Aja Monet and Yrsa Daley-Ward, accompanied by Dev Hynes on solo piano. Rap/hardcore punk duo Ho99o9 will perform two new songs alongside Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. 

Black Power Live will be a "celebration of the incredible work done by organizers and activists around the world and will be a chance to reflect, regroup, and talk about next steps," according to a press release. 

Want To Support Protesters And Black Lives Matter Groups? Here's How

Allen Grubman, Neil Portnow, Michael Reinhart, 2018

(L-R) President's Merit Award winner Allen Grubman, Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow, 2018 Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award recipient Michael Reinert

Photo: Michael Kovac/WireImage.com

News

Entertainment Law Initiative Event Honors Music Advocates, Present & Future

Facebook Twitter Email
Amidst a critical moment in the fight for music creators' rights, the Recording Academy celebrates the difference-makers in entertainment law
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jan 26, 2018 - 5:29 pm

The Recording Academy's Entertainment Law Initiative event and scholarship presentation turned the focus of GRAMMY Week toward today's crucial creator's rights issues. As the nation's preeminent gathering for entertainment attorneys, this event provides an annual opportunity to unite a community of professionals, honor those doing excellent work in the field, and award scholarships to outstanding law students via a writing competition.

2018 ELI awards presentation
2018 Entertainment Law Initiative Event

"I think Entertainment Law Initiative manifests, generally, what we do as an Academy," says Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "We look retrospectively, and we honor our past, we study our past, and we learn from our past. But we also are there to nurture and develop the next generations of music makers, but also everybody that's in the infrastructure of the music business."

This year's event honored two such difference-makers in the entertainment law community. First, Michael Reinert, a partner at Fox Rothschild, LLP, received the 2018 ELI Service Award for advancing and supporting the music community through service. Reinert's award presentation served as a highlight of the ceremony, complete with a hilarious mock biopic movie trailer (Michael Reinert is "Michael Reinert") and a personalized congratulations video from GRAMMY-winner Stevie Wonder. Who says lawyers don't know how to have fun?

"It's very humbling and very overwhelming to be considered in the group of names of these people who have come before me, so many of whom I've grown up admiring, almost in awe of," Reinert says, mentioning previous honorees Julie Swidler and Elliot Groffman as predecessors whom he respects.

Additionally, Allen Grubman, a partner at Grubman, Shire, Meiselas, & Sacks, P.C. received the Recording Academy President's Merit Award in recognition of his many years protecting the interests of creators.

"I want to thank the Recording Academy for this honor," Grubman said humbly, before joking, "Most of what I get are complaints." He also lauded the support the Academy provides to young aspiring lawyers by way of the writing competition scholarship program.

Grubman also put his money where his mouth was, pledging $25,000 toward a scholarship, a generous contribution and proof that his diligent service on creator's behalf aligns beautifully with the Entertainment Law Initiative.

"We do something very important… We bring joy to the world," Grubman said, closing his remarks. "This is a very special thing that I do, that we all do. And I just want to say, I believe the entertainment area is just beginning for lawyers."

Sure enough, this declaration is more than validated by the entrants to this year's writing competition, who all exemplify the possibilities of progress.

Chosen as this year's writing competition winner, Rebecca Pollack, a law student at Lewis & Clark School of Law, received a $10,000 scholarship for her winning paper titled "Innovation or Exploitation: Is It Time To Update The DMCA Safe Harbors?"

"The copyright office is dealing with the big debate going on between copyright holders and online service providers about the big safe harbors and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and whether they are effective," Pollack explains. "My paper basically looks at one of the big issues underlying it, which is these technical measures and finding some clarity around those."

Renowned attorney and Entertainment Law Initiative Program Chair Ken Abdo invited Pollack to the stage to discuss the core problem addressed, as well as the proposed solution, outlined in her paper.

Runner-up Megan Abner, a student Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship for her paper, "Effects Of The FCC's 'Internet Freedom' On The Music Industry And Potential Collaborative Solutions."

The imaginative work of bright students intimates a smiling future for entertainment law. However, no one says it will be easy. Reinert had some simple yet powerful advice to add for aspiring entertainment attorneys:

"When you hit a brick wall, keep going."

As a testament to this spirit of perseverance, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the event's keynote speaker, spoke of how his deep passion for jazz music has driven him to go the extra mile on the legal front to support music creation, protection, and preservation, including preserving and digitizing a collection of Louis Armstrong recordings and cracking down on live concert ticket scalping, ultimately reforming the system to add criminal consequences to high-volume ticketbot offenders.

The Recording Academy echoes this support and drive to enact change and has been working tirelessly to enact legislative change to modernize creator's rights policies.

"We've been working for years to get a bill that will work that can pass, that addresses our issues and contemporize the whole process of licensing and all the attendant elements," says Portnow.

In fact, those efforts are coming to fruition in real time. Immediately following the event, Portnow joined a group of music creators at a judiciary committee meeting to testify at a hearing titled "Music Policy Issues: A Perspective From Those Who Make It." Portnow will be backed at thearing's continued deliberations by GRAMMY-winning performers Booker T. Jones and Dionne Warwick, GRAMMY-nominated artist Aloe Blacc, GRAMMY-nominated songwriter Tom Douglas, and platinum-selling producer/engineer Mike Clink.

Now, more than ever, is a critical time in the fight for music creators' rights, and the Entertainment Law Initiative continues to remind the music community of both the difference one devoted individual can make and the great strength we have when we join our voices together.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

Buy the 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album
News

'2016 GRAMMY Nominees' album now available

Facebook Twitter Email
Collection features 21 hits from Alabama Shakes, Kendrick Lamar, Little Big Town, Maroon 5, Chris Stapleton, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and more
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

The 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album is now in stores and available via digital retailers. Released by The Recording Academy's GRAMMY Recordings and Republic Records, the 22nd installment of the best-selling series features 21 chart-topping hits from a diverse array of this year's GRAMMY-nominated artists and songwriters. A portion of the proceeds from album sales will benefit the year-round efforts of the GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares.

The album includes artists and songs in the Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and Best Country Solo Performance categories. Artists featured on the collection include Alabama Shakes, Cam, D'Angelo And The Vanguard, Florence & The Machine, Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar, Little Big Town, Maroon 5, Mark Ronson, Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Lee Ann Womack, as well as Best New Artist nominees Courtney Barnett, James Bay, Sam Hunt, Tori Kelly, and Meghan Trainor.

Order the 2016 GRAMMY Nominees Album

"The 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album represents some of the finest songs and talented artists that make up this year's remarkable nominees," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "We thank Republic Records for collaborating with us on this project, which also provides much needed support for the invaluable programs and initiatives our charities produce year-round. We look forward to another successful GRAMMY compilation."

"It's an honor to partner with the Recording Academy for the 2016 GRAMMY Nominees album," says Republic Records Founder/President Avery Lipman. "It's a very special project that captures the year through showcasing its biggest and best songs and simultaneously benefits some very important causes."

The 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards will broadcast live on CBS on Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. For updates and breaking news, visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook.