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The Grammy President Said if Women Want to Win Awards, They Need to 'Step Up'

SZA
AP Photo/ Evan Agostini

Did we expect anything else from an award show that praises Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars for mediocre music? 

If you were expecting to watch the Grammys and not scream out in rage, we're sorry. The telecast was a total sausage fest that rewarded mediocre men like Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars with nearly every award and didn't offer Lorde a performance of her own music despite giving performance slots to every other nominee for Album Of The Year, all of whom were male. Seriously. The only female to actually win an award was Alessia Cara for the Best New Artist who we totally love but, really? She won over SZA?

Related | Ed Sheeran Beats Out Kesha & Lady Gaga at the Grammys Awards

Regardless of that tragic oversight, don't come to Grammy president Neil Portnow with questions of misogyny for handing out almost every single award to a man, because he will just blame women for not being good enough at making music. No, seriously. You may want to sit down for this one.

"It has to begin with... women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls, who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be part of the industry on the executive level... [They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome. I don't have personal experience of those kinds of brick walls that you face but I think it's upon us--us as an industry--to make the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists."

He did that. But hey, maybe Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich could add some much-needed clarity to why Lorde wasn't allowed to perform? "I don't know if it was a mistake. These shows are a matter of choices. We have a box and it gets full," he explained. "She had a great album. There's no way we can really deal with everybody."

Related | Lorde is the Only Album of the Year Nominee Not Performing at the Grammys

Right. Well, it's good to know that at a time when women like Lorde and SZA are making some of the most groundbreaking music in the industry, award shows like the Grammy's are content to award almost every statue to surface-level pop musicians your mom loves.

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Chris Thomas