Vince Gill Refutes Claims that GRAMMY Awards Were Unfair to Women

21-time GRAMMY winner Vince Gill is speaking out about the lack of female nominees and winners in [...]

21-time GRAMMY winner Vince Gill is speaking out about the lack of female nominees and winners in the 2018 GRAMMY ceremony, and it's not necessarily in favor of the women. The Country Music Hall of Fame member says it would be unrealistic for The Recording Academy (who, among other things, presents the GRAMMYs) to not leave someone out.

"I look at it kind of trying to see the whole field," says Gill (quote via Billboard). "And I think the GRAMMYs will go on and the country artists will feel slighted. Or maybe the classical people will feel slighted."

"t's impossible to pull something off like that," he continued, "and not leave a few people by the wayside."

Gill made the comments during his recent performance in New York City, as a benefit for the Country Music Hall of Fame. Gill was joined by Emmylou Harris, Maren Morris and Kesha. Morris, who was nominated this year for Best Country Solo Performance, for "I Could Use a Love Song," said there are probably several factors contributing to the male-dominated ceremony this year.

"I think the person that's won the most GRAMMYs is Alison Krauss so I don't know," Morris said [Krauss is actually tied for second place with Quincy Jones, with 27 wins]. "There's obviously some things that need to be looked at, I think, and maybe it's just voting members. Maybe we need to expand on that."

"I was really proud of Alessia Cara that she won Best New Artist. I think she really deserved that," she added. "But I think there's always improvement that needs to be had."

Harris, who has won 14 GRAMMY trophies, with her last in 2014 for Best Americana Album for Old Yellow Moon, admitted her career path allowed her to largely escape gender inequality, although she conceded that she believes it still happens.

"I haven't run into a lot of the problems that I know are out there," she said. "But my path has been pretty unfettered with those kinds of thing."

Only two women won a GRAMMY Award during the broadcast of last month's GRAMMY Awards, a fact The Recording Academy President Neil Portnow says is not based on discrimination but on the lack of women showing enough ambition to be contenders.

"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," Portnow said. "[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."

Many artists discredited Portnow's claims, including Pink, who said on Twitter that women were already doing plenty to earn the respect of the industry.

"Women in music don't need to 'step up," Pink wrote. "Women have been stepping since the beginning of time. Stepping up, and also stepping aside. Women OWNED music this year. They've been KILLING IT. And every year before this."

"When we celebrate and honor the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair."

Photo Credit: Instagram/VinceGillOfficial

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