Pink Slams Grammys President for Telling Female Musicians to 'Step Up'

Pink has thrown some major shade at Recording Academy president Neil Portnow after he made some [...]

By John Connor Coulston

Pink has thrown some major shade at Recording Academy president Neil Portnow after he made some disparaging remarks about women in the music industry.

Variety had asked Portnow about why so few women won awards at the Grammys' televised ceremony, and claimed women in the industry needed to "step up."

"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."

Pink fired back at this assertion that women were not already trying to make the moves he mentioned using a fiery handwritten note posted to Twitter.

"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," she continued.

The three-time Grammy winner, who was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance at Sunday's awards, is far from the only musician speaking out against Portnow's remarks.

Artists including Sheryl Crow, Charli XCX and Tegan and Sara have also taken to Twitter to shared their displeasure at the comments.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of